Bangladesh's government led by Yunus signs UN convention involving enforced disappearance

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — Bangladesh’s interim government on Thursday signed the instrument of accession to an international convention of the United Nations aiming at preventing enforced disappearances as a state party, authorities said.

Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, who took over this month as head of the government after former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina stepped down and fled the country to India amid a mass uprising, signed the accession to the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearances, his press department said in a statement.

The signing took place during a weekly meeting of the interim government’s advisory council amid applause from the council members, the statement said.

“It is a historic occasion,” Yunus was quoted as saying.

The move came just one day before the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances. There have long been accusations that during Hasina’s 15-year-rule, hundreds of Bangladeshis, including critics and opposition activists, became the victims of enforced disappearances.

Earlier this week, the interim government established a commission to investigate cases of enforced disappearances during Hasina’s rule since 2009.

New York-based group Human Rights Watch, in a letter to Yunus, said that according to Bangladeshi human rights monitors, security forces carried out more than 600 enforced disappearances since 2009. While some people were later released, produced in court or said to have died during armed exchanges with security forces, nearly 100 people still remain disappeared.

The group also said that leaked information from military intelligence records indicates that some individuals who were forcibly disappeared were killed in custody. For victims who were returned and for those who are still missing, justice and accountability remains elusive, it said.

The International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance is an international human rights instrument of the U.N. intended to prevent forced disappearance, which has been defined in international law as part of crimes against humanity. The document was adopted by the U.N. General Assembly in 2006 and opened for signature the next year.

On Thursday, Hasina faced a 100th case — all of them on murder charges — involving the recent student protests. The U.N. said nearly 650 people died since July 15 when the student protests turned violent, and the figures also covered the deaths of many in new violence after Hasina left the country on Aug. 5.

Also, on Thursday, a father of a slain student who died in the student protest filed a complaint with a tribunal in Dhaka against 52 people, including Hasina and 32 journalists, teachers and writers. The case document seen by The Associated Press accuses them of instigating Hasina to commit mass murder during the recent protests by using security forces to quell the demonstrations.

Many of the senior journalists have gone into hiding in fear of being arrested and harassed.

One of the journalists whose name is on the list told the AP that such cases were being filed as a scare tactic and to stifle the freedom of expression. He spoke on condition of anonymity over fears of further harassment.

Human Rights Watch recently expressed concern over the recent arrest of a journalist couple in a similar case.

Meenakshi Ganguly, deputy director of the agency’s Asia Division, in an email to the AP, recently said that it was extremely concerning that the justice system “is replicating its abusive and partisan behavior since the fall of the Awami League government of Hasina with arbitrary arrests and failure in due process, merely reversing those targeted.”

“While there is legitimate anger over the abuses under Sheikh Hasina’s authoritarian governance, the focus should be on reform, not reprisal, which will only serve to undermine the pledges of the interim government,” she had said.

The Yunus-led government has attempted to restore political stability in the country as police forces and other government sectors are demoralized after attacks by protesters. The interim government is also facing new challenges as a devastating flood ravaged the country’s eastern and other regions. Thursday’s latest count said that at least 52 people died in the flooding.