UN says former Bangladesh govt behind possible ‘crimes against humanity’
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
Anti-government protesters storm former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's palace in Dhaka on Aug 5, 2024.
PHOTO: AFP
Follow topic:
GENEVA – Bangladesh’s former government was behind systematic attacks and killings of protesters as it strove to hold on to power in 2024, the United Nations said on Feb 12, warning that the abuses could amount to “crimes against humanity”.
Before premier Sheikh Hasina was toppled in a student-led revolution
The UN rights office said it had “reasonable grounds to believe that the crimes against humanity of murder, torture, imprisonment and infliction of other inhumane acts have taken place”.
The alleged crimes committed by the government, along with violent elements of her Awami League party and the Bangladeshi security and intelligence services, were part of “a widespread and systematic attack against protesters and other civilians”, a UN report into the violence said.
Ms Hasina, 77, who fled into exile in neighbouring India, has already defied an arrest warrant to face trial in Bangladesh for crimes against humanity.
Up to 1,400 killed
The rights office launched its fact-finding mission at the request of Bangladesh’s interim leader, Mr Mohammed Yunus, sending a team, including human rights investigators, a forensics physician and a weapons expert to Bangladesh.
Mr Yunus welcomed the report, saying he wanted to transform “Bangladesh into a country in which all its people can live in security and dignity”.
The Feb 12 report is based mainly on more than 230 interviews conducted with victims, witnesses, protest leaders, rights defenders and others, reviews of medical case files, and of photos, videos and other documents.
The team determined that security forces supported Ms Hasina’s government throughout the unrest, which began as protests against civil service job quotas and then escalated into wider calls for her to stand down.
The rights office said the former government tried systematically to suppress the protests with increasingly violent means.
It estimated that “as many as 1,400 people may have been killed” in that 45-day period, while thousands were injured.
The vast majority of those killed “were shot by Bangladesh’s security forces”, the rights office said, adding that children made up 12 to 13 per cent of those killed.
The overall death toll given is far higher than the most recent estimate by Bangladesh’s interim government of 834 people killed during the protests.
‘Rampant state violence’
“The brutal response was a calculated and well-coordinated strategy by the former government to hold on to power in the face of mass opposition,” UN rights chief Volker Turk said in a statement.
“There are reasonable grounds to believe hundreds of extrajudicial killings, extensive arbitrary arrests and detentions, and torture were carried out with the knowledge, coordination and direction of the political leadership and senior security officials as part of a strategy to suppress the protests.”
Mr Turk said the testimonies and evidence gathered by his office “paint a disturbing picture of rampant state violence and targeted killings”.
The report also documented gender-based violence, including threats of rape aimed at deterring women from taking part in protests.
The rights office said its team determined that “police and other security forces killed and maimed children, and subjected them to arbitrary arrest, detention in inhumane conditions and torture”.
The report also highlighted “lynchings and other serious retaliatory violence” against police and Awami League officials or supporters.
“Accountability and justice are essential for national healing and for the future of Bangladesh,” Mr Turk said.
He stressed that “the best way forward for Bangladesh is to face the horrific wrongs committed” during the period in question.
What was needed, he said, was “a comprehensive process of truth-telling, healing and accountability, and to redress the legacy of serious human rights violations and ensure they can never happen again”. AFP
