Bangladesh not qualified to participate in peace missions
Human rights groups said Dhala troops were guilty of homicides and all kinds of abuse at home, and they would only pose a threat to civilians abroad. Bangladesh is the Muslim country that has promised the highest number of men for the UN force in Lebanon.
Dhaka (AsiaNews/Agencies) Bangladesh, the Muslim country that has offered the most men for a UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon, does not have the right criteria to undertake the mission: its troops systematically violate human rights, staining their hands with murder and torture.
The charge comes from the Hong-Kong based Asian Human Rights Commission and its sister organization, the Asian Legal Resource Centre, in a report released yesterday about abuses by the Dhaka army. The two groups called on the United Nations to withdraw the more than 10,000 troops from Bangladesh already serving in peacekeeping operations, to stop more being sent and to expel the country from the new Human Rights Council.
Bangladesh, which promised to send 2,000 men to Lebanon, rejected the accusations. Bangladesh's consul-general to Hong Kong rejected the report of the two human rights organizations as "unfounded".
The 140-page report, "Lawless law enforcement and the parody of judiciary in Bangladesh", details 33 cases of killing, torture, rape, assault, robbery, intimidation and other abuses by police and members of RAB, (the Rapid Action Battalion, made up of men from different sections of the army and police). The men of this battalion, established in 2004 to tackle the terrorism emergency, were said to be among frontrunners to serve as peacekeepers on foreign missions.
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has praised Bangladesh's role in international peacekeeping. But Nick Cheesman of the Asian Human Rights Commission said the battalion operated "completely outside the law" and warned that the deployment of its members on peacekeeping operations was nothing but a threat to civilians. "Those in RAB are operating with absolute impunity, with a licence to kill," said Cheesman. "They're proud of the fact that they're killing people."
Dhaka says RAB has already killed 289 alleged terrorists since 2004: the report of the Asian Human Rights Commission claims many civilians are among the victims and that the death toll is much higher. The Consul-general, Gousal Azam Sarker, said his country faced a serious threat from terrorists, who were trying to destabilise Bangladesh through a campaign of bombings, murder and threats to public security and human rights. But in the past, AsiaNews sources have denounced government interest in giving Bangladesh an image of security and firmness at international level, to encourage, for example, foreign investments.
.png)
