Zakir Hossain / Dhaka
The United Nations (UN) accused Bangladesh’s former administration of orchestrating systematic attacks and killings of protesters during its attempt to maintain power last year, potentially constituting “crimes against humanity”.
In August last year, before student protests ousted Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, her administration violently suppressed demonstrators, with the UN citing “hundreds of extrajudicial killings”. The UN rights office cited “reasonable grounds to believe that the crimes against humanity of murder, torture, imprisonment and infliction of other inhumane acts have taken place.”
The UN report detailed how the government, alongside violent elements of the Awami League party and security services, conducted a “widespread and systematic attack against protesters and other civilians”. Hasina, aged 77, who had been in office for 15 years, fled by helicopter to India shortly before crowds stormed her residence last August, currently faces an arrest warrant in Bangladesh. The unrest began as student-led protests against quotas in civil service jobs and escalated into a countrywide movement to oust Hasina and her Awami League Party following a deadly police crackdown. Thousands more were injured in the worst violence Bangladesh has seen since its war of independence in 1971.
At the request of interim leader Mohammed Yunus, the rights office deployed a team of specialists, including human rights investigators and experts. The investigation, based on over 230 interviews and extensive documentation, revealed security forces’ consistent support of Hasina’s administration throughout the unrest. “Former senior officials directly involved in handling the protests and other inside sources described how the former prime minister and other senior officials directed and oversaw a series of large-scale operations, in which security and intelligence forces shot and killed protesters or arbitrarily arrested and tortured them,” the report said.
The report estimated approximately 1,400 casualties over 45 days, surpassing the interim government’s figure of 834. Security forces were responsible for most deaths, with children comprising 12-13 per cent of the victims.
UN rights chief Volker Turk described the response as a calculated strategy to retain power. “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,” he added. The UN investigators documented the shooting at point-blank range of some protesters, the deliberate maiming of others, arbitrary arrests and torture. It “found patterns of security forces deliberately and impermissibly killing or maiming protesters, including incidents where people were shot at point-blank range.”
The investigation also documented gender-based violence including rape threats and child victimisation. It estimates up to 13% of the 1,400 people killed between between July 1 and August 15 were children. Turk said the evidence gathered by his office painted “a disturbing picture of rampant state violence and targeted killings.” The report further noted retaliatory violence against police and Awami League members.