Minority protection tardy: US report

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The report on international religious freedom in 2014 released in Washington on Wednesday said officials and police were “sometimes slow” to protect individuals, including members of minority religious groups, from violence.

They are “often reluctant” to investigate violent incidents, says the report, which mostly chronicled the 2014 events without giving any comments.

Launching the report, Secretary of State John Kerry said its purpose was “to highlight the importance of religious freedom not by lecturing but through advocacy and through persuasion”.

“Our primary goal is to help governments everywhere recognise that their societies will do better with religious liberty than without it,” he said.

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File Photo

The report highlighted restrictions on Rohingya Muslims and Christians in Myanmar, and the anti-Muslim sermonising of hardline Buddhists there.

It also cited as a failure of the Burmese authorities to allow a credible investigation of the Jan 2014 killings of dozens of Rohingya.

They were allegedly killed by security forces in retaliation for the death of a police officer.

Minority groups in Bangladesh, especially Hindus, were victims of attacks and looting of religious sites and private homes, particularly in the period surrounding the January national election.

In May, police reportedly refused to investigate the case of a 12-year-old Hindu girl who was forcibly converted to Islam.

According to the report, government officials said that resource and capacity constraints sometimes limited their ability to take proactive action to ensure greater protection of religious freedom.

Citing observations made by human rights organisations, the report said violence against members of minority religious groups often included additional factors and could not be attributed solely to religious affiliation.

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File Photo

According to religious minority leaders, individuals affiliated to political parties—ruling and opposition alike—sometimes instigated violence against members of religious minorities for political reasons.

For example, suspects arrested for the gang rape of two Hindu women said their act was in retaliation for women voting in the Jan 5 parliamentary elections last year.

It cited the National Human Rights Commission’s (NHRC) statement that the government failed to prevent attacks on Hindus after the Jan 5 election.

The High Court ruled that law enforcement agencies had “seriously fail[ed]” to protect members of vulnerable groups, including religious minority communities, from post-election violence.

The report, however, noted that the government took steps to assist victims and restore religious and private property damaged in the violence.

In a separate case, a mob attacked Hindus in Malopara village after Hindus voted despite intimidation.

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File Photo

Members of minority religious groups from lower economic strata said they were further disadvantaged due to their inability to afford personal security or to motivate officials to provide security against harassment or violence.

The report also noted that the government had not resolved any of the more than one million cases pending from its decades-old seizure of approximately 2.6 million acres of land from Hindus under the Vested Property Act.

“Despite the passage of the Vested Property Return Act in 2011, no property has been returned to date”.

Bangladesh constitution designates Islam as the state religion, but states the nation is a secular one that “shall ensure equal status and equal rights in the practice of the Hindu, Buddhist, Christian, and other religions.”

Source: bdnews24