9 Former, Current Rab Officers: Int’l rights body calls on UK to slap sanctions

Guernica 37, human rights-focused international justice chamber, has called on the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office to slap sanctions on nine current and former senior officers of Rab for their alleged involvement in human rights abuses and corrupt practices.

The request, which was made on August 24, was done under the Global Human Rights Sanctions Regulations 2020, said a press release from the Human Rights Watch that linked relevant submissions.

The Global Human Rights Sanctions Regulations 2020 put in place sanctions to deter and provide accountability for states and state actors violating an individual's "right to life; right not to be subjected to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment; and right to be free from slavery, not to be held in servitude or required to perform forced or compulsory labour", according to the UK government's official website.

The violations must have happened within the territory of the state.

Guernica did not name the Rab officers in their website.

The officials have served as senior Rab officers during the past five years and have commanded units directly involved in serious abuses or held positions of operational control for all Rab battalions, it said.

As senior Rab officers, they were responsible for hundreds of extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, and torture, said the submission from the London-based legal chambers.

"Due to the frequency and pervasiveness of the abuses, public comments by Bangladeshi officials and the widespread media attention they garnered, the officials knew, or should have known, that Rab officers under their command have perpetrated serious human rights abuses," the submission said.

"There is no evidence of credible investigations or actions taken by them to stop the abuses and ensure meaningful accountability."

The sanctions, which would bar the Rab officials from entering the UK, will send a clear message to the Bangladesh government that the UK does not tolerate serious human rights abuses, even from a partner, the submission said.

Asked about the press release, Commander Khandaker Al Moin, director of Rab's legal and media, said, "We can't comment on something that we haven't seen yet."

"This will be relayed to us via the foreign ministry," he said. 

On its website, Guernica 37 said it made the same request for sanctions against "six leading members of the Government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh" without mentioning who they were.