António Vieira da Cruz

International Crimes Tribunal of Dhaka Yesterday, one of the worse criminals of the XXI century was condemned to life imprisonment. His name is Delwar Hossain Sayedee , he is 74 years old and he was one of the leaders of the extremist party Jamaat-e-Islami in Bangladesh. During the Liberation War of Bangladesh in 1971, he committed brutal crimes against humanity. Being now accused of at least 20 crimes, the case went to Supreme Court and there he was proven guilty of:     torture a leader of the Awami League, Mr Nurul Islam, and arson attack on his house;     killing one and torching house in the village of Chitholia;     killing one and torching 25 houses in the village of Umedpur;     abduction and rape of 3 sisters of Parerhat Bazar;      forcing 100 to 150 Hindus to convert to Islam in Parerhat and other villages. Delwar Hossain Sayedee, a Razakar Besides that, he was accused of many other crimes, as killing m...

Amanhã, os Escoceses v ã o poder decidir sobre a sua independ ê ncia ou perman ê ncia no Reino Unido. Os Ingleses, que tem uma tradi çã o democrática muito mais enraízada do que por exemplo os Espanhóis (n ã o se lhes fale dum referendo semelhante para Catal ã es ou Bascos), assim o permitiram. Queriam arrumar o assunto e dá-lo por encerrado para os próximos 300 anos. Mas, ao invés de termos uma campanha descansada para os unionistas - como Londres erradamente previa no início -, vemos em vez disso as sondagens disputadas taco a taco. Bandeira Escocesa com a cruz de Santo André,  padroeiro da Escócia O que é que aconteceu de especial para que as inten çõ es de voto fossem afunilando tanto nas últimas semanas? A principal raz ã o é que os independentistas liderados pelo First Minister Escoc ês Alex Salmond (do Scottish National Party) fizeram uma excelente campanha, sem espinhas nem erros comprometedores, apelando ao cora ção dos Escoceses, ao destino da sua ...

O artigo em baixo foi inicialmente publicado na revista Think South Asia nº11, número de Dezembro, disponível aqui:  http://sadf.eu/home/2013/12/15/think-south-asia-11/ . Entretanto as eleições deram-se no dia 5 de Janeiro, com o boicote do principal partido da oposição (BNP), que apelou à não-participação nas eleições. O partido do governo (Awami League) ganhou assim as eleições, elegendo dois terços dos deputados. Os extremistas do Jamaat-e-Islami, aliados eleitorais do BNP, preferiram influenciar as eleições através do terror, provocando mais de 20 mortes no dia das eleições e continuando os atentados até hoje, principalmente perseguindo as minorias religiosas (em especial os hindus, os cristãos e os budistas) e muçulmanos moderados. No fundo, os alvos do costume. The Situation in Bangladesh – November/December 2013 I could have been killed last time I was in Dhaka. Anyone could. In fact, around 30 innocent people died in street bombings and shootings during the 3 rd ...

Hizb ut-Tahrir poster inciting to violence in Dhaka, Bangladesh The streets of Dhaka are filled with orange and black posters from Hizb ut-Tahrir . The main purpose of this poster is to call Military to take the power in Bangladesh and establish "Khilafat" (the caliphate). This pan-Islamic political organisation is legally banned in Bangladesh since 2009, yet they continue to spend fortunes in promoting extremism throughout propaganda and schemes to take over the elected powers, as it occurred for example in 2011 . In their most recent press release, Hizb ut-Tahrir states that during current strike 25 people were killed and then they conclude that "Democracy = Death to People". Of course what they do not understand is that democracy is not causing these deaths: extremism is. With their hate speeches and incite to violence, Hizb ut-Tharir and other powerful extremist organisations like Jamaat-e-Islami are contributing to the confrontational climate in Bangl...

Bangladesh is in an extremely sensitive pre-electoral situation. I arrived today to Dhaka and despite the impressive reports we receive every day in our countries, they are not being completely able to picture how the climate is tense over here. People are afraid. The Police and the Military are on the streets. National strikes are being organized by the opposition parties. In the streets of Dhaka small bombs and explosives like “cocktail molotov” are being dropped. Different neighborhoods of the city are being affected and from while to while we can hear gun shots in places  that used to be safe and secure. In 2012 I was in Bangladesh for 11 days and now this is my 2 nd time here. Since I arrived I noticed that some things have changed. Some infrastructures are new since then and many roads and buildings are being built. In what concerns to construction we can see real progress. I first thought that the lack of the usually omnipresent traffic jams were the consequence of the ...

Bangladesh is the 8 th most populated country in the world with around 160 million inhabitants and its capital Dhaka is a megacity with more than 15 million people. Today I had a direct flight from Istanbul to Dhaka, which was complete, but even in Istanbul Atatürk Airport we can see the lack of importance given to Bangladesh, reserving for it the very last gate of the airport. This could be a trivial example of how Bangladesh is forgotten internationally, too trivial perhaps. But did you know that in 1971, during 9 months of terror, in Bangladesh 3 million people were killed and around 4 hundred thousand women were raped? “Operation Searchlight” was planned and carried out by the Pakistani Army, with the help of local agents, and besides many indiscriminate killing it systematically targeted Bengali dissidents and religious and ethnic minorities. These hideous genocide and genocidal rape were part of a plan to subjugate people with a different language, culture and who were will...

A História de Portugal desde a revolução de 1974 tem sido uma história de crises económicas e políticas que fazem muita gente questionar-se sobre a viabilidade da democracia, ou até do nosso país. Penso que temos de estudar melhor a nossa História, fazer uma viagem da fundação de Portugal aos nossos dias para perceber aquilo que tem resultado e o que tem falhado. Mas aqui entra o problema da História como nos é apresentada nos programas escolares. Antigamente havia um orgulho nos nossos heróis, o questão é que estes nos eram apresentados de uma forma demasiado nacionalista, e não apenas patriótica. Se durante o Estado Novo a educação - como a política - pecava por dogmática, desde a revolução de Abril que as escolas nos ensinam a ter vergonha de sermos portugueses. Os mesmos personagens que antes eram os heróis e pais da Nação, foram transformados em deploráveis colonizadores, bárbaros carniceiros, agressores dos direitos humanos. E isto é practicamente tudo o que as nossas crianças...