Truth and diplomacy surrounding the Mothijheel Massacre, as the wheels come off the cover-op

Suppression of the news of the Bangladesh government's brutal action against religious protesters on May 6th is slowly fading, but the rearguard action is well underway.

This Dhaka grave digger had no hearing or speech, but still told the truth about the bodies he buried that night.
Lord protect him and inspire us with his morality.

With a welcome, surprisingly balanced but late Al Jazeera news piece on Tuesday (14th May), the government-leaning human rights organisation Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK) finally made a statement today (16th May), ten days after the killings. By contrast, the pro-opposition Odhikar made its first statement on 7th May. The ASK  statement pasted below concentrates of entrenching government propaganda and red herrings, here it is below.

Statement on the website of ASK a prominent human rights organisation and gatekeeper.
The date of the web page is 16th May, though the Bengali version carries a date of 13th.

Just a single line out of a twenty line alludes to any wrongdoing on the government's behalf. Mark Regev would be proud of this one.  For context, this organisation is headed by award winning human rights activist Sultana Kamal (satirised here),  an expert witness in the discredited War Crimes Tribunals, and former advisor to the Caretaker Government that assumed power after the 2007 military coup.

Come, visit Bangladesh, where covering, covering up and recovering injustice is perhaps the biggest industry.

Who's Human Rights?

It should be noted that despite the rhetoric and funding, human rights are not for all in Bangladesh, but usually a for strategic and unchallenging few as well as the cameras. Although the 6th May Motijheel Massacre bears witness to many ills in Bangladeshi society, the most striking is of a donor-fattened corporate NGO class that is self-serving and incapable of seeing common humanity through its narrow ideological worldview. Such selective humanitarianism it important to call out loudly and internationally, as its sub-national and transnational politics is often glossed over and erased by its privileged native informants.

Framing the dead, diplomatically

Foreign Minister Dipu Moni is on a damage control

On the government front, there is a big external public relations push by the establishment, with Bangladesh Foreign Minister Dr Dipu Moni holding the brief of presenting the Government's point of view. In her contribution to the recent Al Jazeera news piece she accuses injured and petrified demonstrators of pretending to be dead and getting up when poked by security forces.

Dr Moni, the international mouthpiece of this callous regime, is busy in the USA of late, addressing the party faithful (in Bangla) among the New York Bangladeshi diaspora, on Monday and scheduled in Washington DC to meet Secretary of State John Kerry tomorrow (17th). As 'US Ambassador-at-large for War Crimes' Stephen Rapp has been in Bangladesh over the past few days talking to people, it is difficult to know whether this meeting will be to receive further instructions or a scolding.

One can anticipate the Awami League government doing what it does best, accusing its opposition of what it is accused of by them, and playing the bulwark against fundamentalism.  I cannot stand this injustice, can you?