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'Unlawful' Killings

HR body asks govts not to provide any support to Rab

Staff Correspondent
The US-based human rights watchdog Human Rights Watch yesterday urged governments not to work with or provide any support to Bangladesh's elite crimefighting force Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) until it ends its "wave of unlawful killings" and holds responsible officials accountable.
"For a foreign government to provide assistance to the Rab at this point in time would be to condone the Rab's record of human rights abuses and would raise serious questions about the donor's
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commitment to improving human rights in Bangladesh," the HR Watch said in a news release.
The rights group expressed its concern at a time when a delegation of US officials from the departments of state, defence and justice visited Bangladesh in mid-July and met with the Rab to explore possibilities for future cooperation.
Among other things, the Rab reportedly proposed that the US provide them with equipment and counterterrorism training, said the news release adding that while the Rab’s human rights record has been so poor that the United States and United Kingdom had refused to work with them officially as partners in counterterror operations, some international agencies and foreign governments have recently initiated or are now considering cooperation with the force.
"Despite overwhelming evidence of Rab and police responsibility for unlawful killings, the interim Bangladeshi government seems unwilling to address the problem," said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "Instead, Bangladesh's security forces continue to get away with
murder."
After strong national and international criticism of the Rab for its poor human rights record, Rab killings decreased in 2007 and early 2008. However, this trend has been abruptly broken in recent months and the number of killings has surged, Human RightsWatch said.
Since June 1, 2008, the Rab and the police have killed at least 50 individuals under suspect circumstances, said the rights watchdog adding that Rab members have killed more than 540 people over the past four years after the force was established in 2004.
Research by Human Rights Watch and others has shown that many of these "crossfire killings" are in fact poorly disguised extrajudicial executions, often preceded by torture," the news release reads.
"Tragically, the Bangladeshi police have copied the actions of the Rab, killing several hundred people over the past few years. Since-a state of emergency was declared on January 11, 2007, the Rab and the police have often operated together."
The military-backed interim government should take prompt action to end the wave of unlawful killings by the Rab while foreign
governments should not work with or provide support to the Rab until it ends its pattern and practice of human rights abuses and holds responsible officials accountable, said the rights group.
The interim government has stated its commitment to establishing a "healthy and stable democratic system" based on the rule of law, but its failure to address impunity [for the law enforcers] is undermining its own reform efforts, Human RightsWatch said.
"The rule of law can't become a reality in Bangladesh unless the very forces tasked with upholding the law are also bound by it," said Adams.
No Rab officers have ever been held criminally responsible for taking the life of another person or for torture, noted Human Rights Watch.
As a state party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and several other human rights treaties, Bangladesh is obliged to thoroughly and promptly investigate serious violations of human rights, prosecute the perpetrators, and in accordance with international fair trial standards punish them if their guilt is established, it said.