This issue includes articles on Global HIV/AIDS funding, a new organic farm at Oblate headquarters in Washington, the human reality at the US/Mexican border, shareholder advocacy in the financial sector, human trafficking and environmental issues: from biodiversity loss and climate change to OMI JPIC work in solidarity with Bangladeshi colleagues and new solar panels on an Oblate church in California.

Aminul Islam, slain Bangladeshi labor leader

A number of textile trade associations and unions sent a letter to the Bangladeshi Prime Minister in response to the recent murder of labor activist, Aminul Islam. Mr. Islam was a senior organizer at the Bangladesh Center for Worker Solidarity (BCWS) and a local leader for the Bangladesh Garment and Industrial Workers Federation (BGIWF). Both organizations have been working to help workers combat low wages, deadly factory fires, and repression of their right to organize. This letter went to the Prime Minister through the initiative of ICCR shareholders with Wal-Mart and PVH Corp. (Phillips Van Heusen). The Missionary Oblates is an active member of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR).

Read the letter (Download PDF)

The International Labor Rights Forum sent out this information on Aminul Islam on April 12th:

Last Wednesday, Aminul Islam left his office for evening prayers. He noticed a police van parked outside and called his colleagues, worried about possible harassment. Then he went to meet with a worker. He never returned home.

His body was found a day later. According to police reports his legs had severe torture marks including a hole made by a sharp object. All his toes were broken.

Aminul was a senior organizer at the Bangladesh Center for Worker Solidarity (BCWS) and a local leader for the Bangladesh Garment and Industrial Workers Federation (BGIWF). ILRF has worked with BCWS and BGIWF for many years. They have been a critical force in the effort to defend workers’ rights in a country known for sub-poverty wages, deadly factory fires, and repression of the right to organize.

Over the past two years, the government of Bangladesh has carried out a campaign of intimidation and harassment against BCWS. On June 16, 2010, Aminul was detained by security forces, beaten repeatedly and threatened with death, in an attempt to coerce him into making incriminating statements against the organization. Not long after, he and his colleagues Kalpona Akter and Babul Akhter were arrested and kept in jail for nearly a month, where they were subjected to psychological and physical abuse. Since 2010, Aminul, Kalpona and Babul have faced criminal charges for which no substantiating evidence has been presented.

Given this history, there is strong reason to suspect that Aminul’s murder was in retaliation for his efforts as a labor rights organizer and to fear this could represent a violent escalation in the repression of worker rights advocates in Bangladesh.

Join with us in calling for a thorough and impartial investigation into Aminul’s murder. BCWS and BGIWF have asked for an outpouring of letters to the Prime Minister of Bangladesh. Please take a moment to add your voice!

Sharif Jamil, Fr. Joseph Gomes, OMI, Fr. Seamus Finn, OMI and a colleague on the Buriganga RiverKeeper boat in Dhaka

Environmental activists on Saturday demanded immediate execution of an earlier High Court order to save the River Buriganga from pollution and encroachment. 
The High Court in 2011 issued a three-point directive to the government to save the river.

Among those demanding action to reverse the severe pollution of the Buriganga was Sharif Jamil, a close collaborator of the Oblates in Bangladesh. Sharif is the Buriganga Riverkeeper, and part of the international Waterkeeper Alliance.

Learn more – read the article…

]]> http://omiusajpic.org/2012/03/20/bangladeshi-environmental-activists-demand-protection-of-dhaka%e2%80%99s-buriganga-river/feed/ 0 http://omiusajpic.org/2012/03/11/oblates-host-us-embassy-staff/ http://omiusajpic.org/2012/03/11/oblates-host-us-embassy-staff/#comments Mon, 12 Mar 2012 02:42:46 +0000 christina http://omiusajpic.org/?p=11045 Forrest Graham, Political Officer with the US Embassy in Bangladesh visited the Khasi people in the northeast in late February at the invitation of the Oblates. Fr. Joseph Gomes, OMI, Fr. Valentine Talang, OMI, and local Khasis hosted Mr. Graham in visiting the villages near Sylhet in northeast Bangladesh to learn about the  culture, language and lifestyle of the indigenous peoples living there, and the challenges facing them.

Khasi Villagers with Forrest Graham and Fr. Joseph Gomes, OMI

Flora Talang, Fr. Gomes, OMI, Forrest Graham and a Khasi friend in Muriocherra

Gathering with Khasis in Muriocherra

Forrest Graham with Khasi Elders in Muriocherra

Forrest Graham in Muroicherra Punjee

BAPA works closely with the Adivasi and indigenous efforts to protect their land and livelihood. The conference emphasized the importance of the need for enforcement of their rightful ownership of land and of access the courts to defend their rights and limit harassment. In light of government statements in the past year that have failed to recognize the presence of indigenous peoples in Bangladesh, the conference was also a bold statement to political leaders and government authorities about the reality of indigenous peoples in Bangladesh, the dignity of their culture and traditions, and their rightful ownership of land.

Economic development is an imperative for the government of Bangladesh, but in the northeast, this has come into conflict with the rights, needs and desires of the indigenous peoples on whose land some of this development has taken place.

Fr. Joseph Gomes, OMI spoke at the conference on logging, indigenous livelihoods and the environment. Sharif Jamil, a close collaborator of the Oblates who helped organize the conference, kindly sent us pictures and the program which can be viewed here:

Click on each page separately to view the Conference Program Page 1; Page 2; Page 3; Page 4; Page 5; Page 6; Page 7

A full conference report is expected soon.

Watch a slideshow of pictures from the Conference…

The new diocese has seven parishes and 11 mission centers with about 17,000 mostly tribal Catholics, served by 21 priests and 33 Religious. Bishop D’Cruze had served ably as Bishop of Khulna before his appointment to the new diocese.

Sylhet has been a locus of JPIC work in Bangladesh, with Oblate support for efforts against illegal logging and in support of land and other rights of the indigenous Khasis and Garo peoples.

Learn more…

Yet in Bangladesh, the government refuses to recognize the existence of indigenous peoples, arguing instead that they are simply ethnic minorities. This designation removes the groups from protections and rights afforded by the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and ILO Convention 169, both of which Bangladesh has signed.

Sanjeev Drong, a close collaborator of the Oblates in Bangladesh, criticized the government’s position, stating that recent remarks of the Bangladeshi Foreign Minister reflecting this position were not correct. He said the “adivasi” people have been living in Bangladesh from the time immemorial with their own distinctiveness, language, culture, and identity.

He cited the ILO Convention (169), article 1 that says, “Self-identification as indigenous or tribal shall be regarded as a fundamental criterion for determining the groups to which the provisions of this Convention apply”. Bangladesh has ratified the ILO convention.

Pointing to the recent killings of three Marmas in Bandarban and one Santal in Dinajpur, the leaders said organised attacks on the “indigenous” people have increased to “eliminate” them from their ancestral land.

They also mentioned felling of over 5,000 trees at Nahar Khansi village in Srimangal and said Rakhains in Patuakhali, Garos in Madhupur, Santals in the north Bengal are facing land ownership problems.

The government has not addressed these issues in the last two and a half years although the ruling party pledged in its election manifesto to do so.

Sharif Jamil is a Bangladeshi environmental activist who works closely with the Oblate JPIC Coordinator in Bangladesh, Fr. Joseph Gomes, OMI. Sharif is National Coordinator of APRA (Adibasi Poribesh Roskhya Andolon or Save Indigenous Environment Movement), Joint Secretary of BAPA (Bangladesh Poribesh Andolon or Bangladesh Environment Movement), and the Buriganga Riverkeeper. BAPA is the largest national environmental movement in Bangladesh.

Sharif, Fr. Joseph and others have been working with the Garo and Khasi communities to prevent illegal logging in their forests, on which they depend for their survival.

Sylhet area, Bangladesh

The Oblate JPIC office is excited to introduce the video, “Behind the Green,” to the Missionary Oblates JPIC YouTube Channel.

The film “Behind the Green” (Parts 1-3) is based on the historic struggle of the Khasi and Garo peoples for protection of their ancestral homeland in Bangladesh in the face of Government plans to establish an Eco-park in the Moulvibazar district. The eco-park would take up more than 1500 acres of the indigenous peoples’ land for tourism.

The films also features Fr. Joseph Gomes OMI, a missionary catholic priest working amongst the Garo and Khasi people in Bangladesh.

View the “Behind the Green” video at: http://www.youtube.com/user/OMIJPIC

Please bookmark this JPIC Youtube Channel website and check it frequently as it will be updated with stories and actions from Oblates in ministry. Spread the word!!

An Oblate priest, Fr. Joseph Gomes, OMI, along with other colleagues from the environmental community have been working with the Khasi people to protect the forest and their villages. We urge all parties in a position to do so, to raise serious concerns with the Government of Bangladesh regarding this situation.

Two years ago, four thousand trees were chopped down on lands traditionally controlled by the Khasi people of the Sylhet region of north eastern Bangladesh. The owner of a local Tea Estate was initially granted permission by the government to cut the trees. But the logging created serious ecological damage, and threatened the very existence of the Khasi inhabitants of the four villages. The indigenous communities organized against the logging and protested vigorously. For the Khasi, trees are essential for Pan (betel leaf) cultivation, their only livelihood. The Khasis still do not have clear title to their lands, leaving them vulnerable to this sort of exercise of power.

In a huge victory for the Khasis, the local Deputy Commissioner decided in early January that no more trees may be cut from any Khasi Punji (indigenous village) in the area. This victory, that would have saved many villages and thousands of trees on the Tripura Border with India, has been short-lived. In response to a case filed by the Tea estate owner, the Bangladesh High Court in late February over-turned the decision to stop the logging.

Learn more…