By Pei Hu
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

DHAKA, Bangladesh – International human rights group, Human Rights Watch, urged the new Awami League government of Bangladesh to reform human rights policies. In the past there have been reports of abuses by Bangladeshi police and the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), an elite security force that rights groups hold accountable for extrajudicial killings, arbitrary detention and torture.

Brad Adams, Human Rights Watch Asia director, said, Bangladesh’s “ new government has a large majority and a public hungry for reform …We look forward to the government using the strong mandate the prime minister and her party have obtained to tackle the very serious abuses that Bangladeshis face at the hands of the security forces and others.”

A human rights group told APF, security forces in Bangladesh unlawfully shot or tortured to death at least 149 people in 2008 when the country was ruled by an army-backed government.

Reportedly, 137 people were shot dead by police and the RAB, and 12 were tortured to death. The Bangladesh government said the killings occurred when suspects resisted arrest or were caught in crossfire between criminals and security forces. A surge in “crossfire” deaths began in 2004 when the then-democratically elected government set up the RAB to stem rising crime. Since RAB’s inception, the elite force has been accused of killing more than 540 people, mainly crime suspects and outlawed Maoists.

However, Odhikar, a Bangladeshi human rights group, said the killings were unlawful. The organization said, “What worries Odhikar and others is the absolute impunity enjoined with extrajudicial killings … None of the killings are investigated or perpetrators made to account.”

When an army-backed government took over in January 2007 after a state of emergency was imposed, people were killed, elections were cancelled, and press freedom curbed.

On December 29 2008, the secular Awami League led by Sheikh Hasina, who had served previously as a prime minister, won the elections. Adams said, “How the government responds to recommendations for human rights progress at the Human Rights Council will be an early test for the new government.”

For more information, please see:

APF – Bangladesh Security Forces Illegally Kill 149 in 2008: Rights Group -17 January 2009

Daily Star –149 Killed in Extra-judicial Action in ’08 – 8 January 2009

HRW – Bangladesh: New Government Should Act on Rights – 29 January 2009