Five years without daylight: Bangladesh’s forced disappearances
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00:00For five years, Michael Chakma, an indigenous rights activist, didn't see any daylight.
00:05He was held at a secret detention center in Dhaka run by Bangladesh's special police unit.
00:12Michael was released two days after ex-Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was ousted by students.
00:19They interrogated me on an iron chair with my hands and legs tied with ropes.
00:23They even tied back my head.
00:26One day, my interrogator asked me if I'd been hiding any weapons.
00:29When I denied it, he became angry with me and threatened me, saying he would electrocute
00:33me in the chair.
00:35I was so scared for my life.
00:38Two more detainees were released just hours apart from Michael.
00:41But rights groups say there are over 600 victims of enforced disappearances and extrajudicial
00:47killings detained by Hasina's regime in the last 15 years, most of whom were her political
00:53opponents.
00:54Bring our loved ones back to us.
00:58Maya Dark, an organization fighting for the families of the missing people, hopes with
01:02the fall of Sheikh Hasina, more victims could be found.
01:06We want the information about these disappearances to be publicly released.
01:10We have three main demands.
01:12First, to prosecute those behind these disappearances.
01:16Secondly, the formation of a committee to investigate these human rights violations.
01:21And thirdly, to release these innocent victims and close down the secret detention centers.
01:28Human rights activists accuse Sheikh Hasina of using repression as one of her main strategies
01:33to stay in power.
01:37Hasina has been in power.
01:39She has had no proper opposition in the parliament.
01:43And when you are in power and when you are totally divorced from people and you are not
01:48allowing anyone to talk, disappearances signify that you're afraid of people, you're afraid
01:54of any kind of dissent, you're afraid of any kind of difference in views.
02:02The head of the interim government, Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, met with the families
02:07of the disappeared and has promised to deliver justice to the victims.