UN probe team to arrive September 14
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Office in Geneva, adding that the team received the commitment of full cooperation from the interim government and security forces for the mission.
Earlier on August 22-29, an advance UN team visited Bangladesh and held meetings with student leaders of the recent protests, advisors of the interim government, the chief justice, senior officers of the police and armed forces, lawyers, journalists and human rights defenders, representatives of political parties and minority and indigenous communities.
The team discussed the modalities for an investigation into human rights violations and abuses in the context of the recent violence and unrest, as well as other aspects of human rights including civic space, the need for truth, justice, healing, reparation and reconciliation and other reforms.
About 650 people were killed during student protests and in the aftermath in Bangladesh between July 16 and August 11, said the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in its preliminary report on August 15.
Of them, nearly 400 deaths were reported from July 16 to August 4 while around 250 people were killed between August 5 and 11. There were several thousands who were injured.
“The fact-finding mission will investigate the patterns and trends of the human rights violations, who ordered shooting during the protests etc. It will not be able to investigate all the killings but the emblematic ones,” a UN official told The Daily Star yesterday.
The mission will meet the victims, injured people, witnesses, law enforcers, home, law and foreign affairs ministry advisers and other stakeholders as part of their investigation.
The UN expert team will collect the evidence of rights violations, prepare a detailed report on the root causes of the violations and recommend the next course of action for the government of Bangladesh.
This will also include recommendations for necessary reforms in the security sector.
After completion of the one-month probe, the UN mission may take one or two more months to prepare the report.
“The report will give a foundation for the prosecution by Bangladesh authorities,” the official added.
The UN conducted many such fact-finding missions to many countries for human rights violations. For example, it sent a mission to Myanmar after the allegation of Rohingya genocide, to Ukraine, Russia, Iran, Palestine, Kenya and Ethiopia.
“In some cases, the mission was deployed for war crimes, crimes against humanity or human rights violation,” the UN official said.
The UN mission investigating the rights violation means this will be an objective investigation, said rights activist Shirin Huq, who is a member of the Committee for the Protection of Fundamental Rights.
“It is also great that the mission will also be probing the rights violation that took place in the aftermath of August 5,” she told The Daily Star yesterday.
The challenge, however, will be an objective prosecution after the UN submits its report.
“We will need a very competitive and objective team of prosecutors for justice so that it cannot be questionable at any point in time,” Huq said.