On September 24, the US-based Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention issued a statement titled “Threats to Democracy in Bangladesh.” The apparent objective of the statement is to express serious concern about mass violence occurring during and after the July Uprising and the ongoing effort to roll back nationwide recognition of the 1971 genocide from living public memory.
Although these apparent goals seem apolitical and humanitarian, the statement contains many expressions that betray the barely disguised real objectives — portraying the deposed tyrannical regime as a victim of a violent uprising and pitting July’s people’s revolution as an antithesis of Bangladesh’s independence struggle in 1971.
A sweeping generalization at the beginning of the statement exemplifies its purposefully flawed nature. “The current political instability in Bangladesh is directly related to the events of the 1971 genocide and its aftermath.” The statement then compounds the error by declaring that the deposed prime minister is the sole heir to the 1971 independence struggle, and she has been “elected” five times as prime minister in 1996, 2009, 2014, 2018, and 2024. Her long, unbroken premiership is declared as the continuity of Bangladesh’s democratic transition.
Anybody who has followed political development in Bangladesh over the years knows that the July Uprising was the final bursting of the seething rage of the people of Bangladesh who have been groaning under the tyranny of the Sheikh Hasina regime for more than a decade. There have not been any free and fair elections in Bangladesh since 2009.
Sheikh Hasina ruled the country with an iron fist. Thousands of opposition activists have been killed and vanished through forced disappearance in the last 11 years even before the current bout of violence began. Hasina’s state forces of political repression, the police, and Rapid Action Battalions have been sanctioned internationally since 2021.
Bangladesh has fallen rapidly in every democracy and governance indicator that is known internationally. Venerable international news outlets like the New York Times, The Economist, and the Washington Post have published many leading and featured articles over the years on Sheikh Hasina’s growing authoritarianism. The Lemkin Institute damages its own credibility by portraying Hasina as a democratically-elected prime minister.
There is no discernible or plausible link between the mass uprising against Sheikh Hasina’s regime and the 1971 war and genocide. The only cause of the July Uprising was her tyrannical misrule in the last decade. People within the regime have been engaged in mind-boggling plundering and hollowing of the public and private sectors of Bangladesh, the extent of which is being revealed with every passing day. The protests reflected public anger about Hasina’s misrule. After three rigged elections, packed courts, and draconian gag laws, people simply had enough with the despotism.
The most egregious inversion of the truth occurring in the statement is the attempt to portray the fallen regime’s people as victims of violence. As of September 29, 2024, 1,581 individuals have been identified as killed by the Hasina regime during the uprising. The overwhelming number of them were activists and general people, while the killers were politicized law enforcement agencies and armed hoodlums belonging to Hasina’s political party.
The statement tried to sugarcoat the lethal attempts of suppression by stating that the regime forces “responded with birdshot, rubber projectiles, stun grenades, and tear gas in an effort to disperse the protestors.” In fact, numerous videos exist showing the regime forces using high-powered assault rifles to shoot at protesters, sometimes firing indiscriminately from helicopters flying overhead. The regime’s political forces used large machetes to hack at protesters, shearing apart limbs and body parts. Military-grade guns have torn apart numerous bodies, and skulls have been blown away. Even toddlers and children have been shot and killed on their balconies or roofs.
A democide took place in Bangladesh in 2024, democide by the Hasina regime on the people of her own country. There have been no recorded instances of protesters using lethal firearms. The gun violence is entirely one-sided. Regrettably, the Lemkin Institute has issued a statement containing such Orwellian falsehoods.
Most laughably, the statement tried to portray the Awami League of Sheikh Hasina as the only pro-1971 Liberation political force in Bangladesh. All the other political organizations, left, right, or centre are labelled as anti-liberation! It says that the main opposition political party, BNP, is the main patron of anti-1971 forces in the country. The fact is, the founder of BNP, Ziaur Rahman, was the military officer who was among the first to rebel against the occupying Pakistan Army and who is generally credited with declaring Bangladesh’s independence from Pakistan (on behalf of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman). BNP was constituted with numerous freedom fighters; there were far more freedom fighters in BNP’s leadership ranks than in the Awami League.
The statement has the chutzpah to declare that the uprising has led to the rise of forces “akin to neo-Nazis and neo-fascists in the West.” The cheekiness lies in the fact that the Bangladeshi persons who are likely to have provided the Lemkin Institute with false and misleading information, people who are out-and-out activists for the fallen tyrannical regime, themselves hobnobbed and lobbied with far right and Neo-Nazi leaders in Europe like Maxmillian Krah last year when there was strong international pressure on the regime to hold a fair election in Bangladesh.
We guess that Lemkin Institute people are simply unaware of the type of people who are feeding them Goebbelsian misinformation.
The post-uprising interim government and civilian organizations in Bangladesh are compiling evidence of the crimes against humanity by the fallen regime. High-level and regular talks are going on with the International Criminal Court official officials to hold Sheikh Hasina and her lieutenants accountable by international justice. We understand how devastating the prospect of facing justice is for the supporters of the fallen regime. We view this shameless manipulation of Lemkin Institute in that light and hope that the institute will cooperate with the people of Bangladesh on bringing to justice the perpetrators of the latest crimes against humanity as well as the crimes of the past.
Link to the Article No more lies: A reaction to Lemkin Institute’s statement on Bangladesh’s recent unrest (dhakatribune.com)
Link to the Lemkin Institute Statement Statement on Threats to Democracy in Bangladesh (lemkininstitute.com)
Dr Shafiqur Rahman is a Political Scientist and Jyoti Rahman is a Policy Economist. They are members of Bangladesh Research Analysis and Information Network (BRAIN).
