Violence, repression ahead of Bangladesh’s general elections: HRW

Staff Reporter :
Human Rights Watch (HRW) has voiced concerns about “violence and repression” and increasing attacks on opposition political leaders and workers ahead of Bangladesh’s 2023 parliamentary elections.
“The ruling Awami League is promising free and fair elections in response to increased international scrutiny but is belying those claims by ramping up repression,” said Meenakshi Ganguly, the organisation’s South Asia director in its World Report, published Thursday.
‘Donors and strategic partners should insist that Bangladeshis can express themselves and select their leaders without fear, including by supporting independent election monitoring missions,’ the HRW report suggested.
In the 712-page World Report 2023, its 33rd edition, Human Rights Watch reviews human rights practices in close to 100 countries.
Besides, the Human Rights Watch in its annual report observed that extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances dropped in Bangladesh since the US sanctions against RAB and seven of its former and current officials for alleged human rights abuses.
“Following the US Global Magnitsky human rights sanctions against Bangladesh’s Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) and some of its top commanders in December 2021, extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances momentarily dropped. However, instead of taking steps toward reform, the government dismissed the allegations that led to sanctions, and the authorities began a campaign of threats and intimidation against human rights defenders and families of victims of enforced disappearances.”
The HRW report stated that the government also clamped down on human rights organisations and mentioned that Odhikar, a prominent Bangladesh rights group, was denied registration renewal while its leaders, Adilur Rahman Khan and ASM Nasruddin Elan, are facing surveillance and trials as part of ‘longstanding harassment’.
It also said that the authorities continued to arrest critics under the ‘draconian’ Digital Security Act. In November, members of RAB arrested an opposition leader, Sultana Ahmed, for criticizing Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at a rally in September.
‘Authorities are increasingly going after dissidents abroad,’ the report stated, citing a recent report of the Bangladesh foreign ministry which prepared a list of dissidents abroad who are committing what the ministry said anti-state activities.
Authorities stepped up the targeting of relatives of expatriate dissidents, it further said.
In addition, HRW noted that authorities have intensified restrictions on the livelihoods, movement, and education of the Rohingya refugees currently residing in Bangladesh adding that international attention to this humanitarian crisis has waned and efforts to help them remain severely underfunded.
The Rohingya refugees, facing impossible conditions for a safe and voluntary return to their homeland Myanmar, suffer threats, extortion and ill-treatment by Bangladeshi security forces and other authorities, also observed the watchdog in its annual publication.