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Two British members of Parliament are demanding solutions from the nation’s authorities after Al Jazeera reported that members of an notorious Bangladeshi anti-crime unit travelled to the UK a number of instances this yr to obtain coaching.
Al Jazeera’s Investigative Unit (I-Unit) revealed final week that the UK in late 2021 held again from implementing sanctions on the Fast Motion Battalion (RAB), which has been linked to alleged extrajudicial killings and compelled disappearances in Bangladesh. Subsequently, members of RAB got here to the UK, the place they acquired spy coaching.
“This case raises plenty of vital questions, all of which require clear and complete solutions from the federal government,” Chris Bryant, a legislator with the principle opposition Labour get together and co-chair of the All-Get together Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Magnitsky Sanctions, instructed Al Jazeera.
“The UK Parliament, civil society, and the worldwide neighborhood should know what occurred,” mentioned Bryant, who additionally raised the difficulty within the Home of Commons earlier this week.
His feedback had been echoed by Sir Iain Duncan Smith, a lawmaker with the governing Conservative get together and co-Chair of the APPG on Magnitsky Sanctions, who referred to as on the federal government to “make clear the circumstances which permitted high-ranking officers of a safety pressure referred to as a ‘loss of life squad’ to return to the UK for coaching”.
‘Extraordinarily upset’
The US sanctioned RAB and 7 people linked to the unit in December 2021 below the International Magnitsky Act, created to punish those that US officers imagine to be human rights violators, together with by freezing their belongings and blocking US firms and people from doing enterprise with them.
In line with the I-Unit’s report in early December, the UK authorities was additionally within the late levels of implementing sanctions towards RAB however pulled out on the final minute for causes that haven’t been defined.
Al Jazeera spoke to 2 individuals who labored on the sanctions request, each of whom mentioned the Eleventh-hour U-turn was extremely uncommon.
“It was definitely my place that the UK would difficulty mirror sanctions in coordination with the US,” UK lawyer Toby Cadman, who helped put together the sanctions request, instructed Al Jazeera. “I used to be extraordinarily upset after they failed to take action.”
Mohammad Ashrafuzzaman, the liaison officer on the Asian Human Rights Fee who offered the proof of human rights abuses by the RAB hooked up to the sanctions requests to the US and the UK, instructed Al Jazeera, “The expectation was that the UK and US, being robust allies, that they might be collaborating with one another by saying back-to-back sanctions. The US did that on the tenth of December, the UK didn’t.”
Ashrafuzzaman mentioned the documentation collected by his workforce was utilized by the US as justification for sanctions towards the RAB, together with proof of alleged involvement in at the very least 600 pressured disappearances since 2009 and greater than 600 extrajudicial killings since 2018.
The Bangladesh authorities has denied these accusations, saying the deaths had been the results of so-called “crossfires”, not abstract executions, with the “prison” being killed when he bought caught within the crossfire between his gang and the RAB.
International Magnitsky Sanctions
Bryant, the Labour legislator, mentioned he particularly wished to know if the US had requested the UK to work with it on the sanctions, and in that case, why the UK didn’t implement the measures.
Freed from sanctions proscribing their journey, RAB officers had been capable of go to the UK in current months, the place they acquired coaching in using mass surveillance gear that might be used, in keeping with human rights organisations Al Jazeera spoke to, to suppress the freedoms of individuals in Bangladesh.
Duncan Smith instructed Al Jazeera it was essential that overseas secretary James Cleverly present solutions concerning the journeys.
“How did these officers enter the UK – specifically, below what scheme? For instance, did they journey below diplomatic passports?” Ducan Smith requested.
“Did the Residence Workplace think about the truth that these people had been travelling of their capability as high-ranking members of the RAB, ie, an entity sanctioned by the US simply months prior,” he continued
“What involvement, if any, does the UK authorities have within the operations of the RAB?”
Newly introduced sanctions
Final week, the UK introduced a slew of latest sanctions towards people and entities that, amongst others, violated human rights – however these didn’t embrace RAB.
Megan Smith, authorized officer on the human rights organisation Redress, mentioned the “30 designations throughout 11 international locations was a welcome step in the best course” after what she described because the UK authorities’s stalling of using human rights and anti-corruption sanctions throughout the previous yr.
“The UK authorities should now be sure that it continues to take decisive motion towards human rights abusers and kleptocrats, together with these in international locations it considers to be allies,” she instructed Al Jazeera.
“This continued use of Magnitsky sanctions should be performed in higher coordination with different states: at current, a majority of world Magnitsky designations imposed by different international locations haven’t been replicated by the UK.
“This lack of coordination not solely undermines the potential impression of sanctions however may flip the UK right into a secure haven for perpetrators.”
In response to final week’s Al Jazeera reporting, the UK International Workplace mentioned, “The UK is a number one advocate for human rights world wide and we often increase human rights points immediately with different governments, together with Bangladesh.”
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