The Human Rights Blog

The Asian Human Rights Coalition has written to the president of the UN Human Rights Council to express how unsuitable the addition of Bangladesh would be to the Council. Bangladesh citizens are subject to arbitrary arrests, torture and extrajudicial killings by police and special paramilitary units. There is no law barring torture and there is no independent judiciary.

AS-305-2006
December 8, 2006

International Human Rights Day Statement for 2006

In addition to the general statement issued by the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) for International Human Rights Day on December 10, we are also making the brief comments below on the human rights situation in several Asian countries. A more comprehensive report will be available soon.

Several events which have taken place in recent weeks remind us of the deepening of the crises in the region. In Bangladesh, in The Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) 55 officers, Seven civilians including two officer’s wives, were killed by lower ranking officers. Five other senior officers are still missing. Those who were killed include the Major General of the BDR, two Brigadier Generals, over a dozen colonels, several lieutenant colonels, captains, majors and two soldiers. The exact reason for this revolt has not yet been revealed. In Sri Lanka the conflict between the LTTE and the Sri Lankan government has been continuing with what is being referred to as the final assault which has resulted in the deaths of large numbers of persons. The US based Human Rights Watch, in its report issued on 20th February, put the civilian casualty figures at 2,000, 700 of which were children. About 200,000 civilians are caught between the fighting forces and they are being targeted both by the LTTE, which is preventing them from leaving and also by the Sri Lankan military which is continuing its assault on the LTTE. Despite of many interventions there is no significant change regarding this situation. In Pakistan the Sri Lankan cricket team was targeted by a terrorist group consisting of about 12 persons who were heavily armed and seven policemen escorting the team were killed during the assault. The cricketers suffered minor injuries and were returned to Sri Lanka. Official Pakistani sources claimed that it may have been caused by the same terrorist group that carried out the attacks in Mumbai which occurred between the 26th and 29th November, 2008. At least 173 people were killed and 308 wounded.