Hasina directly ordered enforced disappearances, killings: HRW

Human Rights Watch has handed a report on the July Uprising to Chief Adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus, saying that officers had told them the ousted Bangladesh dictator, “Sheikh Hasina directly ordered enforced disappearances and killings”.

A HRW delegation, led by Elaine Pearson, Asia Director of the world’s most respected human rights group, called on Professor Muhammad Yunus and praised the Interim Government for its reform initiatives and the efforts to improve the rights situation in the country.

“We commend the progress you have made so far,” the HRW Asia chief said.

Highlighting that establishing rights was the core principle during the July-August Monsoon Revolution, she said Bangladesh’s “ordinary people now realise the importance of human rights” in every sphere of life.

The HRW recommended the disbanding of the Rapid Action Battalion, saying its officers who were responsible for killings and enforced disappearances should be held accountable for their crimes.

“There needs to be some accountability,” she said.

Chief Adviser Prof Yunus lauded the efforts of HRW during Sheikh Hasina’s dictatorship, saying its reports during the past 16 years unveiled the widespread crimes committed by the regime.

He said the RAB has publicly apologised for its crimes, but the individual officers responsible for extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances should “face trials and be punished”.

Pearson said the security forces were “politicised” during Sheikh Hasina’s 2009-2024 rule, and they acted like they were ruling “party cadres”.

“It needs systematic reforms,” she said.

Prof Yunus said, “We are committed to openness and transparency. We are publishing all reform recommendations, allowing the people to decide on the desired reforms. As you have mentioned, undoing 15 years of oppression and crimes will be a challenging endeavour”.

According to the HRW report, “Officers involved in enforced disappearances also told Human Rights Watch that Sheikh Hasina or senior government had knowledge of incommunicado detentions, and that, in some cases, Hasina directly ordered enforced disappearances and killings”.

The HRW Asia chief said during her visit, she met several chiefs of the reform commissions and the Chief Adviser’s High Representative on the Rohingya issues.

The HRW said the reforms should be cemented and the security forces should come under proper oversight.

The Chief Adviser said he had called for creating a safe zone for tens of thousands of displaced Rohingyas in their homeland in Rakhine.

He hoped the UN, the international communities, and the main rebel group, the Arakan Army, would guarantee security for the safe zone.