FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PRESS RELEASE
AHRC-PL-074-2006

BANGLADESH: UN urged to bar Bangladesh from peacekeeping

(Hong Kong, August 17, 2006) The United Nations should suspend Bangladesh from peacekeeping operations because of gross human rights abuses committed by special paramilitary units, the police and army in the South Asian country, the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) said on Thursday.

Personnel from Bangladesh, particularly those from joint anti-crime Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) units, were responsible for killings, torture, arbitrary arrest and detention, robbery and a host of other abuses, the Hong Kong-based regional rights group said in an open letter to the UN Under Secretary General for Peacekeeping Operations, Jean-Marie Guehenno.

"Despite the number and scale of allegations, we are not aware of any single case of RAB personnel facing criminal prosecution," Basil Fernando, executive director of the AHRC, said.  

"RAB members enjoy impunity both due to the patronage they obtain from the highest authorities and the obstacles placed before persons seeking to take legal action against state officers by the defective and non-independent legal system in Bangladesh," Fernando said.

Bangladesh had failed to comply with international treaties to protect the right to life and prevent torture, the AHRC added.  

It noted that RAB commanders, who could be complicit in documented killings, abductions and torture by their subordinates, had already served in numerous UN peacekeeping missions, including in Iraq, Kuwait, Georgia, Bosnia, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Mozambique, the Congo and Cambodia.

"Needless to say, it does little good to the reputation of the United Nations at a critical time in its history to have alleged gross violators of human rights serving on its peacekeeping missions," Fernando said.

The AHRC called on the UN peacekeeping chief to review the role of Bangladesh in its operations and suspend the country from further involvement until it disbands the RAB units and ensures that victims of abuses by police and soldiers could have a fair chance of obtaining redress for abuses committed.

It acknowledged that the decision would not be an easy one, as Bangladesh at present contributes over 10,000 persons to UN peacekeeping work around the world, but urged Guehenno to consider the request "without prejudice".

"Our concern is that Bangladesh is using these operations to get credit as a good international citizen which it can use to have UN agencies turn a blind eye to its extraordinarily bad human rights record," Fernando said of the letter.

"While it is certainly true that the UN needs personnel for its operations, it should not have to resort to taking in persons from countries where the army, police and other agencies face serious allegations of wrongdoing," he said.

"Just as there is more attention to the role of UN peacekeepers in the field, there should be more attention to where they come from in the first place, and even what they do after they go back home," Fernando added.

"In Bangladesh it is evident that the commanders of a self-styled death squad are strutting around showing off UN credentials," he said.

"I doubt that if enough persons in the UN are aware of this then they will wish to continue inviting Bangladeshis for missions, no matter how large a contribution that they are making," Fernando concluded.

The AHRC said that any concerns expressed by the peacekeeping office would be sure to have a strong effect on the Bangladeshi authorities and that "the consequences could only be good: for the people of Bangladesh, for its security forces, and for the UN".

It also informed the under secretary general that it would shortly begin a campaign on the connections between rights abuses in the Bangladeshi security forces and UN peacekeeping operations "until such a time as the RAB is disbanded and conditions in the country enable effective redress for victims of abuses there".

The group has said that a special report on policing and the judiciary in Bangladesh is due to be released soon.

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About AHRC: The Asian Human Rights Commission is a regional non-governmental organisation monitoring and lobbying human rights issues in Asia. The Hong Kong-based group was founded in 1984.