RAB sanctions: Home’s inaction to blame

Had the home ministry provided the foreign ministry with necessary information on alleged extrajudicial killings and forced disappearances in time, the US sanctions on Rab could have been avoided, State Minister for Foreign Affairs Shahriar Alam told a parliamentary watchdog.

Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen said a good number of development partners and lawmakers from the US and the EU had written to the ministry seeking information on alleged forced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, and arrests of journalists under the Digital Security Act.

But the ministry could not write back in time as it did not have information from the home ministry, he said.

Shahriar said lifting of the sanctions would take time.

Bangladesh would not have been in such an unpleasant situation had that information been sent to the countries and organisations concerned, Shahriar said, according to the minutes of a meeting of the parliamentary standing committee on foreign affairs held in February.

The minutes were approved at another meeting of the JS body yesterday.

At the February meeting, the parliamentary body blasted the foreign ministry for "being oblivious to the impending US sanctions on Rab".

The JS body said it considered it a complete failure that the Bangladesh embassy in the US "had no idea about the US decision against such an important law enforcement agency in Bangladesh".

The parliamentary watchdog asked the foreign ministry if any other country or organisation was considering similar sanctions. Besides, it advised that the missions abroad, especially in the US and Europe, play a more proactive role.

On December 10 last year, the US imposed human rights-related sanctions on Rab and seven of its current and former top officials.

According to the meeting minutes, the chairman of the committee, Muhammad Farooq Khan, said it was an utter failure of the Bangladesh embassy in Washington DC.

Nahim Razzak, a member of the committee, said a vested group was pushing propaganda for a long time to make the Bangladesh government controversial before the world by recruiting lobbyists in different countries.

But the foreign ministry had failed to deal with this propaganda, he said.

Shahriar said the ministry and the missions were working hard to tackle the propaganda.

Minister Momen said Bangladesh missions abroad work as lobbyists. But the lobbyist firms appointed by others are more influential because the embassy officials are not so close to the lawmakers of that country.

On the other hand, the question of accountability comes while spending public money to hire lobbyists.

"So, there are restrictions on hiring lobbyist firms abroad by spending huge sums of money," he said.

Fayaz Murshid Kazi, DG of the US wing of the foreign ministry, said no communication was possible between the Biden administration and the foreign ministry because of the Covid-19. The US did not raise or discuss the issue of sanctions against Rab in any forum, they did it very secretly, he said.