AAAS Scientific Responsibility, Human Rights and Law Program

AAAS Action Alerts

The AAAS Scientific Responsibility, Human Rights and Law Program calls attention to human rights abuses involving scientists and scientific communities through the circulation of Action Alerts issued by professional associations on behalf of their colleagues or by human rights organizations.

Cases that are publicized through the Action Alerts are researched and developed by the association or organization that submits the call for action. The alerts provide important background information on the case(s), and recommend specific actions to support the victim(s) of human rights abuse. The Action Alerts reach hundreds of AAAS members and other concerned scientists and engineers who are a part of SRHRL's network.

2007 Action Alerts

FACTS OF THE CASE:

The American Society of Plant Biologists urges immediate action on behalf of plant biologist Dr. Anwar Hossain and 11 of his prominent academic colleagues at the University of Dhaka and Rajshahi University, Bangladesh (see list below). These professors were arrested and jailed in August 2007 and remain in custody to this day.  The arrests were made by a Joint Task Force under the direction of the Director General Forces Intelligence (DGFI), the central intelligence agency of the Bangladeshi armed services, in connection with student protests, and the arrested academics have not been charged with any crime.

On August 20, 2007 at a soccer game at Dhaka University a group of soldiers complained that several students were obstructing their view, and they began thrashing the students.  Almost immediately large numbers of students turned on the soldiers.  There was a riot.  It spread to other campuses in the city and within a day to other campuses across the country.  Many students were injured and imprisoned—one was killed.  Meanwhile, the Dhaka University Teacher’s Association (DUTA), led by its General Secretary, the aforementioned Dr. Hossain, attempted to calm the situation.  Indeed, faculty officers of DUTA met on August 23, 2007 with senior members of the DGFI and offered their cooperation.  That night at 12:15AM, teams led by DGFI officers entered the campus apartments of Dr. Hossain and three other senior Dhaka University faculty members, each of whom was taken from their families and imprisoned.  There is strong evidence that these professors and their arrested colleagues from Rajshahi University were tortured for several days, and they are still being held in prison with minimal access to family, attorneys, and medical care.

Several articles published in the Bangladeshi and American press provide additional details about the arrests and the events that precipitated them. See, for example:

Article 1 Aug. 21, 2007
Article 2 Aug. 22, 2007
Article 3 Aug. 22, 2007
Article 4 Aug. 25, 2007
Article 5 Aug. 28, 2007
Article 6 Nov. 2, 2007

A more personal account – that of Dr. Hossain’s son, Sanjeeb, who witnessed his father’s arrest – is available here:

In addition to the 12 professors, an unknown number of students from both universities have also been arrested, and concern for their well-being is growing as well. Indeed, on September 4, 2007 Secretary General Irene Khan of Amnesty International, in a letter to Bangladesh’s leader, Chief Adviser Dr. Fakhruddin Ahmed, called for authorities to ensure that all human rights violations reported in the context of recent student unrest be thoroughly investigated and those responsible brought to justice.  Khan further stated that use of excessive force, as well as reports of torture and ill treatment of detainees while being interrogated by military intelligence personnel are matters of deep concern.  Moreover, the detainees’ denial of access to lawyers and family members is in clear violation of international human rights standards. 

Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D - MA) in a letter of October 26, 2007 to M. Humayun Kabir, Ambassador of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, Washington, D.C., urged the Bangladeshi government to release the 12 professors and any students who have also been detained for political reasons.  Sen. Kennedy further stated that “holding these twelve men without charge and for political reasons is a major assault on the integrity and independence of the academic community of your nation and calls into question your government's commitment to human rights and the rule of law.”

Detained Academics

• Professor Anwar Hossain, Dean, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Dhaka University
• Professor Harunor-Rashid, Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Political Science, Dhaka University
• Professor Sadrul Amin, Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Departmentof English, Dhaka University
• Professor Neem Chandra Bhoumik, Department of Applied Physics, Dhaka University
• Professor Saidur Rahman Khan, Former Vice-Chancellor of Rajshahi University
• Professor Abdus Sobhan, Department of Applied Physics and Electrical Engineering, Rajshahi University
• Professor Moloy Kumar Bhowmik, Department of Management, Rajshahi University
• Professor Abdullah Al Mamun, Department of English and Department of Mass Communications, Rajshahi University
• Professor Selim Reza Newton, Department of Mass Communications, Rajshahi University
• Professor Dulal Chandra Biswas, Department of Mass Communications, Rajshahi University
• Professor Sabbir Sattar Tapu, Department of Geology and Mining, Rajshahi University
• Professor Chowdhury Sarwar Jahan Sajal, Department of Geology and Mining, Rajshahi University

This Action Alert was posted by the AAAS Science and Human Rights Program on behalf of the The American Society of Plant Biologists.

FACTS OF THE CASE:

The Committee of Concerned Scientists urges immediate action on behalf of Dr. Haleh Esfandiari, the director of the Middle East Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, DC. Dr. Esfandiari, a dual Iranian-American national, was detained in Tehran in December 2006 during a visit to her mother, interrogated repeatedly, and finally arrested on May 8th and incarcerated in Evin Prison.

Dr. Esfandiari went to Tehran in late December to visit her 93-year old mother. On December 30th, on her way to the airport to catch a flight back to Washington, her taxi was stopped by three masked gunmen who took away her baggage, including her Iranian and American passports. When she went to the passport office to apply for new Iranian documents, Dr. Esfandiari was taken to Ministry of Intelligence for a series of interrogations that stretched out over the next six weeks. Dr. Esfandiari was questioned about the activities of the Wilson Center and repeatedly pressured to make a false confession or to falsely implicate the Wilson Center in activities in which it had no part.

On February 20th, Lee Hamilton, the President and Director of the Wilson Center, wrote to the Iranian President about the dire situation in which Dr. Esfandiari had been placed. He pointed out that there is no “agenda” behind Wilson Center programs on the Middle East, including Iran, and asked President Ahmadinejad to send Dr. Esfandiari back to the US. No reply was ever received. Dr. Esfandiari has not been charged with any crime. Her arrest has been condemned by the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, and the International Herald Tribune, and her case is being followed by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. Her colleagues around the world have written to Iran's leaders to express their concern for her safety. The attempts to coerce Dr. Esfandiari to make a false statement are violations of Iran's constitution, which guarantees freedom of belief (Article 23). Moreover, they are violations of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which guarantees freedom of thought (Article 18) and expression (Article 19), and to which Iran is a signatory.Please join scientists and other scholars and academics in calling on the Iranian government to free Dr. Esfandiari at once. Read more about this case at: http://www.freehaleh.org/

FACTS OF THE CASE:

Amnesty International reports once again about death threats against members of a Guatemalan forensic anthropology team: please see below. Forensic anthropology teams can be perceived as "protohistorians": they excavate mass graves to find historical evidence for genocide and other crimes against humanity committed during the civil war (1960-1996). Therefore, they are of great concern to the historical profession. The Guatemalan forensic anthropologists are in grave danger.

Fredy Peccerelli (m), Director of Fundacion de Antropologia Forense de Guatemala (FAFG), Guatemalan Forensic Anthropology Foundation
Jose Samuel Suasnavar (m), FAFG Deputy Director
Omar Bertoni Giron (m), FAFG Laboratory Coordinator
Bianka Pecerelli (f), sister of Fredy, wife of Jose Suasnavar
Gianni Peccerelli, brother of Fredy
Other FAFG staff and other members of Fredy Peccerelli's family

FAFG staff and some of their relatives have been subjected to numerous death threats over the last five years. The government has provided police protection for a number of years. Guatemalan and Spanish courts have filed charges of genocide against a former President and heads of the army and police, and, although there has been no progress in Guatemala, a Spanish judge has issued arrest warrants and will soon visit Guatemala to take testimony from survivors. Some of the evidence in these cases is the product of FAFG's work. The government is seeking applications from organizations to undertake the exhumation of newly discovered graves in the department of Quiche.

This Action Alert was posted by the Science and Human Rights Program of the American Association for the Advancement of Science on behalf of the Network of Concerned Historians.