 | | May 2, 2013 Say NO to UN Hypocrisy of Hiring Death Squads from Bangladesh! The United Nations continues to source ‘peacekeepers’ from security personnel in Bangladesh - the same individuals that are employed by the government of Bangladesh to fire indiscriminately at unarmed civilians, abduct voices of dissent and threaten beat and torture individuals.
A total of 100,014 members from Bangladesh Armed Forces have participated in ‘peacekeeping’ missions since 1988, and yet, reports from international human rights organizations such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have repeatedly reported on state terror caused by the Bangladesh police and the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB).
RAB, a government controlled special forces unit, has been dubbed the world’s most notorious ‘death squad’ and has been responsible for over hundreds of extrajudicial killings since the Awami League came to power in 2009. According to Abbas Faiz, Amnesty International’s Bangladesh Researcher, “Hardly a week goes by in Bangladesh without someone being shot by RAB with the authorities saying they were killed or injured in ‘crossfire’ or a ‘gun-fight’…”.
Reports show that last year alone RAB was responsible for 43 known killings, 216 personnel were killed while in police custody, of which several died as a result of police torture.
The United Nations peace missions invite personnel from the police and RAB. These personnel who instill fear and terror on innocent civilians are being used to propagate peace?
It is time to say NO to this hypocrisy. The government of Bangladesh and its representatives do not honor, respect and maintain peace for their own people, they do not deserve and are not qualified to serve on peace missions for other people.
It is time to act NOW!
Take Action NOW: - Please call Ms. Marie Orler, UN Police Adviser at the Department of Peacekeeping Operations at 212-963-1293 and tell her "not to recruit Police, Army, Paramilitary forces from Bangladesh on UN Peacekeeping forces who are terrorizing and indiscriminately killing their own citizens in Bangladesh".
- Call Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs Andrew J. Shapiro at 202 647-9022 and ask him to disengage Bangladesh in talks until the government stop the atrocities against innocent civilians, and make the responsible minister, Mr. Mohiuddin Alomgir (Minister of Home Affairs) a "Persona Non Grata".
- Call your congressman and ask to "withhold" all assistance (financial, military and technical) to Bangladesh until the incumbent Hasina Government stops committing atrocities and human rights violations, and starts to restore a credible judicial system in Bangladesh.
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