On Mar 10, 2:00 pm, "VognoDuut1062" <zillm...@pillmore.com> wrote:
cannibalism, necrophilia by hindoo child murderer in Dilli
Vicious Acid Attacks Stalk Bangladeshi Women ..... .....
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http://www.newagebd.com/2007/feb/24/front.html#14
New Age, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Saturday, February 24, 2007
Acid violence continues to be silent scourge
Acid control act remains ineffective
By Alpha Arzu
The victims of acid throwing are on the rise as the scourge goes on
unabated across the country because of easy availability of the
hazardous chemical although a stringent law has been in force since
2002.
The name of Sabina Yasmin, a newly married teenaged housewife of
Kishoreganj, was the latest addition to the growing list of acid
victims. With half of the body burnt, she died at Dhaka Medical
College Hospital recently, ending her 20-day struggle for life.
Family source of the deceased informed that suspected perpetrators
of the heinous crime, including her husband, collected acid from a
local jewelry shop, where the strong chemical is used for polishing
gold ornaments.
The burn and plastic surgery unit of DMCH and other hospitals and
clinics across the country are receiving such patients, mainly women,
with severe acid burns. Many of them survive only to lead a
humiliating life, cursing their fate throughout the lifetime and
living at the mercy of others.
Officials of the Acid Survivors Foundation, a donor-funded
organisation which works for the welfare of acid victims, informed
that in most cases, acid throwers collect the chemicals from jewelry
shops, dyeing factories, carpentry workshops and pharmaceutical
industries.
Palash Chowdhury, programme officer of the foundation, told New Age
on Thursday that acid is commonly used in tannery industries, textiles
and dyeing factories, and furniture workshops, and it is not much
difficult for the criminals to collect some quantity of acid from any
of those outlets, whose activities are less monitored by regulatory
bodies or law enforcers.
In a recent drive against adulteration, a mobile court led by
magistrate Rokon Ud-Doula sentenced five acid traders of old Dhaka to
six years of imprisonment and fined each of them Tk 3 lakh for
violating the Acid Control Act.
The court found three acid importers and distributors guilty of
storing more quantity of nitric acid and sulphuric acid than they are
allowed to, and not maintaining the mandatory buyers' logbook, not
having licence from the energy ministry and operating business with
expired licence from the fire service department.
The court found around 800 containers and 42 barrels of various
types of acid kept under open sky even though it is compulsory to
store the chemicals in secured warehouses.
Magistrate Rokon Ud-Doula told New Age on Thursday, 'Given the
extent of illegal trade in acid in the capital, one can not even think
of the scenario in other parts of the country.'
He also expressed worries about the source of acid and its
potential threats to the society as its use still claims many lives
every year and cripples scores of others for life.
In a bid to stop acid throwing, the government in 2002 enacted
tough laws, with penalties as high as life imprisonment or death along
with cash fines.
Regulations were also framed to restrict import, production,
storage, sale and usage of acid without licence.
But the mechanisms are inadequate to regulate import, preparation
and sale of acid, used in these attacks, making the law largely
ineffective.
The 2002 act provides for formation of a national council to
control the availability of acid, which is meant for industrial use
only, in the local market.
All offences under the act are supposed to be tried at Acid Crimes
Prevention Tribunal.
The number of people falling prey to acid throwing was as high as
489 in 2002, but in 2006 the number fell to 222, according to the Acid
Survivors' Foundation. The number was 411 in 2003, 325 in 2004 and 270
in 2005, marking a gradual fall year-on-year, but still remaining as a
scourge often unnoticed or downplayed by the government's relevant
authorities.
An ASF statistics of 2006 spotted some acid violence prone areas
such as -- Sirajganj with 16 victims, Dhaka with 13, Bhola and
Netrakona with 11 each and Habiganj with nine registered cases last
year.
Motivation and campaign have brought some success in reducing the
incidents, but much is left to be done yet, said ASF employees engaged
in social campaign against acid violence.
According to the 2005 statistics, acid violence prone areas were
Sirajganj with 21 victims, Rangpur with 18, Khulna 15, Bhola 12 and
Satkhira 12.
The ASF runs a hospital for providing treatment to the acid
survivors, and at present has 34 survivors, 24 of whom are females,
six males and four of them children.
================================================================
[Lawyers in Bangladesh are calling for better implementation of
legislation to stop acid attacks]
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/5133410.stm
BBC News
Friday, 28 July 2006, 14:34 GMT 15:34 UK
Bangladesh's acid attack problem
By Roland Buerk
In 2002 the death penalty was introduced for throwing acid after the
number of victims rose to nearly 500 a year.
There is also legislation to force businesses that use acid to store
it safely.
But 267 people were still attacked last year and campaigners say it is
because the law is ignored.
Tiny victim
In an intensive care unit, filled with the sound of beeping heart
monitors, sits the young victim of a crime so cruel it almost defies
belief.
Durjoy was just a month old when he was made to drink acid.
A few weeks ago he had heart failure but was revived.
He has had a series of operations, and now has to breathe through a
hole in his throat.
And as the baby boy cries the air wheezes in and out.
No one has been brought to justice for the attack - his mother Etie
Rani says the motive was a dispute over money.
"As a mother I hope nothing like this will happen to anyone else," she
said dressed in a green hospital gown against infection, and cradling
her son in arms.
"I pray to God, 'Please, make my child well and take care of all other
children.' Always I feel pain inside me, nothing makes me happy. I
feel terrible pain."
Women targets
Acid throwing remains a major problem in Bangladesh.
There is even a special hospital and rehabilitation centre for victims
in the capital, run by a charity called the Acid Survivors'
Foundation.
Although some of the patients are children and men, most are young
women, like Asma Akhtar.
Most of the victims are women
She has scarring on the side of her face and is blind in her left
eye.
"When I was... 12 years old, a boy from my village wanted to marry me
but as I wanted to study my family refused his proposal," she said.
"And a year later he threw acid on me out of anger. On that fateful
day I was sleeping on my bed and my father went to pray and the
culprit took his chance and threw the acid on me."
Attacks by spurned men are all too common.
"Beauty is perceived as the asset of the girls and young women," said
Monira Rahman, the director of the Acid Survivors' Foundation.
"These men want to take away the beauty and therefore they will become
useless for the rest of their lives. No one will marry them."
Easily available
In 2002 Bangladesh introduced very tough laws to try to stop acid
throwing, including the death penalty in the most serious cases.
And there are regulations on the sale, use, storage, import and export
of acid.
The number of people attacked has fallen from a high of nearly 500 in
that year, but still, in 2005, according to the Acid Survivors'
Foundation, 267 people had acid thrown on them.
Campaigners say it is because the corrosive substance is still widely
available.
Old Dhaka is the heart of the capital - a warren of old crumbling
buildings and winding streets, just wide enough for two cycle
rickshaws to pass each other.
Many people make their living from traditional trades.
Some chip at small plates of marble making nameplates, others carve
bangles from conch shells, worn by Hindu women to signify marriage,
and still more work as goldsmiths in the area's many small workshops.
They are crammed into rooms in dark buildings, with water dripping
from floor to floor, fifteen or more working in an area three metres
by four.
Sitting cross-legged at small wooden workbenches they make jewellery
by hand.
Candles are used for heat; the flame is blown with a pipe in the
goldsmith's mouth onto the metal to melt it into moulds.
The acid comes in at the polishing stage. It is used to remove
discolouration from the finished products.
Law ineffective
Many jewellery shops flout the law intended to stop acid falling into
the wrong hands, as do tanneries and other industries using it.
And campaigners say they are getting away with it.
"The law is just like a dead law," said Salma Ali of the Bangladesh
National Women Lawyers' Association.
"Most of the time in our country our government, political leaders are
crazy for making a new law and they think this is success."
But she says it is much harder to get politicians to implement
legislation.
Salma Ali says the law should be reviewed to make it more effective.
Almost every day at the Acid Survivors' Foundation brings a new victim
of another brutal attack.
The latest was a middle aged man whose shoulder, chest and leg were
marked with a red raw splash.
As a patient with a scarred face looked on sympathetically he sat on
his bed, silently, tears trickling down his face.
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