JS team heads to US to discuss lifting of sanctions, other issues on May 14

A-four member parliamentary team will visit USA on May 14 to discuss sanction, geo-political and other bi-lateral issues with the Biden administration.
"We have got an appointment with the Congressional Foreign Affairs Committee (CFAC)  of the Biden administration, however, we plan to sit with some other important committees to discuss foreign affairs, geo-politics and business issues, obviously sanction issue would be included in the discussion," Col (Rtd) Muhammad Farooq Khan, Chairman of the parliamentary standing committee, said.
Following the sanction and Biden's international high-profile virtual "Summit for Democracy" issues (Bangladesh was not invited, around 111 countries were invited there), experts feel that the Biden administration has made a "significant policy shift" not only over Bangladesh, but in the US foreign policy in general, by placing electoral democracy and human rights at the heart of its foreign relations.
Later, parliamentary standing committee on foreign affairs in a meeting on April 27 in 2022 at the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban considered it an utter failure that the Bangladesh Embassy in the US was totally oblivious about such a decision of the US against this important law enforcement agency in Bangladesh.
The parliamentary watchdog recommended the missions located in different important countries including America and Europe to play a more active and responsible role, the minutes of the meeting said.
Nahim Razzak, a member of the committee, said that a group with vested interest is carrying out propaganda for a long time to make the government controversial before the world by recruiting lobbyists in different countries. But the Foreign Ministry has failed to deal with this propaganda.
"We want to discuss all issues with the new administration of USA.  We have multi-lateral relation with the USA, they are our good friend and big business partner so we want more dialogues with them over many issues," Farooq Khan said.
The US imposed human rights-related sanctions on Bangladesh's elite paramilitary force, the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) and seven of its current and former officials, accusing them of involvement in hundreds of enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings since 2009.
The sanctions mean the RAB will neither be allowed to own properties in the US nor engage in any financial transaction with a US body or personnel. The sanctions also ban seven current and former top officials of the RAB, including Benazir Ahmed, the Inspector General of Bangladesh Police, from entering the US.
 "We are determined to put human rights at the centre of our foreign policy, and we reaffirm this commitment by using appropriate tools and authorities to draw attention to and promote accountability for human rights violations and abuses, no matter where they occur," US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, while announcing the sanctions against the RAB, said.
 "We highly value our partnership with the Government of Bangladesh and work closely on regional and global challenges. We have discussed with Bangladeshi leaders the importance of upholding human rights and the rule of law.  We will continue to raise our concerns even as we cooperate on other bilateral issues," a spokesperson of the US State Department said.
But some experts believe there are wider implications of the US moves against Bangladesh.
According to sources, the Parliamentary committee meeting opined that they believe Bangladesh lies on a very critical location due to global geo-politics, and the US sanctions incorporate geo-political reasons.             
"There were discussions about initiating talks between Bangladesh and US lawmakers," they felt.  
Meanwhile, the US-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) has published four reports on the RAB, detailing its rights violations. In its 2011 report, titled Crossfire: Human Rights Abuses by Bangladesh's Rapid Action Battalion, HRW focused entirely on extrajudicial killings by the paramilitary force.
They have long been asking the Bangladesh government to establish an independent commission of inquiry into the disappearances and crossfire.