BANGLADESH

Forced disappearances increased sharply last year in Bangladesh as security agencies replaced one form of abuse with another, according to Human Rights Watch.

The New York-based human rights organisation in its World Report 2012 said the number of extrajudicial killings by Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) has dropped following criticisms at home and abroad.

Moreover, the government took no significant steps to investigate and prosecute torture in custody and extrajudicial killings in 2011 and showed an increasing intolerance for criticism, it said.

The organisation, in its 676-page World Report 2012 published at Cairo in Egypt on Monday, expressed its concern over 'the change of form to abuse by security agencies'.

The report said the government violated the rights to a fair trial of thousands of Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) mutineers.

A bloodbath in the headquarters of the Border Guard Bangladesh, formerly known as Bangladesh Rifles (BDR), killed at least 74 people, including 57 army officers deputed to the paramilitary force, on Feb 25-26, 2009. The trial of the mutineers is on in several special courts across the country.

Human Rights Watch said it thinks human rights organisations, journalists, trade unions, and civil society activists remain at risk in the country, with some suffering attacks.

The World Report assessed progress on human rights during the past year in more than 90 countries, including popular uprisings in the Arab world that few would have imagined.

RAB HAVE NO EXPLANATION

Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch said, "The government of Sheikh Hasina has made repeated promises to end abuses and ensure justice and accountability, yet the security forces remain above the law."

"In the past year the government has moved from saying it would take action against abusive forces to denying abuses or defending the actions of the same abusive security forces that it complained about when it was in opposition," he added.

"Despite clear and voluminous evidence of Rapid Action Battalion responsibility," Adams said, "the government has not held anyone in RAB accountable for the large numbers of extrajudicial killings."

EXTRAJUDICIAL KILLINGS SPREADING

According to the report, Bangladeshi human rights groups have documented nearly 1,600 extrajudicial killings since 2004.

"Many were disguised by law enforcement institutions as 'crossfire killings'." The organisation thinks RAB is the unit mainly responsible for such killings.

"…same culture of violations and impunity is infecting other security forces as members rotate back to their parent units in the police or intelligence departments," the report said.

Quoting the Asian Human Rights Commission, the report said that its representative, William Gomez, was abducted by plainclothes security personnel in May and tortured and verbally abused during an interrogation.