Human Rights News and Views

Tasneem Khalil, fellow political blogger, had been arrested for his writing, but then released and his wife send an email thanks round to everybody who showed solidarity. Somehow the arrest and repression did not come to my attention as I wasn’t on the email list and just linked to and read his blog every now and again, so I am very sorry about not being able to help him and get the news and calls for solidarity published on Indymedia. His former blog is now offline, what a pity, as it gave valuable insights into life in Bangladesh.

” It took all of us 22 hours to get him out of DGFI hq. And we as a family will always remember what have all of you done for us. It was exactly 12:45 am 10th may midnight and from that point on the whole thing started. Tasneem had been working on a project with Human Rights Watch that month with two other researchers. One was out of Dhaka and another came to my rescue from my flat where I was all alone with my six month old son then. I started calling people and tried to spread the word as much as possible. All I knew I cant let this go this way.I knew Tasneem had friends who would fight for him. And I mailed you. I mailed using his Gmail account as I knew the pass but after a few hours I saw I couldnt log in. Later I came to know from Tasneem he had to surrender his email passwords. To some of you I could reply earlier and to some of you I couldnt. I am sorry for this. I should have thanked all of you earlier.
After getting out of detention we were in hiding for a month, always changing places and by this time Human Rights Watch was negotiating with the authorities for his passport. After long negotiations we flew out of Bangladesh for safety abroad. And trust me it was not easy. I dunno how many of you can think of life as running away with a six month old kid and no money.
I was deeply hurt to see some false news against Tasneem using and fabricating his emails and statements given while being tortured. I was always his partner in everything he did and never I saw him in anti-Bangladesh activities. I was also surprised to see that DGFI is basically trying to defocus the whole issue by using these fabricated news and tried to create confusion between the huge circle of friends Tasneem has. They chose a few peoples name whom and whose family members are deeply respected by me and Tasneem and have always supported us, and planted provocative news around media saying things which was never there. Although I was concerned at some point that as we weren’t in any position to speak and defend ourselves, we would be misunderstood. But thanks to all of you, you are the people who knew the difference between truth and false.
I would always be grateful to Human Rights Watch, CNN, Bloggers in Bangladesh and International platforms, Drishtipat, Somewhere in Blog, Newspapers around the world and everyone who received my call at odd hours and tolerated my screams and shouts.
Anyways I just wanted to thank everyone and with the promise that this effort you have put after Tasneem will not be wasted. Although we are still homeless, lost our country, this very incident has made Tasneem more stronger and with all your best wishes we will survive definitely. I hope Tasneem will surface very soon with the truths he needs to say and to clear away any confusion created. “

Apparently, the documentary film by some Indymedia activists, about the killing of the Ambazonian students protesting for a student union and about half a year later against unequal access to university is now finished and seeks distribution via social and autonomous centres, student unions and similar [ Standing with the students ]. As usual, the event in Cameroon was ignored by the mainstream media when it was news, and so might the documentary be, as it does not follow the production guidelines of the industry alias: engaging characters or interesting story told entertainingly and produced for the mainstream.

The Guardian had a good article yesterday about sweatshop labour clothes produced for and sold by High Street shops such as GAP but also Marks and Spencers and even Mothercare. Somehow the article seems to have lawyer’s pen written all over it – it is littered with verbs such as “claimed”, “were accused”, “according to”, “denied”, “alleges”, “says”  and so on, as if the facts were flimsy, but it is fear of libel law suits rather than lack of proof.

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