The UN Rights Office estimates up to 1,400 dead in repression against protests in Bangladesh

Geneva
AP
–

The United Nations Human Rights Office estimated on Wednesday that up to 1,400 people may have been killed in Bangladesh for three weeks last summer in a repression of the protests led by students against the former Prime Minister now of OSPED.

In a new report, the office based in Geneva says that the security and intelligence services “systematically participated” in the violations of the rights that could be equivalent to crimes against humanity and require more investigation.

Citing “several credible sources”, the Rights Office said that up to 1,400 people may have been killed in the protests between July 15 and August 5, on the day of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina fled to India in means of the lifting.

Thousands more were injured in the previous weeks and after the protests, and the vast majority of those killed and injured “were triggered by Bangladesh security forces,” the report said.

More than 11,700 people were arrested, according to the report, citing information on security services. He said that around 12 to 13% of the people who are estimated to be killed, or up to about 180 people, they were children.

In some cases, “the security forces involved in summary executions by deliberately triggering the protesters unarmed in a blank range,” he said.

The UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk cited signs that “extrajudicial murders, extensive arrests and arbitrary detentions and torture” were carried out with the knowledge and coordination of political leadership and senior security officials as a way of suppressing protests.

The UN research team was deployed in Bangladesh by invitation from the country’s interim leader, the Nobel Peace Prize Muhammad Yunus, to analyze the uprising and violent repression.

The team of researchers said that the interim government has made 100 arrests in relation to attacks against religious and indigenous groups. The report says that “many perpetrators of acts of revenge, violence and attacks on different groups apparently continue to enjoy impunity.”

The human rights situation in Bangladesh continues to raise concerns, said the UN office.

While the government has changed, “the system has not necessarily changed,” Rory Mungoven, head of the Asia-Pacific region of the Rights Office, told journalists. “Many officials and people who had served or have been appointed under the previous regime continue to function,” he said.

Such a situation creates “a possible conflict of interest” and could prevent reforms and responsibility, added Mungoven.

The researchers issued dozens of recommendations to the government, such as the steps to improve the justice system and establish a witness protection program. He also recommended prohibiting the use of lethal firearms by security forces to disperse the crowds unless they face the “imminent threat of death or serious injuries.”

In a statement after the report was published, Yunus reiterated his government’s commitment to defend the rule of law and said it was crucial to reform the sectors of the police and justice in the country.

“I ask all those who work within these institutions to put themselves on the side of justice, law and people of Bangladesh to support their own colleagues and others who have violated the law and violated the human and civil rights of their fellow citizens “. saying.

What began as peaceful manifestations by frustrated students with a quota system for government work unexpectedly became an important uprising against Hasina and its ruling party of the Awami League.

A decision of the court superior to early June that restored the quota system was the “immediate trigger” of the protests, which were also fed by long -standing complaints about economic inequality and lack of rights, according to the report.