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The United States Senate Foreign Relations Committee has called on the Trump administration to impose sanctions on top commanders of Bangladesh’s Rapid Action Battalion (RAB).
A total of eight senators, led by Democratic Senator Bob Menendez and Republican Senator Todd Young, have called for action against top RAB officials. The RAB alleges that the force has extrajudicially killed more than 400 people since 2015.
In a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Secretary of the Treasury Steven Manucci, the senators called for sanctions under applicable law. The letter was uploaded to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee website yesterday. The US state media Voice of America has published a report on the matter.
In the letter, the senators mentioned that extrajudicial executions at the hands of the RAB have increased after the government declared a war on drugs in Bangladesh a few months before the December 2016 elections. Experts, including the UN special rapporteur On extrajudicial executions, short trials and speedy executions, they said the “war on drugs” was a deliberate policy on extrajudicial executions and called on the government to stop it and show respect for the rule of law and human rights. However, the government has been unable to stop this and continues to carry out extrajudicial executions.
The senators added that in addition to extrajudicial executions, UN experts, journalists and human rights groups have evidence of disappearances and torture by the RAB. Although the force continues to violate human rights, no action has been taken against its senior officials.
Recalling the obligation to take action against human rights violators under United States law, the senators called for severe action against RAB commanders through all appropriate authorities.
