Bangladesh: Brutality Fueling HIV/AIDS

(New York, August 20, 2003) - Bangladesh is stoking an emerging AIDS epidemic
with violent police abuse of sex workers, injection drug users and men who have
sex with men, Human Rights Watch charged in a new report released today.

The 51-page report, "Ravaging the Vulnerable: Abuses Against Persons at High
Risk of HIV Infection in Bangladesh," documents rapes, gang-rapes, beatings and
abductions by both police officers and powerful criminals known as mastans.

Their targets-sex workers, men who have sex with men and injection drug
users-are both at high risk of HIV infection and the people most capable of
bringing AIDS information and services to their peers. In a direct blow to the
fight against AIDS, some of the abuses are committed against AIDS outreach
workers.

"Bangladesh is brutalizing exactly the people it most needs as allies if it is
to avoid a severe AIDS epidemic," said Vivek Maru, researcher with Human Rights
Watch. "Violence against at-risk people traumatizes them and drives them out of
reach of HIV prevention services, which can increase their risk of infection."

In one region of Bangladesh, HIV prevalence among injection drug users jumped
from 1.7 percent in 2001 to 4 percent in 2002. While HIV prevalence in the
population overall is reportedly still low, the country's poverty, gender
inequality, and proximity to raging epidemics in India and Southeast Asia point
to the possibility of an AIDS explosion.

"This is a critical moment," said Maru. "Strong intervention now could save
countless lives, but time may be running out."

Bangladesh acknowledged in late 2002 that the mastan problem was an enormous
threat to the population at large and that the police were too corrupt and
ineffective to control it. The government's solution was to send the army into
the streets. But "Operation Clean Heart" resulted in its own abuses, including
at least 40 deaths in custody. Now the government is using the paramilitary
"Bangladesh Rifles" to fight crime.

"Military reinforcements are no substitute for systemic reform," said Maru.
"The reforms that can stop the attacks on people vulnerable to AIDS and help
stave off an epidemic are the same reforms the country needs to resolve its
crisis of law and order."

Human Rights Watch urged Bangladesh to institute civilian review of police
officers, to prosecute police and mastans who perpetrate abuses, to bring its
criminal procedures in line with international standards, and to support peer-
driven AIDS prevention services among persons at high risk of HIV.

"Ravaging the Vulnerable: Abuses Against Persons at High Risk of HIV Infection
in Bangladesh," is available at: http://www.hrw.org/reports/2003/bangladesh0803/

Excerpts of Testimony from "Ravaging the Vulnerable: Abuses Against Persons at
High Risk of HIV Infection in Bangladesh":

Names have been changed to protect witnesses.

Jahan H., age 26:

We sex workers working in hotels are raped frequently by police, for example
whenever the manager's bribe is due, or when the police stay at the hotel
overnight. The police say nasty things to me. One year ago, when a policeman
was about to rape me, I tried to get him to use a condom. The policeman said,
"Why should I use a condom with you, you magi [whore]? You are not my wife.
I don't care about your children."

About 3 months ago, [a police officer] raped me and kept me locked in a room
for two days . . . . Police have a special room in Hotel Sonar Bangla for
sex. He took me there and beat me with a belt . . . He raped me seven times
and had sex in different styles. I refused to have anal sex, and he beat me.
There were three other people who joined him during the two days I was with
him. They also forced me to have sex with them. These were influential
people-local mastans. During the two days I was kept in the room, I was given
food-some paratha [a flatbread]-only once . . . .

About three months ago, when I was leaving the hotel, some mastans forced me
to go to [a warehouse]. Seven to eight men were there altogether. They were
drinking and one by one they raped me the entire night. I tried to get them
not to rape me by saying I was sick with syphilis and they might get
something. [All the men raped her despite her attempts to resist.] . . . .

Mohammad H., age 17:

Some police really hate hijras [a community of men who take on feminine
behavior and dress] and men who have sex with men. They create problems for
us. If they see any hijra or man who has sex with men, they arrest us and
start to beat us . . . . When I talk, my voice is a bit female and when I
walk, I walk like a hijra and that is why the police arrest me . . . .

Police beat me up at least three to four times each month and rape me two to
three times each month . . . . About two months ago, before Ramadan, one
police took me over to a police camp near Rajshahi University and five
policemen raped me and then beat me . . . . Another time, about three months
ago, I was arrested by police and taken to a police camp and then from there
to a sugar cane field. Four people raped me. I thought I could not continue
and feared that a fifth person would rape me so I ran away. I was completely
naked. I had to go to my house by [way of] the outside of town. I was most
recently raped by police three or four days ago. This happened by the Padma
river, near some trees by the riverbank. I didn't file a complaint. If I go
to the police with a complaint, they'll never take it. If I go to police with
a complaint, they will just say you are a hijra, so why are you making a
complaint?

Mastans often rob me at knifepoint at the riverbank cruising area and
sometimes steal my shirt. They also rape me and call me "hijra, hijra,
hijra." This happens two to three times each week. Five months ago, in the
riverbank area, six to seven mastans attacked me and took my money. I had
very little. They cut my shirt with a knife and then beat me and raped me. I
started crying and they beat me some more and told me that they would beat me
more when I cried.

Ali. L., age 30:

[Describing his work as a peer educator]: When I go to the cruising spot, I
sell condoms, show them how to use them, educate them about HIV/AIDS/STDs. If
someone asks me why he should use condoms then I explain then why. Six months
ago I went to a cruising spot . . . . The police caught me and hit me. They
didn't even give me a chance to explain. They hit me with a cane, with their
gun, they kicked me and slapped me and pulled my hair and pulled on my collar
and the waistline of my pants. They called me sala [wife's younger brother;
an epithet], mother-fucker, bastard. They said that I was a sex worker. I
said I was working for HIV/AIDS prevention. They asked to see my ID card but
I had forgotten it that day. They took me to jail. After I promised that I
would never go to cruising spots again, they let me go. It creates a big
problem for condom distribution. The police think we promote sex work.

To read more on human rights issues in Bangladesh, please see:
http://www.hrw.org/asia/bangladesh.php