UN says former Bangladesh govt behind possible 'crimes against humanity'

by Nina LARSON

Bangladesh's former government was behind systematic attacks and killings of protesters as it tried to hold onto power last year, the UN said Wednesday, warning the abuses could amount to "crimes against humanity".

Before prime minister Sheikh Hasina was toppled in a student-led revolution last August, her government cracked down on protesters and others, including "hundreds of extrajudicial killings", the United Nations said.

The UN rights office said it had "reasonable grounds to believe that the crimes against humanity of murder, torture, imprisonment and infliction of other inhumane acts have taken place."

These alleged crimes committed by the government, along with violent elements of her Awami League party and the Bangladeshi security and intelligence services, were part of "a widespread and systematic attack against protesters and other civilians," a UN report into the violence said.

Hasina, 77, who fled into exile in neighboring India, has already defied an arrest warrant to face trial in Bangladesh for crimes against humanity.

- Up to 1,400 killed -

The rights office launched a fact-finding mission at the request of Bangladesh's interim leader Mohammed Yunus, sending a team including human rights investigators, a forensics physician and a weapons expert to the country.

Yunus welcomed the report, saying he wanted to transform "Bangladesh into a country in which all its people can live in security and dignity".

Wednesday's report is mainly based on more than 230 interviews with victims, witnesses, protest leaders, rights defenders and others, reviews of medical case files, and of photos, videos and other documents.

The team determined that security forces had supported Hasina's government throughout the unrest, which began as protests against civil service job quotas and then escalated into wider calls for her to stand down.

The rights office said the former government had tried to suppress the protests with increasingly violent means.

It estimated that "as many as 1,400 people may have been killed" over a 45-day time period, while thousands were injured.

The vast majority of those killed "were shot by Bangladesh's security forces", the rights office said, adding that children made up 12 to 13 percent of those killed.

The overall death toll given is far higher than the most recent estimate by Bangladesh's interim government of 834 people killed.

- 'Rampant state violence' -

"The brutal response was a calculated and well-coordinated strategy by the former government to hold onto power in the face of mass opposition," UN rights chief Volker Turk said.

"There are reasonable grounds to believe hundreds of extrajudicial killings, extensive arbitrary arrests and detentions, and torture, were carried out with the knowledge, coordination and direction of the political leadership and senior security officials as part of a strategy to suppress the protests."

Turk said the testimonies and evidence gathered by his office "paint a disturbing picture of rampant state violence and targeted killings".

The report also documented gender-based violence, including threats of rape aimed at deterring women from taking part in protests.

And the rights office said its team had determined that "police and other security forces killed and maimed children, and subjected them to arbitrary arrest, detention in inhumane conditions and torture."

The report also highlighted "lynchings and other serious retaliatory violence" against police and Awami league officials or supporters.

"Accountability and justice are essential for national healing and for the future of Bangladesh," Turk said.

He stressed that "the best way forward for Bangladesh is to face the horrific wrongs committed" during the period in question.

What was needed, he said, was "a comprehensive process of truth-telling, healing and accountability, and to redress the legacy of serious human rights violations and ensure they can never happen again."

© Agence France-Presse