Source: AP
By: MATTHEW PENNINGTON | Associated Press
Published: July 19, 2012
WASHINGTON (AP) Accusations of extrajudicial killings by Bangladeshi paramilitary forces and the South Asian nation’s refusal to grant refuge to fleeing refugees faced scrutiny from U.S. lawmakers Thursday.
The congressional hearing also examined allegations of abuses against labor and opposition activists in the moderate Islamic nation, whose human rights problems weigh on Washington’s efforts to forge stronger relations.
Lawmakers singled out for concern Bangladesh’s Rapid Action Battalion. The paramilitary unit was formed to fight organized crime but Human Rights Watch calls it a death squad.
Top U.S. diplomat for South Asia, Robert Blake, said the unit’s record has improved, but cited figures from a Bangladeshi rights group that the battalion has committed 34 killings so far this year. That compares with 83 deaths in 2010 and 51 in 2011.
“There’s been some progress, but again, it’s still a very large number,” Blake told the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission. Blake said the U.S. has helped set up an inquiry cell within the battalion, which comprises police and army soldiers, as a means for it to probe its rights abuses.
Bangladesh’s government, elected in 2008, denies the battalion has committed unlawful killings on its watch.
John Sifton of Human Rights Watch said the government which had promised before the election to crack down on the abuses needs again to admit there’s a problem.
Categories: Asia, Bangladesh, Discrimination, Ethnic Cleansing, Human Rights, Human values, Humanitarian crisis