International rights groups call for UN to ban RAB from peacekeeping missions
International human rights group have said it is time the UN draws the line
File photo of on-duty members of Rapid Action Battalion Collected
Tribune Desk
Publish : 20 Jan 2022, 01:24 PMUpdate : 20 Jan 2022, 08:00 PM
International rights bodies have called on the United Nations Department of Peace Operations to ban Bangladeshi law enforcement agency Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) from deployment to the peacekeeping missions.
As many as 12 human rights organizations wrote to Under-Secretary General Jean-Pierre Lacroix seeking to ban the elite police unit following US sanctions, reports the Human Rights Watch.
According to the report, in a letter written two months ago but made public on Thursday, human rights watchdogs have voiced concerns over the alleged torture and enforced disappearances in the country.
“The deployment of members of the RAB in peacekeeping operations reinforces a message that grave human rights abuses will not preclude one from service under the UN flag and increases the chances of human rights abuses being committed in UN missions,” said Louis Charbonneau, United Nations director at Human Rights Watch.
“The UN should send a clear signal to host and troop-contributing countries that abusive units will not be part of the UN,” he added.
“If Secretary General Guterres is serious about ending human rights abuses by UN peacekeepers, he will ensure that units with proven records of abuse like the Rapid Action Battalion are excluded from deployment,” the report quoted Kerry Kennedy, president of Robert F Kennedy Human Rights saying.
“The evidence is clear; now it’s time for the UN to draw a line,” he said.
The Department of Peacekeeping Operations is yet to formally respond to the letter.
Both home-based and international human rights activist and organizations have long alleged RAB of torture, enforced disappearances, and other human rights violations.
The RAB turned down Dhaka Tribune’s request for a comment.
“We have seen it in the media, but yet to receive anything official on it. So, we will refrain from making any comments now,” said its Legal and Media Wing Director Commander Khandaker Al Moin.
Meanwhile, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal while responding to media queries on Thursday said that "injustice" is being done to the government elite force.
The minister was accompanied by police chief and former RAB director general Benazir Ahmed.
The minister said that those who created RAB no longer like it and are spreading all kinds of propaganda against the law enforcement agency.
He said that RAB's work against drugs, controlling adulterated products, freeing areas from pirates, taking action against extremists and suppressing militants to control terrorism are being ignored.
On December 10, the US imposed sanctions on the law enforcing agency and few of its top officials, designating RAB as a, “foreign entity that is responsible for or complicit in, or has directly or indirectly engaged in, serious human rights abuse,” under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act.
However, the Bangladesh government has categorically denied the accusations despite the sanctions.
Ever since the sanctions, families of victims of enforced disappearance reported that law enforcers have been showing up at their doorsteps and threatening as well as forcing them to sign false statements that their family member was not forcibly disappeared and that they had intentionally misled the police.
On December 5, the UN Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances voiced concerns that “members of the RAB would be eligible to participate in UN peacekeeping operations, without any previous investigation into their alleged involvement in the commission of human rights abuses or a thorough vetting process,” reports the Human Rights Watch.
The Working Group also said that officers involved in, or willing to tolerate, abuses “appear to be promoted and rewarded within the Bangladesh security and law enforcement forces,” it added.
Meanwhile in March last year, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said: “allegations of torture and ill-treatment by the Rapid Action Battalion have been a long-standing concern.”
The Committee against Torture, in its concluding observations during Bangladesh’s 2019 review under the Convention against Torture, stated that they were “concerned at reports that personnel that have served with the Rapid Action Battalion have frequently been deployed for service with United Nations peace missions.”
The committee recommended that Bangladesh establish an independent vetting procedure guided by the UN for all military and police personnel proposed for deployment in the peacekeeping missions and ensure that no person or unit implicated in the commission of torture, extrajudicial killing, disappearances or other serious human rights violations is selected for service.
The US sanctions included current and former RAB officials, including the Inspector General of Bangladesh Police Benazir Ahmed who has a long history of employment with the UN.
Benazir served as the RAB chief from 2015 to 2019 – a period when there were 136 reported extrajudicial executions and 10 enforced disappearances, allegedly by officers under his command.
During this time, former UN Under-Secretary-General Herve Ladsous appointed him as an expert member of an independent review team for an “External Review of the Functions, Structure, and Capacity of the UN Police Division.”
In a television interview, Benazir said the US sanctions were based on “false and fabricated lies” adding that people calling for a ban on RAB from UN peacekeeping are “trying to embarrass our government and our country.”
In response to the announcement of US sanctions, RAB deputy chief KM Azad said, “If bringing down a criminal under the law is a violation of human rights, then we have no objection to violating this human rights in the interest of the country.”
International rights groups call for UN to ban RAB from peacekeeping missions
International human rights group have said it is time the UN draws the line
International rights bodies have called on the United Nations Department of Peace Operations to ban Bangladeshi law enforcement agency Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) from deployment to the peacekeeping missions.
As many as 12 human rights organizations wrote to Under-Secretary General Jean-Pierre Lacroix seeking to ban the elite police unit following US sanctions, reports the Human Rights Watch.
According to the report, in a letter written two months ago but made public on Thursday, human rights watchdogs have voiced concerns over the alleged torture and enforced disappearances in the country.
“The deployment of members of the RAB in peacekeeping operations reinforces a message that grave human rights abuses will not preclude one from service under the UN flag and increases the chances of human rights abuses being committed in UN missions,” said Louis Charbonneau, United Nations director at Human Rights Watch.
“The UN should send a clear signal to host and troop-contributing countries that abusive units will not be part of the UN,” he added.
“If Secretary General Guterres is serious about ending human rights abuses by UN peacekeepers, he will ensure that units with proven records of abuse like the Rapid Action Battalion are excluded from deployment,” the report quoted Kerry Kennedy, president of Robert F Kennedy Human Rights saying.
“The evidence is clear; now it’s time for the UN to draw a line,” he said.
The Department of Peacekeeping Operations is yet to formally respond to the letter.
Both home-based and international human rights activist and organizations have long alleged RAB of torture, enforced disappearances, and other human rights violations.
The RAB turned down Dhaka Tribune’s request for a comment.
“We have seen it in the media, but yet to receive anything official on it. So, we will refrain from making any comments now,” said its Legal and Media Wing Director Commander Khandaker Al Moin.
Meanwhile, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal while responding to media queries on Thursday said that "injustice" is being done to the government elite force.
The minister was accompanied by police chief and former RAB director general Benazir Ahmed.
The minister said that those who created RAB no longer like it and are spreading all kinds of propaganda against the law enforcement agency.
He said that RAB's work against drugs, controlling adulterated products, freeing areas from pirates, taking action against extremists and suppressing militants to control terrorism are being ignored.
On December 10, the US imposed sanctions on the law enforcing agency and few of its top officials, designating RAB as a, “foreign entity that is responsible for or complicit in, or has directly or indirectly engaged in, serious human rights abuse,” under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act.
However, the Bangladesh government has categorically denied the accusations despite the sanctions.
Ever since the sanctions, families of victims of enforced disappearance reported that law enforcers have been showing up at their doorsteps and threatening as well as forcing them to sign false statements that their family member was not forcibly disappeared and that they had intentionally misled the police.
On December 5, the UN Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances voiced concerns that “members of the RAB would be eligible to participate in UN peacekeeping operations, without any previous investigation into their alleged involvement in the commission of human rights abuses or a thorough vetting process,” reports the Human Rights Watch.
The Working Group also said that officers involved in, or willing to tolerate, abuses “appear to be promoted and rewarded within the Bangladesh security and law enforcement forces,” it added.
Meanwhile in March last year, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said: “allegations of torture and ill-treatment by the Rapid Action Battalion have been a long-standing concern.”
The Committee against Torture, in its concluding observations during Bangladesh’s 2019 review under the Convention against Torture, stated that they were “concerned at reports that personnel that have served with the Rapid Action Battalion have frequently been deployed for service with United Nations peace missions.”
The committee recommended that Bangladesh establish an independent vetting procedure guided by the UN for all military and police personnel proposed for deployment in the peacekeeping missions and ensure that no person or unit implicated in the commission of torture, extrajudicial killing, disappearances or other serious human rights violations is selected for service.
The US sanctions included current and former RAB officials, including the Inspector General of Bangladesh Police Benazir Ahmed who has a long history of employment with the UN.
Benazir served as the RAB chief from 2015 to 2019 – a period when there were 136 reported extrajudicial executions and 10 enforced disappearances, allegedly by officers under his command.
During this time, former UN Under-Secretary-General Herve Ladsous appointed him as an expert member of an independent review team for an “External Review of the Functions, Structure, and Capacity of the UN Police Division.”
In a television interview, Benazir said the US sanctions were based on “false and fabricated lies” adding that people calling for a ban on RAB from UN peacekeeping are “trying to embarrass our government and our country.”
In response to the announcement of US sanctions, RAB deputy chief KM Azad said, “If bringing down a criminal under the law is a violation of human rights, then we have no objection to violating this human rights in the interest of the country.”