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Police inspect the homes of garment

workers where they suspect

protesters are hiding after a

demonstration in Dhaka on August

30, 2010.

2010 Reuters

More Coverage:

World Report Chapter: Bangladesh

The government should not just

keep turning a blind eye to all these

killings because they are not fooling

anyone with their excuses.

Credibility will only come if the

government follows the National

Human Rights Commission's

recommendation to name an

impartial panel of inquiry for each

killing and to hold those found

responsible to account.

Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director of

Human Rights Watc h

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH

Bangladesh: Torture and Extra-Judicial Killings

Despite Promises, No End to Systematic Human Rights Abuses

January 24, 2011

(New York) - The Awami League government has not kept its promise after its election

victory in December 2008 to show "zero tolerance" for abuses by its security forces, Human

Rights Watch said today in releasing its World Report 2011. Two years on, new extrajudicial

killings have been reported, and those responsible have not been brought to justice.

The 649-page World Report 2011, the organization's 21st annual review of human rights

practices around the globe, summarizes major human rights trends in more than 90 nations

and territories worldwide. Bangladesh should immediately end systematic human rights

abuses, including stopping extrajudicial executions and torture by its security forces,

Human Rights Watch said in the chapter on Bangladesh. It should allow the media, political

opponents, and labor rights activists to exercise their rights to freedom of expression and

association fully, Human Rights Watch said.

"The government should not just keep turning a blind eye to all these killings because they

are not fooling anyone with their excuses," said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director of

Human Rights Watch. "Credibility will only come if the government follows the National

Human Rights Commission's recommendation to name an impartial panel of inquiry for

each killing and to hold those found responsible to account."

The joint police-military Rapid Action Battalion Force (RAB) carries out the extrajudicial

killings, frequently termed "crossfire killings," and after the fact, the government has

ustified each killing as legitimate, Human Rights Watch said.

Human Rights Watch noted that often independent groups find signs of torture and abuse

on the bodies of "crossfire" victims, and survivors of RAB custody testify that torture is

commonly inflicted by the RAB on those in its custody. This is consistent with information

in recently leaked US government diplomatic cables that stated there was credible evidence

that the RAB tortures detainees.

Human Rights Watch also found that it is not only the Bangladeshi security forces who commit abuses. Acute poverty and

unemployment prompts millions of Bangladeshis to cross the border into India in search of jobs or to engage in trade. Many of

them are killed by India's Border Security Force (BSF), which engages in indiscriminate and excessive use of deadly force. The

Bangladesh government should be more vocal and determined in pressing the Indian government to restrain the Indian border

forces and to end the killings that too often occur all along that border.

The government regularly harassed, repressed, and retaliated against its political opponents and labor union activists during 2010,

Human Rights Watch said. A leading opposition daily newspaper,Amar Desh, was forced to close down and the editor was arrested

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under the Anti-Terrorism Act. The editor, Mahmudur Rahman, claimed to have been tortured by the RAB while in custody.

Labor union activists also bore the brunt of the government crackdown against public protests and organized demands. While

demanding further increases in the monthly minimum wage, many garment workers were arrested, and some were allegedly beaten

while in custody, credible human rights institutions and journalists said.

The government also stripped the internationally respected Bangladesh Center for Worker Solidarity (BCWS) of its

nongovernmental organization status, and arrested the top leaders of BCWS (along with other senior labor leaders) on

unsubstantiated charges of incitement connected to worker disturbances in late July. Two BCWS leaders publicly stated they were

tortured while in police custody.

In a new development, the government took steps to bring to trial those responsible for international crimes in connection with the

war of 1971. The government arrested five members of opposition parties, but there are strong suspicions that the detentions at this

time are politically motivated. Equally troubling, the International Crimes (Tribunals) Act of 1973 still falls well short of

international standards.

"Bangladesh has a long way to go to live up to its commitments, in both national policies and meeting international obligations,"

Robertson said. "It is only when its people can live free of fear of torture, repression, curbs on free speech, or politically motivated

actions that it can truly lay its claim to being a democratic country."

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