[Reader-list] I'm Sorry Choles Richil

[NAEEM MOHAIEMEN]

Arendt's "banality of evil" can be extended: any
people have the capacity for infinite
cruelty/violence. The once meek can also become most
cruel. 

Bangladesh, on the receiving end of violence in many
historical moments, repeats that impulse on those who
don't fit a Bengali nationalism project. In particular
two groups of ethnic minorities (or "non-Bengalis",
every term is about what you are not): Paharis &
Adivasis. The Paharis because they have been waging a
three decade long civil war to gain autonomy in
Chittagong Hill Tracts. The Adivasis because they
demand land rights and block neoliberal projects such
as Modhupur Forest "Eco Park" and Asia Energy coal
mining.

A non-Bengali's life is worth little. But even our
blase psyche was stunned by the brutal torture-murder
of Choles Ritchil, Adivasi activist who had been
fighting against the infamous "Eco Park" project
(supported by Asian Development Bank) which would
displace thousands of Adivasis from their ancestral
Modhupur forest home. Particularly frightening is the
fact that these abuses happened in an army camp, in a
country currently under a quasi-military "interim"
government.

There is a smug, self-congratulatory rhetoric that
talks about Ghraib+Gitmo without interrogating other
country's equally abysmal record on torture.  G/G is
of course a failure of ethics+morality in the American
body politic. But a capacity for absolute power
leading to unthinkable abuses lurks inside all nation
states and people.

Below is my op-ed from today's Dhaka paper, and
related link.

#############################################
OP-ED: I'm Sorry, Choles Ritchil
http://shobakorg.blogspot.com/2007/04/sorry-choles.html

FACT SHEET: Torture of Choles Ritchil
http://www.drishtipat.org/blog/2007/04/03/choles-ritchil/

[includes Petition]
#############################################

I'm Sorry, Choles Ritchil
- Naeem Mohaiemen
[Daily Star, April 6, 2007]
 
I'm sorry, Choles Ritchil. I didn't believe the
evidence of your body.  I kept thinking the torture
report was a hysterical invention.  So much damage to
one corpse, it seemed impossible. No, it is
impossible. Isn't it? It must all be lies. Those human
rights groups, we know they always exaggerate -- just
to get foreign funding and create a bad image for
Bangladesh.
 
I'm sorry, because I couldn't find the courage. We're
all so invested in getting out of the AL-BNP strangle
corridor, we're so euphoric that the godfathers are
being arrested, we don't want to upset the process by
drawing attention to your case.  Must be an
aberration, somebody got a little too enthusiastic.
Anyway, let's move on. For heaven's sake, don't make a
fuss.
 
I'm sorry, because I couldn't find tears. How easy it
was to dismiss your face on that poster. You look
nothing like me. You have what my classmates so
crudely called "chinky eyes". No one in my family has
ever married anyone who looks like you, and even if we
did we would make sure you converted to our religion.
You see, you don't really exist. This is a country for
Bengalis, not anyone else. Now you realize that,
slowly, surely.
 
I'm sorry, because I read Nirmalendu Goon's poem with
a stony heart.  Then I busied myself with translating
it.  E-mailing friends and asking, "What is Chuniya
village"? Is Goon being sarcastic about March and
"freedom"? Is "elegy" a better translation than
"requiem"? Distracting myself with aesthetics,
anything to blank out the memory of those pictures.
 
I'm sorry, because when a blogger posted the report,
somebody else complained about the gruesome picture.
The picture was quietly removed to page 2.  A nice
disclaimer was added: "Warning: Graphic Photo".
Anything to protect our delicate sensibilities. How
inconsiderate of you to die with so many wounds.
 
I'm sorry, because I said to a Pahari friend the other
day, "Welcome to shadhin Bangla", and she replied,
"Ami tho Bangali na, how am I shadhin?" I laughed and
dismissed her. Oh these people! They will never be
satisfied. What do you want anyway? Land rights? Your
Language? Parliament Seats? Ministries? Quotas?
Autonomy? Come on, that was for us, that was 1969. 
It's 2007 now. Don't you remember what Sheikh Mujib
said?  "From today you are all Bengalis."  And some of
you are now dead Bengalis, that's equality.
 
I'm sorry, because I know how this will go down. 
There will be outrage. NGOs will issue memorandum.
Bloggers will buzz. Newspapers will write. Thrithio
Matra will debate pros and cons. Seminars will be
cranked out. And always, some "hero" filmmaker will
make a documentary and win awards. Then, just as
quickly, we will forget. Amnesia is our gross national
product.
 
I'm sorry, Choles Ritchil.  You lived and died
protecting the Adivasi people and Modhupur land you
believed in.  You were gentle and nonviolent, and we
paid you back in a different coin.
 
I'm sorry, because I'm a citizen of a nation that
after 36 years fails to see you as anything more than
a nuisance. My class, ethnicity and religious
privilege (and army family) gives me insurance to
write these words. You don't have any such protection
-- naked to the world, to Eco Park, and to our
vengeful fury.
 
But don't think you're an agacha on our national boto
brikkho. When there are visiting dignitaries or sports
events, your people are very useful. You sing, you
dance, you wear exotic, colorful clothes.  A readymade
National Geographic  tableau. "Hill People of CHT". 
"Gentle People of Modhupur Forest". Ah, the
permutations are endless.
 
We want to keep all of you in a museum vitrine, and
bring you out on special occasions -- when we need a
dash of color. But please don't demand your rights.
And don't even think of raising your voice. Etho boro
shahosh! You see what happened to Choles. Don't make
us be sorry again.
 

<Naeem Mohaiemen wrote the Ain Salish Kendra chapter
on ethnic minorities (2003 Bangladesh Human Rights
Report) and religious minorities (2006 Bangladesh
Human Rights Report).>


 
____________________________________________________________________________________
Looking for earth-friendly autos? 
Browse Top Cars by "Green Rating" at Yahoo! Autos' Green Center.
http://autos.yahoo.com/green_center/