The USA is not going to raise sanctions on an elite Bangladesh police unit accused of extrajudicial killings till it’s reformed, a prime US envoy visiting the nation has mentioned.
State Division Counselor Derek Chollet visited the South Asian nation this week the place he mentioned safety cooperation with authorities representatives in Dhaka.
The diplomat is among the most senior US officers to journey to Bangladesh since Washington sanctioned the Fast Motion Battalion (RAB) over human rights violations.
“If there’s an erosion in democracy anyplace, it begins to place a limiting issue on what we will do collectively,” Chollet mentioned on the conclusion of his journey on Wednesday.
“We’re dedicated to persevering with to assist Bangladesh strengthen the rule of regulation and safety,” he mentioned of the sanctions.
“Till we see accountability, till we see sustained reform, we aren’t going to have the ability to flip the web page on this.”
Dhaka and Washington usually have heat relations. They cooperate on safety points and Bangladesh typically votes alongside the USA on the United Nations.
However the USA and different Western governments have expressed concern over the political local weather in Bangladesh, the place Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s occasion dominates the legislature and runs it nearly as a rubber-stamp parliament.
Round 2,500 Bangladeshis have allegedly been killed by safety forces since Hasina got here to energy in 2009, based on rights group Odhikar.
The RAB is accused by rights teams of killing political opponents and staging gunfights to disclaim victims due authorized course of.
The federal government denies the allegations of disappearances and extrajudicial killings, with one minister saying that a few of those that went lacking actually fled Bangladesh.
The US sanctions, imposed in December 2021, embody asset freezes and visa bans on seven prime present or former RAB officers.
Chollet met with Hasina in Dhaka and is concluding his South Asia tour with an official go to to Pakistan.
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