US Senators call for sanctions on RAB over ‘extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances’

A group of United States Senators has called on the Trump administration to impose sanctions on senior commanders of Bangladesh’s Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) over extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances in the South Asian nation.

In a bipartisan letter addressed to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin, the Senators urged the administration to impose targeted sanctions under applicable authorities, including the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act and Section 7031(c) of the FY 2020 Further Consolidated Appropriations Act.

“Extrajudicial killings by the RAB have reportedly spiked since the Government of Bangladesh began its ‘war on drugs’ in the months ahead of the December 2018 elections,” the Senators wrote.“UN experts including the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary execution wrote that the ‘war on drugs’ ‘appears to be a deliberate policy of extrajudicial killings’ and urged the Government to end it and respect the rule of law and human rights. However, the Government has failed to end these abuses and the RAB continues to commit extrajudicial killings with impunity.”

The Senators also expressed concerns that the RAB has been credibly implicated in human rights abuses beyond these extrajudicial killings."In addition to extrajudicial killings, UN experts, journalists, and human rights groups have documented cases of the RAB committing enforced disappearances and widespread torture, including the 2019 abduction and suspected torture by the RAB of three men whose employer had a dispute with a high-ranking Government of Bangladesh official," the Senators added.

“These cases illustrate a pattern of gross human rights violations for which the Rapid Action Battalion and its senior leadership have faced no consequences.”

RAB'S RESPONSE

The RAB, however, has denied any involvement in alleged extrajudicial killings in Bangladesh.

Addressing the matter, Lt Col Ashik Billah, director of RAB's law and media wing, said any untoward incidents that are reported usually take place during an exchange of fire between armed criminals and the law enforcers.

“These operations are carried out in line with the law.”