M Mushfiqul Fazal, State Department
The US will examine the allegations of human rights violations brought against Bangladesh’s Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) in a recent investigative report of the German based news organization DW and Sweden based Netra News ‘very carefully.’
Principal Deputy Spokesperson for the US Department of State Vedant Patel said this at a briefing held at the State Department on Thursday.
On April 3, DW in a report titled ‘Death squad’: Inside Bangladesh's Rapid Action Battalion says, “Bangladesh’s elite counterterrorism force is committing extrajudicial killings, DW and Netra News reveal in a new investigation. High-ranking officials are approving the executions, according to insiders.”
Urging Bangladesh authorities to investigate the allegations of human rights violations brought against RAB, Vedant Patel in the briefing further said, “Perpetrators of human rights should be held accountable.”
The report says, “If targets are political in nature, the operation only goes ahead when explicitly sanctioned from above, in which case the decision “would come at least from the Ministry of Home Affairs, or the Home Minister would give that order,” one of the whistleblowers says.
“Without the approval of the Prime Minister, it is very unlikely that the Home Minister would give an order like this,” the other whistleblower tells DW and Netra News, weighing his words carefully,” reads the report.
In reply to a question that whether the U.S. Government is considering extending its sanction or imposing sanction on Ministry of Home Affairs for the human rights violation, Vedant Patel said they will examine the allegations of the report very carefully.
In the briefing, this correspondent asked, “Recent investigative documentary by German-based news organization Deutsche Welle and Sweden-based Netra News have jointly revealed that Bangladesh elite force Rapid Action Battalion has been involved in extrajudicial and political killings. For the first time, two insiders-turned-whistleblowers have now spoken out about the inner workings of the death squad and said without the approval of the prime minister it is very unlikely that the home minister would give an order like this. In light of these revelations, which suggests series of human rights violation, abuse of power by the Bangladeshi Government, we would like to know whether the US government is considering extending or imposing sanction on Ministry of Home Affairs for these reasons.”
In reply, Vedant Patel said, “I’m not going to preview any actions from up here. But we will examine the allegations in this article and video very carefully, and we hope the Bangladesh government will do the same. But perpetrators of human rights should be held accountable.”
MN/
