Border killings
Re: Daily Star, Page 3, 10th February 2010/The Main Reasons for Border Killings?
It was with increasing concern that I read about the opinions expressed at the recent dialogue on “Bangladesh-India Relations” held at the DU Department of International Relations. I believe it is an inadequate analysis of border killings to suggest that the main reasons for their occurrence is the smuggling of goods and human trafficking. The main reason there are border killings is that the respective governments have placed heavily armed soldiers and para-military forces on the border with apparent permission to arbitrarily shoot people. The militaristic defence of a border is intended to protect a sovereign nation's geography from usurpation by foreign forces or other forceful invasion of the nation. It is not acceptable for such forces to kill anyone who does not represent a genuine militaristic threat to their nation's security. The summary and often arbitrary shooting of criminal smugglers and simple villagers who regularly farm near the border or who cross the green border to visit family, is neither proportional nor justified. People who are committing criminal offences at the border should be detained and passed to the police for proper consideration and not extra-judicially executed by the military.
As the two nations involved are both democratic nations that recognise one another's borders, the respective integrity of their lands and as both are members of a regional organisation committed to developing a regional single market, it seems rather bizarre that either should have more than a token military force at their common border. The principal cross border concerns and risks relate to matters that require a policing or law enforcement response not a military reaction. The notion that the artificial political border between the Bengali people can be effectively controlled by the military is misplaced as much as any idea that this border should even be subjected to such a reign of terror. The respective governments can stop arbitrary border killings immediately by largely demilitarising their border, and then addressing cross-border issues relating to criminal activities by policing the border appropriately. I believe there is a legitimate political case for increasingly recognising the porosity of the border between India and Bangladesh by the decriminalisation of the movement of both citizenries within the region if not throughout both the nations. Furthermore, it would be useful to recognise that the border is often not the best place to interdict serious cross border criminal activity.
I conclude by repeating that disproportionate and unjustified paramilitary reactions to events that do not seriously threaten the integrity or security of either Nation are the main reason for the arbitrary border killings. Consequently these executions can and should be stopped by a moratorium on the shoot to kill orders, followed by a review of how this border should be policed and otherwise managed.
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