Bangladesh church officials fight to quash priest’s arrest warrant

May 12th, 2007

By Anto Akkara Catholic News Service
May 9, 2007

BANGALORE, India (CNS) – Church officials in Bangladesh have been lobbying the government to quash an arrest warrant issued against a missionary priest working among exploited indigenous people.

“We want the government to quash this (case) and take action against those who have registered the fabricated case against (Oblate) Father (Joseph) Gomes,” Oblate Father Emil Moraes told Catholic News Service May 8 from Dhaka, Bangladesh. Father Moraes is Father Gomes’ regional superior.

In February, the local court issued an arrest warrant against Father Gomes, head of the Oblates’ justice, peace and creation ministry, after forest officials filed several charges against the activist priest. The charges included instigating an “unlawful trespass into government-acquired forest, cutting and removing trees, and forcefully encroaching forest zone,” thereby causing the government a loss of nearly $200,000.

Father Moraes said, “In fact, he was attending a meeting with tribal people (at Khadimnagar) when this alleged crime is said to have been committed.”

On May 3, Father Moraes visited the Moulvibazar district commissioner and the forest officer of Sylhet, where the case is registered. Though the district commissioner expressed “great dissatisfaction,” Father Moraes told CNS that he was unable to intervene in the case.

Father Gomes told CNS that he does not believe the case has anything to do with him being a priest.

“This is an attempt to keep me away from the exploited indigenous people,” Father Gomes said in an interview from Dhaka.

“I have been fighting for the rights of indigenous Gharo and other people in the region for years,” he said. “The forest and timber mafia do not want me to work there.”

Father Gomes added, “I am targeted because I am speaking up for the voiceless indigenous people who are opposing the plunder of the forest resources.”

In 2000, Father Gomes led protests of indigenous people to force the government to suspend an eco-tourism project in the forest region about 215 miles northeast of Dhaka.

Since then, forest officials have filed several false cases against local indigenous people, said Oblate representatives. Father Gomes confronted officials several times for the release of the detained indigenous people.

Copyright (c) 2007 Catholic News Service www.CatholicNews.com Reprinted with permission of CNS

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