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Bangladesh church officials fight to quash priest's arrest warrant
BANGLADESH-OBLATE:
May-9-2007
By Anto Akkara Catholic News
Service
BANGALORE, India (CNS) --
Church officials in Bangladesh have been lobbying the government to
quash an arrest warrant issued against a missionary priest working among
exploited indigenous people.
"We want the government to
quash this (case) and take action against those who have registered the
fabricated case against (Oblate) Father (Joseph) Gomes," Oblate Father
Emil Moraes told Catholic News Service May 8 from Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Father Moraes is Father Gomes' regional superior.
In February, the local court
issued an arrest warrant against Father Gomes, head of the Oblates'
justice, peace and creation ministry, after forest officials filed
several charges against the activist priest. The charges included
instigating an "unlawful trespass into government-acquired forest,
cutting and removing trees, and forcefully encroaching forest zone,"
thereby causing the government a loss of nearly $200,000.
Father Moraes said, "In fact,
he was attending a meeting with tribal people (at Khadimnagar) when this
alleged crime is said to have been committed."
On May 3, Father Moraes
visited the Moulvibazar district commissioner and the forest officer of
Sylhet, where the case is registered. Though the district commissioner
expressed "great dissatisfaction," Father Moraes told CNS that he was
unable to intervene in the case.
Father Gomes told CNS that he
does not believe the case has anything to do with him being a priest.
"This is an attempt to keep me
away from the exploited indigenous people," Father Gomes said in an
interview from Dhaka.
"I have been fighting for the
rights of indigenous Gharo and other people in the region for years," he
said. "The forest and timber mafia do not want me to work there."
Father Gomes added, "I am
targeted because I am speaking up for the voiceless indigenous people
who are opposing the plunder of the forest resources."
In 2000, Father Gomes led
protests of indigenous people to force the government to suspend an
eco-tourism project in the forest region about 215 miles northeast of
Dhaka.
Since then, forest officials
have filed several false cases against local indigenous people, said
Oblate representatives. Father Gomes confronted officials several times
for the release of the detained indigenous people.
Copyright (c) 2007 Catholic
News Service
www.CatholicNews.com Reprinted with permission of CNS |
