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US, UK urged to stop training RAB
AP story. Don't copy it verbatim. We've had enough problems here... DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) -- The United States and Britain should immediately stop supporting a Bangladeshi anti-crime force blamed for killing hundreds of suspects without trial if there is no visible effort to reform it, a rights group said Thursday.Gee, I wonder who they are talking about? The Rapid Action Battalion, or RAB, was responsible for more than 1,000 extra-judicial slayings in the preceding five years, a 2009 report by Human Rights Watch alleged. Oh, right Yup, about a thousand Purba Banglars, Biplobis (new and old) and other assorted miscreants are pining for the fjords. A thousand. Wow. Busy beavers the RAB is ... The United Kingdom and United States have trained the Bangladeshi force as part of a counterterrorism strategy since at least 2008, leaked U.S. diplomatic cables say. Have we? Great! At least we're doing something that works ... Moriarty said the RAB recognized the need to address allegations of past abuses and had incorporated human rights training at the RAB's academy and in units of the force. That's working well The Bangladeshi government has not commented on the allegations. Did you expect them to? According to the cables, foreign diplomats in Dhaka believe that the battalion is enjoying a wide range of public support because of deteriorating law and order in Bangladesh. Or maybe they define 'law and order' a little differently. Remember these are the people who lynch muggers and robbers on the spot. It's the sort of 'cultural difference' you think a good progressive would honor in the name of 'diversity' ... But a nation cannot ensure law and order by being complicit in violating the very laws it should protect, Meenakshi Ganguly, the rights group's South Asia director, told The Associated Press in an e-mail."Criminals should be arrested, prosecuted and punished, not randomly picked up and The New York-based group said continued violation of human rights by the battalion will only harm Bangladesh's law enforcement capacity. "Does Bangladesh really want a force that can easily run amok because it is protected by the state from being prosecuted for human rights violations," she asked. Apparently the answer is 'yes' ... Posted by: Steve 2010-12-23 |
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