Featured Interview With Fazlous Satter
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
My name is Fazlous Satter. I was born and raised in a village of the coastal district Barguna which is located in the southern part of Bangladesh. Later, due to educational and professional life, I was shifted to the capital city Dhaka where still I am living.
I am a great pet lover. In my village home, we have both pet dogs and cats.
Professionally, I am an author, human rights, human security activist, and researcher, currently working with the Centre for Human Rights, Development & Human Security (CHRDHS) as its founding Executive Director. I am also working as an Independent Research Consultant focusing on human rights, geopolitics, natural resources based conflict, and other human security-related issues. I have two published books.
Being a researcher I have numbers of research on human rights and human security in particularly on emerging as well as prevailing domestic conflicts, regional geopolitics, border and enclave people, police reform, indigenous land rights, forest conflicts, vulnerabilities of ethnic minority women as well as on land administration, and its challenges.
One of my research publication titled “Struggle for Survival: A Study on the Legal Status of the Mandi Peoples’ Land Rights in Modhupur Forest Area” is enlisted in the libraries of some of the world-famous universities that include Yale, Colombia, U-Chicago, UC Berkeley, Illinois, Minnesota, Heidelberg, Max Plank Institute, Iowa, etc.
Being an activist I have also participated in several international human rights training programs that include 23rd Annual International Human Rights Training Program (IHRTP) conducted by the International Centre for Human Rights Education (EQUITAS); which at that time known as the Canadian Human Rights Foundation (CHRF) and 16th Geneva Advance Training Course (GTC) on International Human Rights Law and Diplomacy organized by the International Service for Human Rights (ISHR).
As a part of my online activism, I am also working as an administrator of a few social media groups on human rights, environmental justice, and geopolitics.
Besides activism and research, I was also involved with both print and electronic media of Bangladesh as a journalist for a long while.
As a journalist, I worked in a various capacity that includes Radio Metro-Wave (Head of News), Weekly Jai Jai Din (Political analyst & Regular Columnist), Jai Jai Din Protidin (Senior Reporter), Prothom Alo (Reporter for a brief period), Daily Ajker Kagoj (Sub-Editor), Dainik Desh Bangla (Senior Reporter), Dainik Lal Sabuj (Sub-Editor), Fortnightly ANANYA (Reporter), etc
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
At the age of 10, I realized my love and fascination with books. Then at the age of twelve, I started writing rhymes and poetry.
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
My favorite reading genres are political science, international security, geopolitics, human rights, philosophy, environmentalism, and climate justice, etc.
As my reading genre is diverse, I have many favorite authors but among them, I must mention the name of Noam Chomsky, Amartya Sen, Arundhati Roy, Naomi Klein, Maxim Gorky, Leo Tolstoy, Boris Polevoy, Alex Haley, Vandana Shiva, Shawkat Ali, Zia Haider Rahman, etc.
Concerning writing inspiration, this is my reading habits as well as empathy towards the people’s struggle for a universal culture of human rights that always inspires me to write.
Tell us a little about your latest book?
My latest published book is titled “UNDERSTANDING THE WORLD’S LONGEST CIVIL WAR: COLONIAL STATE FORMATIONS, GEOPOLITICS, CONFLICT OVER NATURAL RESOURCES AND THE GENOCIDE” which is now available at amazon.
This book is an overview of over seven decades-long civil war in Burma and its both internal and external actors,root causes as well as complex dynamics including global and regional geopolitics centering Burma,conflict over access and control of rich natural resources and also the politics of illicit drugs.
This book has given an account of all the major insurgent groups that include from communist and Arakan Mujahidin to currently active more than 21 ethnic armed organizations (EAO’S) and their predecessors along with the plight of these ethnic nationalities.
To give the reader a deeper understanding about this world’s longest civil war, apart from contemporary ethnic, religious, sociopolitical and economic issues this book also describes the history of Burma that covered thousands of years from the earliest Maramma period to present Myanmar days that includes the rise and fall of Burmese Empire, its territorial expansion, colonial rules and ethnic nationalities resistance against both Burmese invader and colonial occupation and also the rise of Burmese nationalism and their collaboration with the Japanese occupation army as well as their last moment shift of allegiance toward the Allied forces and achieving independence.
Finally, this book analyzed the role of Burmese armed forces (Tatmadaw) in Myanmar’s politics since their collaboration with the Japanese occupation army and their economic as well as other vested interest that turn it into a state within a state and brutal repressive armed forces which committed ethnic cleansing, the crime against humanity and genocide in the name of so-called counter-insurgency campaign, especially against the Muslim Rohingya community.Lastly, this book also elaborates past and ongoing international interventions in response to the crime of genocide and crime against humanity committed by the Tatmadaw.
Connect with the Author on their Websites and Social media profiles
Fazlous Satter Facebook Page