The article below is an open letter issued by "Concerned Teachers, Students, Writers, Artists, and Activists Around the World". It is abridged from Mrzine.
On September 2, the members of a nationwide alliance in Banladesh — the National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Ports — were brutalised by the state police in Dhaka.
More than fifty members were injured. The committee was conducting a peaceful demonstration and march as part of an announced program to protest the Bangladesh government's anti-people offshore deals with international oil companies.
Such deals, protesters said, would enable those companies to explore, extract and eventually own those resources without the people's consent. The deals in question reveal how the ruling classes in Bangladesh operate in close cahoots with corporations and imperialism.
The protest was against the Bangladesh government's recent decision to award gas exploration rights in the Bay of Bengal to international oil companies. It protested the government's decision to award three blocks to two international oil companies with a provision allowing them to export up to 80% of gas.
Protesters feared such a move would threaten the country's energy security and the country's sovereignty.
As the protesters were marching peacefully, police charged, threw many of them to the ground, and brutally beat them with batons and kicked them with heavy boots. More than 50 protesters were injured, and a number of them suffered serious injuries.
Key members of the committee were clearly targeted. Among the seriously injured was the member-secretary of the committee Professor Anu Muhammad. His legs were broken by police batons.
Muhammad is not only chair of the economics department at Jahangirnagar University and the leading political economist in Bangladesh, but he is also internationally known for committed political activism for democracy and justice — locally and globally. We see the brutal attack on Muhammad as an attack on democracy and progressive politics.
Others injured included Saiful Haque, the general secretary of Biplobi Communist Party in Bangladesh, and Biplob Mondol, the Chhatra Front leader.
As teachers, students, writers, artists and activists — who also consider ourselves citizens of this world believing in peace, justice, and democracy — we declare the following:
• We condemn the police brutality against members of the National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Ports in Bangladesh;
• we condemn all international oil companies interested in exploiting the natural resources of Bangladesh. We think they should back out of any deals they have or wish to have with Bangladesh;
• we demand that the Bangladeshi government ensure the most appropriate and effective treatment of all who were wrongfully and seriously injured by the police; and
• we demand that the action plan and demands of the National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Ports be taken seriously rather than silenced through any form of brutality.
We express our deep solidarity with the people of Bangladesh who are struggling to protect their own national and natural resources from foreign companies. And we support the Bangladeshi people's right to self-determination under all circumstances.