The United States has expressed concern about Bangladesh's anti-drug campaign in which around 150 people have so far died and the US State Department spokesperson termed it extra-judicial killings and violation of human rights. The government has bluntly refuted the allegation and dismissed the US concern.
Perhaps the government is right in its assertion as 90 percent or more of Bangladeshi people do support the crackdown on narcotics as they want the country free from the growing drug menace that is "killing" the young generation and ruining the country's future. So, people are surprised by the United States of America's uncalled for comments over what is essentially Bangladesh's internal affair that involves national interest.
The Bangladesh government launched the anti-narcotics operations in pursuance of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's "zero tolerance" policy against drug trafficking, drug peddlers and syndicates run by political and other gangs or individuals as syndicates. The drive started early last month and is going on in full swing - that has unnerved the traffickers and aroused "concern" among their friends who see it as perpetration of extrajudicial killings violating human rights and want this to stop. But the fact is that the crackdown on drugs has popular support despite the human rights organisations, some civil society bodies and a section of media have been questioning the anti-drug drive raising concern over human rights.
Besides deaths in shootouts between traffickers and law enforcers, police have also arrested over 10,000 people, suspected of being part of the drug cartel. They include political activists, corrupt officials, law enforcers, students and people from all walks of life who have been drawn into the vast network laid out by the drug lords and godfathers.
However, under no circumstances the drive should target political rivals or innocent people that we all oppose. The campaign has raised fears among rights activists over the Philippine-style war on drugs and the U.S. Ambassador in Dhaka, Marcia Bernicat, voiced concern about what she saw as bloodshed. "Of course I express concern about the number of people dying," Bernicat told reporters on Wednesday after talks with Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan in which the campaign was discussed.
"Everyone in a democracy has a right to due process. If there is a violent confrontation people may not survive that, but the goal should be zero tolerance, the goal should be to try and bring everyone to justice," she said. We wonder whether Bernicat had a time to look back at her own country for human rights and justice? Perhaps she did not. The successive US governments have one of world's worst records of HR violations and now the government of Donald J. Trump appears to become the "unheralded HR chieftain" of the world!
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who launched the anti-narcotics campaign in early May, said it would go on until Bangladesh is free from the drug scourge. No drug "godfathers" would be spared, she asserted. And we hope she means this and therefore we believe a new law will be passed to deal especially with the drug lords and godfathers. . "No innocent people are being harassed or targeted, but if any such incidents happen it will be addressed through proper investigation," Hasina said reassuring the concerned people.
But Bernicat said "no one - neither civilians nor police - should take the law into their own hands." So let us look back at the US history of trampling HR, killings, torture and eliminating rivals where they got blinded and saw no extrajudicial deaths. The International Federation for Human Rights and its Bangladeshi member organization, Odhikar, called on the government on Thursday to stop the crackdown and investigate what it said were numerous complaints of extrajudicial killing. They hired voice from Washington.
Where did human rights stand when former Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega, who spied for the United States before his drug trafficking and brutality triggered a U.S. invasion, was ousted in 1989? Noriega, who ruled Panama from 1983 to 1989, was a longtime collaborator of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and a useful U.S. ally in a region that was prone to leftist insurgencies.
Where was America's concern for human rights violation when they killed Bin Laden in Pakistan without putting him through due process of law and dumped his body into the sea? And, the killings of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussain and thousands of Iraqi people, ordered by ex-US president George W. Bush were not extrajudicial? Iraqis were killed and Bagdad was destroyed with the plea of existance of Weapon of Mass Destruction (WMD) there but later on British Prime Minister Tony Blair admitted the reports of WMD were wrong.
Where is human rights when US supports the killing of hundreds of Palestinians by Israel, the closest ally of the US in the Middle East? Instead of opposing or voicing concern, Washington decided to give Israel further backing by shifting its embassy from Tel Aviv to the Muslim holy land of Jerusalem? Aren't they "extrajudicial or unlawful" killings or acts? Clearly, the US is maintaining a double standard which Mercia Bernicat is trying to replicate. The Foreign Office should give her a strong response, saying she is meant to act strictly within diplomatic norms and mandate, not to interfere in another country's internal matters.
Meanwhile, the US has withdrawn from the United Nations' top human rights body accusing it of "chronic bias" against Israel, in a move that was criticised by human rights groups and described as regrettable by foreign leaders. The decision to pull out of the UN Human Rights Council was announced on Tuesday by Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the UN.
"We take this step because our commitment does not allow us to remain a part of a hypocritical and self-serving organisation that makes a mockery of human rights," she said alongside US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Washington, DC. So, they are an "extended" part of Jewish Israel and therefore must try to harm or revolt against the Muslim Palestinians!
The European Union said the Trump's move (US withdrawal from UN HR Council) "risks undermining the role of the US as a champion and supporter of democracy on the world stage", while British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson called it "regrettable" But they both perhaps forgot that the US under D J Trump has abandoned its role as champion of demonracy but promotes autocracy and communalism for its own interest and at the cost of thousands of non-American lives. There they find no extrajudicial killing! Quitting the UN Human Rights Council showing disregard to global campaign for human rights the US has no moral right to question Bangladesh's human rights issue?
The US announcement to leave UN MR body came after the U.N. Council voted last month to probe the killing of scores of Palestinian protesters in the Gaza Strip and accused Israel of excessive use of force. We in Bangladesh strongly protest against America's interference in our internal affairs and ask them to mind their own business. If they have a spare time it should be used to try to save the people in Afganistan, Syria, Sudan, Yemen and other countries where human rights have been literally buried.
Instead of criticising Bangladesh Marcia Bernicat should recognise that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's 'zero tolerance' stand against insurgents and criminals has ensured peace along Bangladesh-India border. Her tough stand has stopped IS-motivated home grown terrorism in Bangladesh following the nightmare incident by suicide squad of terrorists at Holy Artisan Cafe in Dhaka. Her uncompromising policy has been acting as a bulwark against extremism and communalism. All she has done in the interest of the country and its people that gained popular support and international recognition.
Should she succumb to interference of some foreign countries or she should give priority to her country's interest and expectation of the people as policy of her governance? Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina proved that she is with her people and the nation in return have endorsed her leadership.
