[Reader-list] BANGLADESH: Rang Lai Mro in Heart Attack Risk

[Shambhu Rahmat]

Amnesty has issued a "heart attack risk" alert for indigenous
community leader Rang Lai Mro, in detention since the arrival of the
Caretaker Government in 2007.

Read more about the ongoing crisis in Chittagong Hill Tracts since 2007:
http://www.drishtipat.org/blog/category/cht/

Please take immediate action, forward this widely.

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL:
http://www.drishtipat.org/blog/2008/10/01/rang-lai-mro/

AI Index: ASA 13/003/2008/26 September 2008/UA 276/08
BANGLADESH: Medical concern/Torture/Legal concern
Rang Lai Mro (m), indigenous community leader

Indigenous community leader Rang Lai Mro, who is serving a jail
sentence imposed after an unfair trial, is being refused medical
treatment for a serious heart condition. He is the head of a community
of indigenous Mro people in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT), in the
south-east of the country, and is held in Chittagong District Jail. He
is at risk of having a heart attack any time.

He was arrested in February 2007, charged with possessing a pistol
without a license. Four months later he was sentenced to 17 years'
imprisonment for the offence, though his lawyers had produced evidence
in court that his pistol was licensed. His lawyers have since claimed
that they were not allowed to produce any witnesses at the trial. He
is believed to have been targeted because, as the head of a local NGO,
Mrochet, working to improve the facilities available to the Mro people
in the region, he had protested to the army about the security forces'
December 2006 efforts to evict hundreds of Mro families to make way
for an army training centre in a remote part of the Bandarban Hill
District. According to his lawyer, he had been preparing a petition
for the authorities about the situation of Mro people in the area, and
the army's action in driving them out of their homes.

After his arrest he was severely beaten by army officers in custody at
the local army headquarters, Bandarban Cantonment. This torture has
never been investigated. He had to be treated in Bandarban General
Hospital, where doctors found he had suffered a heart attack. He was
sent back to jail without appropriate medical treatment. In October
2007 his health further deteriorated , and he had to be treated in
hospital, where doctors said he needed treatment in a hospital with
better equipment, but he was once more sent back to jail, without any
improvement in his health.. He still has not received appropriate
medical treatment for his heart condition and other medical
complications, and his health continues to deterioratee.

The government has transferred over a dozen prisoners needing
specialist attention to well-equipped hospitals so far this year, but
Rang Lai Mro has not been one of them. Some of these prisoners have
even been allowed to go abroad for treatment.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

The present government is a caretaker administration in Bangladesh
backed by the army. Army personnel have been involved in arbitrary
arrests, torture and deaths in custody, but enjoy a climate of
impunity. The CHT borders Myanmar and India, and is home to 13
indigenous tribes, including the Mro. The government has been
attempting to settle non-tribal Bengalis in the region since the early
1970s, which led to armed resistance in the mid-1970s. A peace accord
signed in 1997 ended the armed conflict, but the CHT has remained
heavily militarized.

RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send appeals to arrive as quickly as
possible, in English, Bangla or your own language:

- expressing concern that imprisoned Indigenous community leader Rang
Lai Mro has a serious heart condition which requires immediate and
sustained medical management, and that the authorities have failed to
provide him with this treatment;

- urging the authorities to allow Rang Lai Mro to receive appropriate
medical attention in a hospital equipped to provide specialist
treatment for his heart condition;

- expressing concern that he has been tortured, and is at risk of
further torture;

- urging the authorities to order investigation by an independent,
impartial and competent body to on the torture of Rang Lai Mro and the
authorities' negligence of his deteriorating health, and bring those
responsible to justice.

APPEALS TO (Time difference = GMT + 6 hrs / BST + 5 hrs):

Prime minister (equivalent)

Dr Fakhruddin Ahmed

Chief Adviser

Office of the Chief Adviser, Bangladesh

Fax: 00880 2 8113243

Email: info at pmo.gov.bd

[Salutation: Dear Chief Adviser]

Special Assistant to the Chief Adviser on Chittagong Hill Tracts affairs

Raja Debashish Roy

Building No. 4, 6th Floor

Bangladesh Secretariat

Dhaka 1000, Bangladesh

Email: devasish59 at yahoo.com

[Salutation: Dear Mr Roy]

Adviser to the Chief Adviser

Dr ASM Matiur Rahman

Ministry of Health & Family Welfare

Bangladesh Secretariat

Building No. 2, 3rd floor

Dhaka 1000, Bangladesh

Fax: 00880 2 7169077

00880 2 9571301

E-mail: minister at bd.com

[Salutation: Dear Dr Rahman]

PLEASE SEND COPIES OF YOUR APPEALS TO:

His Excellency Mr. Sabihuddin Ahmed, High Commission for the People's
Republic of Bangladesh,

28 Queen's Gate, London SW7 5JA.

Fax: 020 7225 2130

Email: bdesh.lon at dial.pipex.com

Website: www.bangladeshhighcommission.org.uk

AND, IF POSSIBLE, TO THE FOLLOWING:

Bangladesh Medical Association

Dr M. A. Hadi, President

BMA Bhaban 5/2 Topkhana Road

Dhaka 1000, Bangladesh

Fax: 00880 2 9566060

00880 2 9562527

E-mail: bma at aitlbd.net

PLEASE SEND APPEALS IMMEDIATELY