A group of leading US Congressmen sent out a letter on May 17, 2023, another one being circulated on May 25, 2023 to President Joe Biden requesting stronger sanctions against continued violators of human rights and other democratic malpractices in Bangladesh under Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, illegally in power since 2009. Military and police perpetrators of violations should be barred from the UN missions abroad. Stricter sanctions were important in view of the crucial national elections to be held in a few months, the letter said.
The Coalition for Human Rights & Democracy in Bangladesh (CHRD Bangladesh) strongly welcomes this important initiative by the prominent members of the US House of Representatives to ensure the establishment of democracy and good governance in the South Asian country.
Citing the earlier sanctions against the government’s “Death Squad” of Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), the letter requested harder sanctions against the criminals who were clearly identified by such international rights organizations as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Freedom House and the UN. RAB and police continued to fatally attack the peaceful political gatherings and activities of the opposition parties ending in fatal consequences. Quoting popular German media DW and Swedish Netra News, a few RAB whistleblowers confirmed that orders for death and persecution usually came from the Prime Minister or the Home Minister.
The lawmakers noted that sanctions on RAB failed to produce the desired results as the Hasina administration not only defied them but also intensified persecutions on its people. “Hasina’s misconduct” encouraged other nations in the region to go against US’ security interests and side with China and Russia, they observed.
The Congressmen also blamed the Hasina regime for persecution of the Hindu and other minority communities. Much of these persecutions were deliberately committed to assign blame on the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and Jamaat-e-Islam (JI), falsely accusing them as fundamentalists. To the contrary, many leading Indian leaders praised the existence of excellent communal harmony in neighboring Bangladesh, far better than their own country.
CHRD Bangladesh reiterates its repeated assertions that the Hasina administration is incapable of holding a credible election, as proven over and over again during its illegal rule of one and a half decades. It requests all concerned authorities to make urgent arrangements for a free, fair and participatory election under a neutral, non-partisan caretaker government in Bangladesh for the people to exercise their untampered voting rights to choose a democratic and patriotic government.