Bangladesh 'death squad' trained by UK police resumes extrajudicial killing
David Cameron set to raise issue with visiting Bangladesh PM Sheikh
Hasina after UK connection revealed by WikiLeaks
A Bangladeshi paramilitary unit that receives training from British
police has resumed killing people in so-called "crossfire" incidents
that human rights groups say are extrajudicial killings.
The Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) – condemned by human rights group as
a "death squad" – ceased the killings briefly after the existence of
the British training programme was disclosed in US diplomatic cables
posted on the internet by WikiLeaks last month.
However, the unit announced on 12 January that it had killed a
32-year-old man in Dhaka and since then has shot dead three more men
in the capital.
According to a report published this month by the Bangladeshi rights
group Ain O Salish Kendra, 133 people died in extrajudicial killings
in Bangladesh last year; RAB officers were said to be responsible for
the overwhelming majority.
Another human rights group, Odhikar, put the figure at 127 and said
that 74 died in operations involving RAB. Around 18 of those who died
were said to be communist party activists.
Human Rights Watch, the New York-based NGO, has described RAB as a
Bangladeshi government death squad, pointing out that senior political
figures have expressed support publicly and privately for its policy
of extrajudicial killings. The group has called for the UK to withdraw
its support.
The leaked diplomatic cables showed that Washington is prevented by
law from offering support to RAB because of its human rights abuses.
RAB has admitted killing more than 600 people since its inception in
2004. Its use of torture has been documented by the UK government as
well as human rights groups.
The British government does not face the same legal restraints as the
US government and began offering training in late 2007, around the
time that UK intelligence agencies were seeking closer
counterterrorism co-operation with RAB and with Bangladeshi
intelligence agencies.
Small teams of British police from forces such as West Mercia and
Humberside have travelled to Bangladesh under the auspices of the
National Police Improvement Agency. The leaked cables show that they
offered training in "investigative interviewing techniques and rules
of engagement".
Asked whether it believed it was appropriate for British officers to
be training members of an organisation condemned as "a government
death squad", and whether courses in investigative interviewing
techniques might not render torture more effective, an NPIA spokesman
said the courses had been approved by the government and by the
Association of Chief Police Officers.
The Foreign Office, which funds the programme from its
counterterrorism programme, said it was intended to provide "human
rights and ethical policing skills training". A spokesperson said: "A
decision to fund a particular project is taken only after an
assessment of possible impacts and human rights implications has been
completed."
Shortly after WikiLeaks posted his confidential cables on the
internet, James Moriarty, US ambassador to Dhaka, said every
extrajudicial killing should be investigated in a transpararent
fashion by the Bangladeshi authorities.
Successive governments have promised to end RAB's use of murder. The
current government promised in its manifesto that it would end all
extrajudicial killings, but they have continued since its election two
years ago.
In 2009 the shipping minister, Shahjahan Khan, speaking in a
discussion organised by the BBC, said: "There are incidents of trials
that are not possible under the laws of the land. The government will
need to continue with extrajudicial killings, commonly called
crossfire, until terrorist activities and extortion are uprooted."
Because RAB enjoys popular support in Bangladesh, with some sections
of the population even voicing support for the extrajudicial killing
of alleged criminals and terrorists, activists at Human Rights Watch
and elsewhere argue that it will be disbanded only as a result of
pressure from western governments.
The Bangladeshi prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, is visiting the UK,
meeting political figures, and is to speak at the Oxford Union. On
Monday Lord Howells, the Foreign Office minister, told the Lords that
concerns about RAB were "exactly the sort of matter" that David
Cameron would be raising when he met her. Meanwhile, the human rights
lawyer Phil Shiner is considering mounting court proceedings to
challenge the legality of the UK's support for RAB.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jan/26/bangladesh-death-squad-killings-britain
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