Bangladesh has rejected the US State Department’s 2018 country reports on human rights practices saying many things about Bangladesh mentioned in the report ‘by and large’ more applicable to the US rather than Bangladesh.
“I’ve enough doubt about their own investigation. We welcome reports that are objective and fact-based ones,” Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen told a media briefing at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
State Minister for Foreign Affairs M Shahriar Alam and Foreign Secretary M Shahidul Haque were also present.
“The report is more applicable to the US than to Bangladesh,” said Foreign Minister.
“On the whole, reading the report it seems (to me) that it has been prepared without investigating into the incidents properly,” he said.
Foreign Minister said Bangladesh has already sent a protest note to US authorities in this regard and mentioned that it would be more objective if they have done their own investigation.
He said, “US report provided information in the name of individuals and organisations.”
Foreign Minister said, “The US publishes such reports routinely and there is nothing to be worried about it.”
Referring to attack on Prof Muhammed Zafar Iqbal, the Foreign Minister said “the government deserves appreciation as the attacker was arrested and wondered how the US termed it a terrorist attack.”
The Foreign Minister suggested the US authorities to go for a rigorous investigation and come up with an “informative and objective” report in the future which will help Bangladesh address the weaknesses, if any.
Talking about polls issues in the US and Bangladesh, he said, “Bangladesh practises better democracy than others.”
US Secretary of State Michael R Pompeo formally released the 2018 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices in Washington DC recently.
The US 2018 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices released on March 13 said unlawful or political killings, forced disappearances, life-threatening prison conditions, freedom of speech limitations, negative government pressure on and fear of reprisal by press and media, and impunity for security force abuses were the most significant human rights problems in Bangladesh last year.
On elections and political participation, the report termed the December-30 parliamentary elections “lopsided” and said it was considered to be marred by irregularities, including ballot-box stuffing and intimidation of opposition polling agents and voters.
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