‘RAB was likened to FBI,’ Momen tells Nuland, calling for withdrawal of US sanctions

Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen has urged the US to withdraw sanctions imposed on the Rapid Acton Battalion, telling Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland that the force was once likened to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Momen also stated the RAB’s role in suppressing terrorism and transnational crimes during the one-on-one meeting in Dhaka after a US-Bangladesh partnership dialogue on Sunday, the foreign ministry said in a statement.

Describing the context of RAB's creation to combat terrorism and serious crimes, he said the US had trained the elite police unit and it was likened to the FBI at that time.

Momen said the RAB operations are in difficulty due to the sanctions. He expressed concern that this might encourage radical elements and could lead to a law and order situation in the country as well as create regional instability.

The US imposed the sanctions in December citing “serious human rights violation” by the force. The officials who faced the sanctions include Benazir Ahmed, a former head of the RAB and current inspector general of police.

The foreign ministry summoned Earl Miller, the US ambassador in Dhaka, to react to the sanctions. Momen wrote to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, urging him to lift the sanctions. The government has also hired a lobbyist to improve relations with the United States.

In the meeting with Nuland, Momen claimed the government took proper administrative and legal action whenever any allegations were brought against the law-enforcing agencies.

The foreign ministry did not say what Nuland’s response was to Momen’s call for withdrawal of the sanctions.

After the dialogue, Nuland told the media the issue was a "complicated" one. “We’ve concerns about how the RAB has performed, about extra-judicial killings, about disappearances."

However, there have been signs of progress in the last three months in terms of addressing some of those concerns, according to Nuland.

"We’ve received a paper today with some of the government plans and look forward to working together on these issues because cooperation on our security and counterterrorism is so important."

In the dialogue, Bangladesh officials presented a "non-paper dossier" outlining the RAB's recent performances along with some of the government initiatives.

Asked how the two countries could bolster ties while the sanctions on the RAB remained in effect, Nuland said, "The United States is never going to be silent when we see human rights abuses and violations of basic law."

"We talked about it. We're going to continue to work through it because our continued cooperation in law enforcement and counterterrorism is important."