Dhaka summons US envoy, denounces sanctions on RAB, its high-ups

Bangladesh has expressed dissatisfaction over US sanctions on the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) and its seven current and former officials on charges of human rights abuses.

Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen said that US Ambassador to Dhaka Earl R Miller was summoned to the foreign ministry on Saturday morning to convey "the dissatisfaction".

"We called the US ambassador this morning. The foreign secretary had discussed it with the ambassador. He [the ambassador] himself is kind of surprised over what had happened [sanctions]," the minister told reporters in Dhaka on Saturday.

Later, a media release from the foreign ministry said that Bangladesh has expressed dissatisfaction to the US ambassador over the ban on police and RAB chiefs.

Ambassador Miller told the foreign secretary that he would convey the Bangladesh government's concerns to Washington, added the media statement.

On Friday, the US Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) imposed sanctions on a total of 10 organisations and 15 individuals from various countries, including Bangladesh, who were found to have been involved in human rights abuses and repression. 

The measures are the latest in a raft of sanctions timed to coincide with Biden's two-day virtual Summit for Democracy that ended 10 December. Bangladesh was not invited to the summit attended by over 100 global leaders.  

Of the organisations and individuals, RAB, its former director general and current police chief Benazir Ahmed and RAB's current chief Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun face the US ban.

Due to the sanctions, they will not get a US visa, and may even have their assets in the United States confiscated.

In the face of the sanctions that have been making the headlines in Bangladesh since Friday night, RAB held a press conference on Saturday, claiming, "RAB is not abusing human rights, but rather protecting them".

"We have heard about the US sanctions through the media. We are yet to receive any official letter regarding this," RAB spokesperson Commander Khandaker Al Moin told the press conference in Dhaka.
 
Won't harm bilateral relations: Momen

After speaking at a function in Dhaka on Saturday morning, Foreign Minister Abdul Momen talked to journalists, informing them that the US ambassador had been summoned.

In response to a media query, the minister pointed to the US ban on Bangladesh's police chief and RAB director general, saying, "It is very disappointing."

He, however, does not think that the sanctions will affect bilateral relations between Dhaka and Washington.  

Momen claimed that six lakh people go missing in the United States each year, but the US government does not know how. He also commented that the US police kill thousands of people every year in the line of duty.

"The US claims 600 people have been killed by RAB in ten years. But we do not know who killed them. We hope the United States will provide a bit more detail about their claim," he said.

"Developed and mature countries like the United States sometimes take many measures that are immature. The measures have not been good for many countries, not even for the American people," he said.

"In fact, countries that are developing fast and their governments often face attacks. Good deeds meet with numerous issues," he added.

Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen regretted that the US decided to undermine an agency of the government that had been at the forefront of combating terrorism, drug trafficking and other heinous transnational crimes that were considered to be shared priorities with successive US administrations.

"The US decision appeared to have been based more on unverified or unsubstantiated allegations of command responsibility than on the facts involved in connection with certain specific incidents that had taken place at the local level," Masud Bin Momen added.

He further decried the decision targeting the Bangladesh officials was made in tandem with those concerning certain countries that stand alleged to have committed serious international crimes, i.e. 'text book example of ethnic cleansing', by the UN and other concerned international bodies.

We don't fire until fired upon: Home minister  

Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan did not respond directly to the US sanctions on RAB and its officials, but said that law enforcement agencies only fire in self-defence during anti-drug drives.

"Our system is decent. No one can kill people in the name of crossfire or shootout. It seems to us that each of the incidents had a good reason behind them for retaliation," he said at a function in Dhaka Saturday.

The home minister said law enforcers often have to retaliate to save their lives since terrorists open fire on them.

He said Bangladesh probes each of the firing incidents to ascertain whether it was an accident or caused by negligence on the part of the law enforcers.

"Let us go through the US official statement first, and understand why they issued the ban," he added.

Apart from RAB as an organisation, the officials who face the US ban are RAB Director General Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun, Additional Director General (operations) Khan Mohammad Azad, former additional director general (operations) Tofayel Mustafa Sorwar, former additional director general (operations) Mohammad Jahangir Alam, and former additional director general (operations) Mohammad Anwar Latif Khan.

Besides, the US State Department barred Benazir Ahmed, and another former official of RAB Lt Col Miftah Uddin Ahmed, from traveling to the United States.

On Friday, the United States also imposed extensive human rights-related sanctions on people and entities tied to China, Myanmar and North Korea.

Canada and the United Kingdom joined the United States in imposing sanctions related to human rights abuses in Myanmar, while Washington also imposed the first new sanctions on North Korea under President Joe Biden's administration and targeted Myanmar military entities, among others, in action marking Human Rights Day.

"Our actions today, particularly those in partnership with the United Kingdom and Canada, send a message that democracies around the world will act against those who abuse the power of the state to inflict suffering and repression," Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo said in a statement over the sweeping human rights sanctions.