Extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances dropped since US sanctions: HRW

Human Rights Watch observed in its annual report that extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances dropped in Bangladesh since the US sanctions against Rab and seven of its former and current officials for alleged human rights abuses.

In the report released today, HRW said the drop showed that authorities have the ability to bring security force abuses under control, but lamented that law enforcement agencies continued to repress opposition activists last year.

"Following the US Global Magnitsky human rights sanctions against Bangladesh's Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) and some of its top commanders in December 2021, extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances dropped dramatically, indicating that authorities have the ability to bring security force abuses under control," said the report.

However, the report said that instead of taking steps toward reform, authorities launched a campaign of threats and intimidation against human rights defenders and families of victims of enforced disappearances.

The report slammed the deregistration of the NGO Odhikar, saying it was part of a longstanding harassment to punish the organisation for reporting extrajudicial killings by Bangladesh security forces in 2013.

The report also spoke about the alleged custodial death of indigenous activist Nabayan Chakma Milon, saying the torture and death of Milon shed light on state abuses in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, without redress.

"Governments that fail to live up to their legal obligations to protect human rights at home sow the seeds of discontent, instability, and ultimately crisis. Left unchecked, the egregious actions of abusive governments escalate, cementing the belief that corruption, censorship, impunity, and violence are the most effective tools to achieve their aims," said Tirana Hassan, acting executive director of HRW, in the report.