A recent investigation report by the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHC) on human rights violations in Bangladesh during the uprising of July-August led by the students, threw A direct role and commander of the former leader Sheikh Hasina in serious human rights in serious human rights violations.
The OHCHR report explicitly attributes responsibility for the raw violations of human rights during demonstrations to the Hasina regime. According to the report, Hasina, who was then the Prime Minister of Bangladesh, and his minister of origin Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal personally coordinated brutal security operations. Despite the warnings of senior officials concerning the excessive appeal of force, Hasina refused to change course and rather expressed direct orders authorizing violent repression, the report said.
The conclusions of the report will hinder Hasina’s image and legitimacy on an international scale, which makes her return and that of the Awami League (AL), the party it leads, to the more difficult Banglades.
According to the OHCH report, between July 1 and August 15, 2024, Bangladesh attended an unprecedented repression against dissent, triggered by demonstrations led by students against the reintegration of a “controversial quota system In public sector jobs. The report details how the Hasina government, in coordination with the security forces and groups of pro-government vigilants, uses the violent abolition of peaceful demonstrators.
More than 1,400 people have been killed with a significant number of deaths caused by living munitions dismissed without discrimination by the security forces. Between 12 to 13% of people killed were children. In addition, more than 11,700 people were arrested and held. The victims were subjected to torture, in particular blows, electric shocks and threats of execution, to extract confessions or intimidate the dissidents.
Bangladesh police, Rapid Action Battalion, the Bangladesh border guard and the army were directly involved in these murders. Intelligence agencies, such as the General Directorate of the Armed Forces for Intelligence and Intelligence of National Security, collaborated with the police to make forced disappearances of student leaders, according to the report.
The report also underlined the extreme attempts of the Hasina government to hide information on human rights violations. Journalists covering the demonstrations were killed, injured and arbitrarily arrested, preventing independent reports on violent repression.
In addition, the Internet and social media have been strategically closed, reducing the ability of demonstrators to organize and prevent the public from accessing information in real time on the crisis of course. The security forces also made a descent into hospitals, arrested injured demonstrators and intimidated medical staff, effectively obstructing vital medical care and ensuring that evidence of atrocities have remained abolished.
The OHCHR report is of the opinion that the repression of the Hasina regime against the demonstrators can equip crimes against humanity. According to the words of the human rights organization, “these serious human rights violations also raise concerns from the point of view of international criminal law, so that additional criminal investigations are justified to determine in what measure they can also constitute crimes against humanity. ”
On August 5, 2024, Hasina fled to India, where she remains to date. Several Politicians of the AL also fled in India in the days and weeks after the fall of his government. The interim government of Bangladesh, led by Dr. Mohammed Yunus, repeatedly called on his extradition to be tried for alleged crimes against humanity.
This report is important for several reasons and has implications for India. First, the report highlights a well -conceived strategy of the Yunus government to investigate human rights violations committed by the Hasina administration. Yunus has probably recognized that a national survey of the Bangladesh state response to the uprising of July-August under the supervision of Hasina would not draw significant attention abroad. Consequently, inviting the United Nations to undertake the investigation was a strategic decision to ensure a more in -depth examination and an international conscience of the role of Hasina.
Second, the United Nations report will now be used by the Bangladesh International Crimes Tribunal (ICT), which prepares two cases of crimes against humanity against Hasina and 45 others, including 11 former ministers. The chief prosecutor Tajul Islam recently declared to a press briefing that “”The United Nations results have clearly declared that the atrocities of July-August were one of the pre-plane crimes and these took place on the order of Sheikh Hasina. ICT should also use the OCH report as a defensive measure against any potential international criticism concerning its procedures.
Third, the report will further undermine Hasina’s credibility on an international scale. Although she was not redesigned for the crimes that were committed on her orders and promised to return to Bangladesh policy, that will not happen anytime soon. Millions of young Bangladais are afraid of Hasina as they grew up under her heavy regime, which disappeared with force, in an extrajudicial manner or thousands of people to express his criticism. They will resist his return. The AL is divided on its role in the uprising of July-August. Critics of repression will be opposed to his return.
Finally, the report is likely to pose challenges for India on the international scene, because it can become more and more difficult for India to justify providing a shelter in Hasina and the members of the AL, many of which have been involved in serious human rights violations in Bangladesh.
With this dynamic, it is also likely that the relationship between AL and India will begin to weaken. For India, there is not much to win by supporting Al and Hasina when they no longer take advantage of public support in Bangladesh. On the contrary, there is much more to obtain from India to establish a relationship with the current government and other parties.