Protap Jambil | PROTAP JAMBIL, VICTIM: They tied my two hands and feet and eight or nine of them caned me. PETER LLOYD: Soldiers picked up Protap Jambil | 00:00 |
Photos Jambil's injuries | on the way home from a wedding. These pictures he says, are evidence of a beating that lasted more than four hours. | 00:08 |
Protap Jambil. Super: | PROTAP JAMBIL: I was in tremendous pain, I couldn't move, I couldn't walk, I need four people to carry me. | 00:18 |
Jambil demonstrates torture | PETER LLOYD: He showed me how he was forced to lie while up to eight soldiers took turns beating him with bamboo rods. | 00:25 |
Protap Jambil | PROTAP JAMBIL: I really did not have any thoughts in my head. I kept praying to God and his son Jesus, I thought that I would die, that's what I thought. | 00:33 |
Photos. Dead brother in law | PETER LLOYD: Mr Jambil wasn't alone. His brother-in-law was also arrested and tortured, but Cholesh Ritchil did not survive. | 00:43 |
Protap Jambil | PROTAP JAMBIL: At first they tied both of Cholesh's hands and feet then they tortured soles of feet and all over his body. They unzipped his pants and attached pliers to his penis and to all of his fingers and toes. They put candle wax on the wounds and then they put hot water mixed with dried chillies and salt and poured it all over his body and through his nose and ears. | 00:52 |
Photo. People stand around coffin | PETER LLOYD: Attempts by human rights groups to document abuse cases have been met with threats and intimidation. But some refuse to be silenced. | 01:22 |
Mazhar. Super: Farhad Mazhar, Human rights activist | FARHAD MAZHAR, HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST: People have been picked up without any kind of evidence and then they've been tortured. | 01:31 |
Farhad in office library | PETER LLOYD: Farhad Mazhar is from a human rights group called Odhikar. The organisation says the security forces have killed at least 100 people since January at a rate of almost one per day. Those who do emerge from military custody tell a disturbingly similar story. | 01:37 |
| FARHAD MAZHAR: People complain that their nails have been taken out. They've been tortured very badly. | 01:54 |
Fatullah stadium | PETER LLOYD: Military run interrogation centres operate all over the country. Some are brazenly open. This is Fatullah stadium on the outskirts of Dhaka. A year ago Australia played a Test match against Bangladesh here. Today it's military occupied. We filmed early in the morning and for only a few minutes to avoid being detected. | 01:58 |
Lloyd to camera. Super: | One witness who was too fearful to appear on camera has described to me how he heard torture victims screaming in agony during a local cricket match. Later in the same day a senior army officer boasted openly that suspects were far more talkative after they had been electrocuted, beaten and subjected to water torture. | 02:23 |
Moeen arriving and mingling with officers | General Moeen Ahmed is the head of the Bangladesh armed forces. The man behind emergency rule. The general refused to grant an interview to the ABC, so we turned up unannounced. | 02:44 |
Moeen. | Lloyd: Will you take action on the allegation of human rights abuses by the soldiers? | 02:57 |
Super: | GENERAL MOEEN AHMED, ARMY CHIEF: Already it has been undertaken and all measures will be, nobody is above the law in this country. So if anybody makes a mistake he will be taken to task. | 03:01 |
| PETER LLOYD: Have you ordered them to stop torturing and murdering suspects? | 03:10 |
| GENERAL MOEEN AHMED: It is already not there. It's not there. There are no such things that are going on now. Not at all. | 03:13 |
| PETER LLOYD: There are at least 100 cases according to human rights groups of murders since you took power? | 03:18 |
| GENERAL MOEEN AHMED: No, no, no, this is not correct. You have to find out the figures. Anybody can say anything, but go and look in the ground and see what is the truth. | 03:22 |
UN Peacekeeping ceremony | PETER LLOYD: To provide cover from allegations that he carried out a coup, General Moeen Ahmed hand-picked a civilian caretaker government to run Bangladesh. Who runs the Government? | 03:30 |
Chowdhury. | Is it the civilians or the soldiers? | 03:39 |
| IFTIKHAR CHOWDHURY, FOREIGN MINISTER: No, no, it's absolutely a civilian government, supported by as I said, the middle classes, the soldiers, the police. | 03:42 |
| PETER LLOYD: Iftikhar Chowdhury is the army approved Foreign Minister. IFTIKHAR CHOWDHURY, FOREIGN MINISTER: The army plays a role given it | 03:51 |
| by the Government, absolutely. There is no... | 03:57 |
| PETER LLOYD: So they're doing your dirty work for you? | 04:02 |
Super: Iftikhar Chowdhury, Foreign Minister | IFTIKHAR CHOWDHURY: No, it's not a dirty work. Army is taking certain actions in terms of the anti corruption drive which has full support of the community. | 04:04 |
| PETER LLOYD: There are by all accounts as many as 200,000 people who've been arrested. How could that credibly be occurring under due process? | 04:13 |
| IFTIKHAR CHOWDHURY: The arrests are made under some allegations of breach of law. Due process begins with the effecting of the arrest when people are, those arrested are brought before magistrates, as is always the case here. | 04:21 |
Soldiers | PETER LLOYD: The United Nations sees it differently. It recently accused the Bangladesh armed forces of using murder as a means of law enforcement. | 04:38 |
Chowdhury | IFTIKHAR CHOWDHURY: Bangladesh has done better than most countries of the world in these respects. So I can tell you this and we're proud of our record. | 04:17 |
| PETER LLOYD: You're proud of your human rights record? | 04:54 |
| IFTIKHAR CHOWDHURY: In human rights Bangladesh is better than many, many, many, countries. | 04:57 |
| PETER LLOYD: Name one. Zimbabwe? IFTIKHAR CHOWDHURY: No, I'm not going to name any. It is not for me to name foreign countries or finger point. | 05:02 |
Nurul in office | PETER LLOYD: Nurul Kabir is an influential newspaper editor. He says a clique of western diplomats known as the Tuesday Club interfered in his country's internal affairs. | 05:11 |
GFX/Stills Tuesday Club members | The Tuesday Club is an informal caucus of the big donor nations that meets every week. Its core members are ambassadors from the United States, Britain, Japan, Canada, the EU and Australia. Kabir says the Tuesday club not only courted military intervention but campaigned for civilian politicians to accept it back in January. Now none of the diplomats will agree to talk about it. | 05:23 |
Kabir. Super: Nurul Kabir | NURUL KABIR: We feel we as a citizen, I feel embarrassed and I'm sure that people of the country that they have sent here would have been embarrassed, too, to see how their High Commissioners and ambassadors in Dhaka is meddling themselves in politics. | 05:50 |
| PETER LLOYD: You say meddling? NURUL KABIR: Yes, meddling. | 06:09 |
Australian flag/Foskett walking | PETER LLOYD: Australia's High Commissioner, Douglas Foskett refused to be interviewed for this story, but he remains an open backer of the Government despite the military's behaviour. | 06:12 |
Moeen with government members | General Moeen insists democracy will return to Bangladesh with fresh elections by the end of next year. But he recently raised eyebrows by promoting himself to Full General. Many wonder how long civilians will remain in the picture. Generals in Bangladesh have a notorious history of thirsting for absolute power. | 06:22 |
| REPORTER: Peter Lloyd | 06:45 |