Link to article: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/2/2/bangladesh-bought-surveillance-equipment-from-israeli-company
Al Jazeera’s Investigative Unit has obtained documents and statements proving the Bangladesh army’s purchase of Israeli-made surveillance equipment that can be used to monitor the mobile phones of hundreds of people simultaneously. The equipment was bought in 2018 using a Bangkok-based middleman and Bangladeshi military intelligence officers.
Bangladesh has no diplomatic relations with Israel and trade with it is prohibited. “The contractor said no way that people in Bangladesh should know that this product comes from Israel,” Al Jazeera’s undercover source said.
The mobile phone monitoring systems, so-called IMSI-catchers, are generally used by authorities to keep track of attendees during protests and demonstrations. The technology is very intrusive and is capable of tracing 200 to 300 phones at the same time. “Everything you’re doing on your phone, text messages, phone calls, and websites you’re visiting are going to be intercepted,” Eliot Bendinelli from Privacy International told Al Jazeera. “This specific model is also able to interfere with communications, so it’s able to change the content of a text message.”
On Monday, Bangladesh’s foreign minister denied in an interview with the BBC that the country had ever bought mobile phone interception equipment from Israel.
This article is important because it shows the corrupt relationship between the government and its people in Bangladesh. In 2018, when Bangladeshi forces purchased the ‘IMSI Catchers,’ tens of thousands of students in Dhaka were protesting government inaction, corruption, and impunity. The government’s response was extreme; protestors and journalists were beaten and detained by security forces. Protestors organizing online led to a shutdown of mobile networks’ internet. And, most aggressively, mobile phone surveillance equipment was purchased.
Corruption in Bangladesh has been a continuing problem. Freedom of association and assembly are guaranteed by the constitution but are not always respected in practice. Therefore, the press in Bangladesh is considered ‘not free.’ In my opinion, this is very unfair to Bangladeshi citizens, and anti-corruption efforts need to be put in place.
This article relates to what we’ve been learning in class because geopolitics plays a role in the causes behind Bangladesh’s corrupt government. Bangladesh, as a new nation, had to undertake the task of rapid and accelerated development of its socioeconomic life. The geopolitical disputes among South Asian countries have remained an area of unresolved and dangerous conflict involving external powers, arms proliferation, and ethnic/religious hatred that go back to the evolution of India, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. Due to its strategic location and natural wealth, external powers such as China and the U.S. have increased their economic stakes in these South Asian countries.
International involvement has caused the government of Bangladesh to focus its energy and resources on foreign policy and increasing its power as a central government, rather than maintaining peace in the interior.