‘WikiLeaks’ Allegations of UK Trained ‘Government Death Squad’ Confirmed

David L. Chaplin II
Impunity Watch, Asia

DHAKA, Bangladesh – The British government has been training a Bangladeshi paramilitary force condemned by human rights organizations as a “government death squad”, leaked U.S. embassy cables have revealed.  Death Squad, or RAB (Rapid Action Battalion), members have been taught “interviewing techniques” and “rules of engagement” by the UK authorities for 18 months, according to the leaked cables.  Another cable makes clear that the US would not offer any assistance other than human rights training to the RAB, and that it would be illegal under U.S. law to do so knowing the battalion commits gross human rights violations with impunity.

Members of the Bangladesh death sqaud on a routine sweep
Members of the Bangladesh 'death sqaud' on a routine sweep

Pervasive claims have alleged that they operated an “arrest-interrogate-kill” policy towards alleged criminals.

The RAB was set up, 9,000 strong in 2004; RAB is accused of more than 550 killings. In addition, officers from the paramilitary force are alleged to have been involved in kidnaping and extortion, and are frequently accused of taking large bribes in return for carrying out crossfire killings.

A cable dated, May 2009, published by the Guardian, that the US ambassador to Dhaka, James Moriarty, wrote: “The US and UK representatives reviewed our ongoing training to make the RAB a more transparent, accountable and human-rights compliant paramilitary force.

Sabir Mustafa, BBC Bengali editor, say’s several hundred criminal suspects have died in RAB custody since 2005, and there are strong grounds to doubt what the unit’s claims, that these deaths occurred as a result of “encounters” or “cross-fire”.

The lack of prosecution for these fatalities is creating the impression that they operate under the guise of impunity, even though killings by RAB have been declining since 2008, but have not stopped completely.

Brad Adams, the organization’s Asia director, said: “RAB is a Latin American—style death squad dressed up as an anti—crime force. The British government has let its desire for a functional counter—terrorism partner in Bangladesh blind it to the risks of working with RAB, and the legitimacy that it gives to RAB inside Bangladesh”.

Amnesty International has also repeatedly condemned the RAB, while the Bangladeshi human rights organization Odhikar has scrupulously documented the RAB’s involvement in extra—judicial killings and torture since the creation of the force in 2004.

Successive Bangladeshi governments have promised to end the RAB’s use of murder. The current government promised in its manifesto that it would end all ‘extra judicial killings’, but they have continued following its election two years ago.

Yesterday, the 21st of December, the RAB announced it had shot dead a 45—year—old man and three men in separate incidents, Anisur Rahman, said to be a member of the Communist party in the west of the country.

One cable describes U.S. Ambassador James Moriarty as saying the battalion is the “enforcement organization best positioned to one day become a Bangladeshi version of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation.”

British High Commission officials in Dhaka told the BBC that the UK training program for the RAB was due to finish in March 2011.

For more information, please see:

The Hindu – U.K. police trained Bangladesh ‘death squad’ – 22 December 2010

BBC – UK training Bagladesh ‘death squad’ – 22 December 2010

MSNBC – WikiLeaks: U.K. trained ‘death squad’ – 21 December 2010

Author: Impunity Watch Archive