Bangladesh former Prime Minister and chairperson of the lead opposition political party Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) Begum Khaleda Zia remained confined to her home, said the United States State Department’s annual report on human rights.
State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labour published the report on Monday. The US Secretary of State Antony Blinken launched it.
The report referred to international and domestic legal experts, noting the lack of evidence to support the conviction and suggested a political ploy to remove the leader of the opposition Khaleda Zia from the electoral process, even as multiple corruption charges against Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina were dropped by prosecutors.
Former prime minister and chairperson of the lead opposition political party BNP Khaleda Zia remained confined to her home, said the US human rights report adding that “She was barred from receiving needed medical treatment abroad but was being treated in a Bangladeshi hospital.”
In 2018, she was sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment on corruption and embezzlement charges first filed in 2008, it mentioned, adding that Zia was transferred from prison to a hospital in 2019 and released to house arrest in 2020.
The report referred to international and domestic legal experts, noting the lack of evidence to support the conviction and suggested a political ploy to remove the leader of the opposition from the electoral process, even as multiple corruption charges against prime minister Sheikh Hasina were dropped by prosecutors.
The report said that the 12 parliamentary elections held on January 7 in Bangladesh were widely reported as unfair and not free from abuses and irregularities.
In a special briefing in Washington at the launch of the 2023 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, Robert S Gilchrist, senior official in the US State Department’s Bureau of Democracy Human Rights and Labor, said the US will continue to express concerns on the fundamental human rights issues in Bangladesh including the freedom of the press and freedom of association and urge the government to uphold those.
The US official said this while replying to question on Bangladesh, referring to the significant human rights abuse highlighted in the US state department reports, including arbitrary killings, torture, and political imprisonment, particularly with reference to the case of former prime minister and leader of the opposition mentioned as a political ploy to remove her from the political process.
Gilchrist was asked how he would ensure these reports lead to tangible changes and that the regime responsible faces consequences for their extreme human rights violations.
“Ensuring anything can be challenging. I hope with the human rights report shining on specific issues, specific human rights concerns will help facilitate change in the government regimes in a positive direction,” replied the US official.
Gilchrist said the US in May 2023 announced a visa restriction policy and it was implemented before the elections in Bangladesh with the hope to deter actions that undermine the democratic electoral process.He said that there was nothing new this time and that the US also does not provide any preview of visa policy.
Gilchrist said, “We have repeatedly expressed concerns about the efforts by the [Bangladeshi] government to suppress the freedom of expression, freedom of the press, freedom of association and other fundamental human rights issues and will continue to express concerns.”
No significant changes in human rights situation in Bangladesh
The United States found no significant changes in the overall rights situation in Bangladesh in comparison with the last year, said the report.
Significant human rights issues in Bangladesh included credible reports of arbitrary or unlawful killings, including extrajudicial killings; enforced disappearances; torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment by the government; harsh and life-threatening prison conditions, according to the report.The issues also include arbitrary arrest or detention; serious problems with the independence of the judiciary; political prisoners or detainees; transnational repression against individuals in another country; arbitrary or unlawful interference with privacy; punishment of family members for alleged offences of a relative.
The report stated that Bangladeshi law provides the right to peaceful assembly, but the government generally does not respect this right.
The US report said, “There were reports that the government or its agents committed arbitrary or unlawful killings, including extrajudicial killings. Police policy required internal investigations of all significant uses of force by police, including actions that resulted in serious physical injury or death, usually by a professional standards unit.”
The government, however, neither released official statistics on total killings by security personnel nor took transparent measures to investigate cases, read the report.
It said human rights groups expressed scepticism regarding the independence and professional standards of the units conducting these assessments. In the few known instances in which the government brought charges, those found guilty generally received administrative punishment.The report said extrajudicial killings decreased from the previous year.
Domestic human rights organisation Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK) reported eight individuals died from January to September in alleged extrajudicial killings or while in custody, including two in shootouts with law enforcement agencies and three due to physical torture before or while in custody.According to another domestic human rights organisation, of 12 incidents of alleged extrajudicial killings between January and September, four deaths resulted from law enforcement crossfire, four persons were shot to death by law enforcement officers, and four others died from alleged torture while in custody.
“There were reports of disappearances by or on behalf of government authorities. Human rights groups and media reported that disappearances and kidnappings continued, allegedly committed by security services. Between January and September, a local human rights organisation reported 32 persons were victims of enforced disappearances,” it said.
The report said there were serious restrictions on freedom of expression and media freedom, including violence or threats of violence against journalists, unjustified arrests or prosecutions of journalists, censorship, and enforcement of or threat to enforce criminal libel laws to limit expression.
The report said there were serious restrictions on internet freedom; substantial interference with the freedom of peaceful assembly and freedom of association, including overly restrictive laws on the organisation, funding, or operation of nongovernmental and civil society organizations; restrictions on freedom of movement; inability of citizens to change their government peacefully through free and fair elections.It said there were serious and unreasonable restrictions on political participation; serious government corruption; serious government restrictions on or harassment of domestic and international human rights organisations.
“There were numerous reports of widespread impunity for human rights abuses. In most cases, the government did not take credible steps to identify and punish officials or security force members who may have committed human rights abuses,” read the report.
