Home
+
The global rights group also recommends disbanding RAB
Published : 29 Jan 2025, 03:08 AM
A report by the global human rights organisation Human Rights Watch, or HRW, on the July-August mass uprising claims the former prime minister Sheikh Hasina "directly ordered the enforced disappearances and killings”, according to the Chief Advisor's Office.
A statement issued by the CAO said an HRW delegation had submitted the report after calling on Chief Advisor Muhammad Yunus on Tuesday.
According to the HRW report, "Officers involved in enforced disappearances told the agency that Sheikh and senior officers of her government had knowledge of incommunicado detentions, and that, in some cases, Hasina directly ordered enforced disappearances and killings."
Hasina has been living in India since Aug 5, 2024, when she fled there after resigning as prime minister.
The International Crimes Tribunal has issued an arrest warrant for her on charges of "genocide" committed to curbing the July-August protests.
The Bangladesh government has already sent a formal request to India seeking her extradition. More than 50 complaints have been filed against Hasina and her government’s ministers, MPs and senior Awami League leaders so far. At least two of the charges are enforced disappearances.
The commission formed by the interim government handed over its report on Dec 15, claiming that it had found evidence of Hasina’s involvement in ordering incidents of enforced disappearances during her 15-year regime.
The HRW also recommended the disbanding of the Rapid Action Battalion, or RAB, saying its officers who were responsible for killings and enforced disappearances should be held accountable for their crimes.
During the meeting with the chief advisor, the agency’s Asia Director Elaine Pearson, said: “The security forces were ‘politicised’ during Sheikh Hasina's 2009-2024 rule, and they acted like they were ruling ‘party cadres’.”
“These forces need systematic reforms,” she said.
The delegation praised the interim government for its reform initiatives and the efforts to improve the rights situation in the country.
Pearson said: “Establishing rights was the core principle during the July-August Monsoon Revolution. Bangladesh's ‘ordinary people now realise the importance of human rights’ in every sphere of life.”
Yunus lauded the efforts of HRW during Hasina's rule, saying its reports during the past 16 years unveiled the widespread crimes committed by the regime.
He said the RAB has publicly apologised for its crimes, but the individual officers responsible for extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances should "face trials and be punished."
"We are committed to openness and transparency. We are publishing all reform recommendations, allowing the people to decide on the desired reforms. As you have mentioned, undoing 15 years of oppression and crimes will be a challenging endeavour."
The HRW said the reforms should be cemented and the security forces should come under proper oversight.
The agency’s Asia chief said during her visit, she met several chiefs of the reform commissions and the chief advisor's high representative on the Rohingya issues.
Yunus said he had called for creating a safe zone for tens of thousands of displaced Rohingya refugees in their homeland in Rakhine.
He hoped the UN, the international communities, and the main rebel group, the Arakan Army, would guarantee security for the safe zone.
