Has the Bangladesh government officially declared ‘war on drugs’? Are the prevailing laws taken into consideration in this war? As for those within the government who justify this undeclared strategy, are they aware of the consequence of such so-called ‘war on drugs’ in other parts of the world? Given events over the past few days and the statements of persons high up in the government, it has become necessary to consider these questions.
The easy availability of drugs and the alarming consequences have been discussed for quite a few years now and the government has also been broaching the topic. However, there has been no success in tackling the problem which is taking on epidemic proportions.
The use of yaba has increased over the past few years as it is easily available, though reports regularly appear of the law enforcement agencies seizing thousands and thousands of the tablets. According to the narcotics control department, 40 million yaba tablets were seized in 2017 (Daily Star, 12 May 2018). Outside of the regular media reports, the picture that has emerged in the investigative reports not only reveals the alarming level of the problem, but also those who are involved and how they are being able to sustain this business.
In such a backdrop when the prime minister Sheikh Hasina says, ‘the war against drugs has begun’ (bdnews24, 20 May 2018), then it is clear that the government has specifically taken all aspects into consideration and has adopted a strategy for this drive against drugs. The prime minister said, ‘We have given all the law enforcement agencies, intelligence agencies and RAB special responsibility. Wherever there are drugs, stern action will be taken and such action is being taken.”
The prime minister in January instructed the police and on 3 May instructed RAB to take up an operation against drugs in the same manner as the operation against militants. The words of the prime minister’s statement make the strategy clear – ‘just as we have crushed militancy’.
The director general of RAB only last week said, ‘Whoever, whatever, wherever – no one is outside of our operation. We will uproot drugs completely.’
We have seen the ‘effective’ outcome of the government’s strategy in the several killings in ‘gunfights’ over the past few days. In one week alone, 27 people were killed in ‘gunfights’ in this so-called operation of the government. From Sunday night to Monday morning, nine were killed in less than 24 hours. Everyone is aware that these ‘gunfights’ are nothing but extrajudicial killings. No matter how these are placed in the media, no one believes the overt narrative. This is obvious in the demands for ‘criminals’ to be placed in ‘crossfire’.
Anyone is innocent until proven guilty under the law. A person may be punished only through legal procedure and the constitution has separate provision for such punishment. Anything outside that is unlawful and extrajudicial. All of that is almost forgotten in Bangladesh. There is a long history in the country of such methods being adopted against persons of divergent views, anti-government political activists. This has increased manifold over the past decade and is being used indiscriminately. It has become established as a norm.
The ‘war on drugs’ is the manifestation of the established trend to violate the constitution against anyone who is considered a criminal in the eyes of the state. This is not to minimise the gravity of the crime of those involved in the drug trade nor is it to oppose bringing them to book. It is unfortunate that instead of discussions on the matter, there is a tendency to imbibe an idea of legitimacy among the people regarding such operations.
We saw shocking instances of the so-called ‘war on drugs’ in the Philippines in August 2016. After president Rodrigo Duterte came to power, the police and the army of that country have killed over 12 thousand people till date in the ‘war on drugs’. The poor people are the most victimised by this horrendous spree of extrajudicial killings. President Duterte has often claimed to be proud of this operation. The country’s chief justice Maria Sereno was removed on 11 May for speaking against this strategy. The president termed her to be an ‘enemy’ and had her removed.
Justice Sereno considered these killings to be extrajudicial. Senator Leila de Lima was apprehended for investigating these killings and she was accused of drug trafficking. She refuted such allegations. We note that despite two years of the unabated drive against drugs in the Philippines, there has been no dramatic change in the drug situation. A realm of fear has been created in the society, particularly among Duterte’s critics and the poor people.
Since 2006, the government of Mexico, president Felipe Calderon and his successor Enrique Pena Nieto, have been carrying out such operations. Thousands of people have been killed. And large numbers have been killed in clashes between rival drug cartels. In 2017 at least 30 thousand people disappeared. The government claims that they have been abducted by drug dealers, but research by Oxford University, University of Minnesota and the Latin American Social Science Institute indicates that the government forces are behind 47 per cent of such incidents. One such case against the army is presently under trial at the Inter-American Court as it was not possible to try this in Mexico’s courts.
Since the seventies in the US, thousands of persons have been put behind bars in the ‘war on drugs’, most of them being blacks. In his book ‘The New Jim Crow’ published in 2010, the writer Michelle Alexander has shown that the ‘war on drugs’ in the US has, in effect, simply increased the number of prison inmates.
These examples reveal who are the ones who face the consequences of the war on drugs. And these consequences are not positive in any way. When the government of Bangladesh has adopted extrajudicial methods to tackle the problem without any consideration of the law, there is further matter of concern. There has been no trial concerning the extrajudicial killings over the past decade. The government has been in denial. The victims of this system have been those with different views and so-called criminals. This has created fear in the society. A culture of fear has spread rather than the rule of law. What guarantee is there that these operations will not be used for political reasons in the future? As it is, there are allegations that when the law enforcement wants to arrest anyone, they simply slip yaba tablets into their pockets or bags. How can anyone say that this ploy is not being used in other cases?
It is not that there should be no operation against drugs. But the question is, why has the government simply chosen this strategy of indiscriminate killing instead of taking action against those who are behind the scenes, for whom the drug trade continues? Unless the government clamps down firmly on the political patrons of such drug rackets, the persons who are being killed will simply be replaced in no time at all. So there really is no reason to believe that the problem will be solved so easily in this manner.
* Ali Riaz is a distinguished professor of the department of government and politics at Illinois State University in the US. This piece has been rewritten in English by Ayesha Kabir.
Source: Prothom Alo.
