Prime Minister of Bangladesh criticizes sanctions on elite police unit by United States

In her first public comment on the issue, Prime Minister of Bangladesh lashed out Monday at the United States for ‘abominable’ sanctions against the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) force over alleged human rights abuses, saying Washington imposed them without any fault or cause.

Sheikh Hasina’s remarks at an event marking the anniversary of RAB’s creation came a week before the Bangladeshi Foreign Minister was to hold high-level talks with the US officials in Washington.

Among a range of bilateral issues during meetings on April 4 and 6, the two sides are expected to discuss American sanctions placed on the security force in December 2021 over its alleged role in enforced disappearance and extrajudicial killings.

“Imposing sanctions on RAB and some of its officials, after all these successes is very much an abominable act,” Hasina said in a virtual message during a ceremony marking 18th anniversary of RAB’s founding, at its headquarters in Dhaka.

On December 10, 2021 the US Treasury Department issued sanctions against RAB and seven serving and former officials over allegations of grave violations of human rights. The move angered Bangladeshi government officials.

Former RAB Director General Benazir Ahmed – now Bangladesh’s Inspector General of Police – is among the sanctioned officials. He is barred from entering the United States.

Hasina made the comment days after the US Under Secretary for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland visited Bangladesh to discuss bilateral issues and ahead of a scheduled visit by Foreign Minister A.K. Abdul Momen to Washington.

Before leaving Dhaka, Nuland acknowledged that the human rights climate had improved in the South Asian country but said Bangladesh’s government needed to do more to hold RAB accountable for alleged rights abuses.

In her statement on Monday, Hasina also accused Washington of protecting and sheltering criminals, while ordering sanctions against Bangladesh where, she said, there is no crime.

“This is their character, so what else can I say about them? In their country they do not take any action against any member of their forces, law enforcement agencies, for their criminal activities”, she said.

The Prime Minister was referring to cases of police brutality and extrajudicial killings in the United States, including one where a Minneapolis police officer was convicted of killing George Floyd by kneeling on his neck during an arrest in May 2020.

Bangladesh, by comparison, is the only country where anyone from any law enforcement agency involved in any crime must be punished, the PM claimed.

Officers gather at the Shaheed Lt. Col. Azad Memorial Hall, the Rapid Action Battalion’s headquarters, to mark the elite police agency’s anniversary, March 28, 2022.

Hasina also questioned whether US authorities were bothered by Bangladesh’s successes against militants, drugs and terrorists including those responsible for carrying out a massacre of hostages during an overnight siege at the Holey Artisan Bakery café in July 2016 – the country’s worst-ever terror attack.

She also criticized American officials for sheltering a killer of her father, Bangladesh’s founding president.

“A criminal convicted in the killing of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman is staying in the United States,” she said, referring to her father.

“We requested the US to send him back, but they gave protection in their country and sheltered the criminal while they imposed sanctions on some RAB officials without any fault or cause,” Hasina said.

In 2009, former Bangladesh Army officer Rashed Chowdhury was convicted and sentenced to death in absentia for his role in the coup that led to Sheikh Mujibur’s assassination in 1975. He fled to the US in 1996 when Hasina took power and was later granted asylum, according to media reports.

On Monday, officials at the US Embassy in Dhaka did not immediately respond to BenarNews requests for comment in response to Hasina’s criticism.

In Washington, a State Department spokesperson referred questions to the US Treasury, saying it was that agency which had placed RAB under sanctions framed by Executive Order 13818. Treasury officials, in turn, could not be immediately reached.

 

Bickering over hiring lobbyist firms in Bangladesh

Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen today said that the BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami had appointed eight lobbyist firms so that the US stops providing aid and development assistance to Bangladesh.

While delivering his statement in the parliament, Momen said that the government has also proof that BNP, through appointing lobbyists, was involved in imposing US sanctions on Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) and appealed to the United Nations Department of Peace Operations to ban the force from UN deployment.

The foreign minister came up with the statement following Jatiya Party and BNP lawmaker’s Sunday’s demand in parliament on the much-talked issue of appointing lobbyists by the BNP and the government. In his statement, Momen said, BNP-appointed lobbyists have provided such statements against Bangladesh that would offend the people of the country.

“BNP has told them (the US) that the security of the USA will be hindered due to Bangladesh.

The minister raised questions about the source of huge money that BNP had spent to pay those lobbyist firms, and demanded an investigation into how that money was sent abroad.

There might be differences of opinion between the government and the BNP, but the country cannot be harmed like that, he added.

The foreign minister also said hiring lobbyists in the US is a legal process under the US law. India, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and other countries and organizations around the world appoint lobbyists to improve political and economic relations, he added.

Jamaat hired a firm to stop the trial of war criminals in 2014. For this they paid US$150,000. They hired another lobbyist firm to stop the trial proceedings.

He said the BNP had spent US$120,000 each month as retainer fee and US$2.7 million each year from February 2015 to April 2017.

Momen said the BNP had hired four lobbyist firms till 2017 and one in 2019, and to prevent the trial of war criminals, BNP-Jamaat appointed three lobbyist firms.

The foreign minister said that none of the BNP workers in the grassroots would want Bangladesh’s trade and commerce to shut. Some of their top-level leaders have done such things without informing them. Also, some BNP members had written to the UN secretary general to declare Bangladesh’s parliament illegal, he added.

Stating that lifting of sanctions against the RAB will take time, Momen said that the United States would lift its sanctions on the RAB if accurate information is provided to them.

Commenting that the government is working on the US sanctions against the RAB, the foreign minister said that the work on partnership dialogue with the United States will start next month. “There will be a security dialogue in April.”

Indicating that it would take some time to lift the embargo, the foreign minister said, “We have held several meetings with the USA. Insha Allah, whenever we will be able to provide the information to them properly, I believe the sanction will be withdrawn from a very good organization like RAB.”

The minister added, “But the process will not start tomorrow. It will take time. We have to be patient.”

The minister in his statement said, the government had not hired lobbyists, rather it has hired a PR firm.

“The government didn’t hire any such body who engaged in lobbying the Senate and the State Department,” he said, adding, “What the government did was to stop the spreading of propaganda against the country, and to spread the real information to counter the false information.”

He said an organization called BGR was appointed in 2014-15. The BGR was appointed to stop the anti-Bangladesh campaign.