squatters killed as police attempt eviction in Bangladesh FWD

Tom Boland (wgcp@earthlink.net)
Sun, 25 Jan 1998 00:57:38 -0800 (PST) 

FWD Jan 4, 1988 from BBC News: Dispatch by Francis Harrison (Dhaka)

THREE DEAD IN CHITTAGONG SHOOTING

     "Violence is common when desperately poor squatters
      are evicted from their slum homes....."

Officials in the Bangladeshi city of Chittagong say three people
were shot dead and more than 50 injured when police tried to
evict them from land in the military cantonment. Police have
arrested nine people, among them some retired army officers who
they say were illegally occupying the land. According to
officials, most of the injured are policemen, and one of them is
said to be in a critical condition. Our Dhaka correspondent,
Francis Harrison, reports.

Officials sent two magistrates and a contingent of policemen to the military
cantonment of Chittagong to reclaim the disputed land. The authorities say they
acquired the privately-owned land for the army by paying compensation to
all the
owners and tenants living there, as is the norm.

But some of the owners of the 15-hectare plot of low-cost housing are saying
they didn't get enough compensation money. Local people were given a week's
notice of the police action and appeared to be ready to resist.

At first, an argument broke out between the 220 families living on the land and
the police, then thousands of people came to watch and the situation grew
tense.
The authorities say the police were suddenly attacked with gun-shots and
bricks.

A government official who witnessed the incident said three policemen were
captured by the crowd and slashed with knives - at which point the police
started to panic. They were ordered to open fire to control the situation,
in what's a sensitive military area.

Two hundred rounds of ammunition were used. The army has now taken over the
land and put a camp on it to mark its ownership.

Violence is common when desperately poor squatters are evicted from their slum
homes, but in this case, the authorities think the resistance was
orchestrated by the wealthy landlords.

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