Bangladesh requests UN support to end violence

Bangladesh wants the United Nations (UN) to help it investigate the movement and uprising in July and August, find out what caused the recent and past violence, and prevent it from happening again. The temporary government also wants to follow the UN's advice and take necessary action.

This was asked for in a message this week from Dr. Muhammad Yunus, the temporary government's chief adviser, to Volker Türk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

The letter asked the UN to help investigate human rights violations during the quota reform movement, the student-people uprising, and the period after the rebellion, from July 1 to August 15.

Last Thursday, diplomatic sources in Geneva and Dhaka told TGE that a UN fact-finding team might visit Dhaka in September.

A gathering of students and people overthrew Sheikh Hasina's government on August 5. On August 8, a temporary government was set up. From the start, the temporary government has clarified that it will protect all human rights.

At the same time, Bangladesh joined the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance (ICPPED). Volker Türk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, praised the move.

Before this, the temporary government publicly asked the UN to ensure that foreign probes into the use of force during the movement and uprising were honest and unbiased.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the head of the temporary government talked about it on the phone. The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) sent an advance team to Dhaka. They left on Thursday after an eight-day stay.

40 meetings of the advance team

Three people from the UN, led by Rory Mungoven, who is in charge of the Asia-Pacific region for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, came to Dhaka on August 22.

Diplomatic sources in Geneva and Dhaka said that the UN team met at least 40 times at different levels. The advance teams tried to find out what the people of Bangladesh wanted after the student uprising and how the UN could help make Bangladesh more democratic.

It was also discussed when Ravina Shamdasani, a spokeswoman for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, reported on the work of the UN Human Rights Office in Bangladesh on Friday in Geneva. She said that the UN advance team met with many student leaders of the recent protests who have been arrested or hurt in the past few weeks.

They also met with advisors in the interim government, the chief justice, senior officers of the police and armed forces, lawyers, journalists, human rights defenders, representatives of political parties, and people from minority and indigenous communities.

As asked by the Interim Government, the team met to discuss how to investigate claims of human rights violations and crimes during the recent violence and unrest.

She said it also discussed more significant issues like public space, the need for truth, justice, healing, compensation, unity, and other human rights approaches to the change process. In these areas, our Office could provide ongoing help.

Diplomatic sources say that the advance team will summarize what happened at their talks in Dhaka. Then, the Office of the High Commissioner will look into it and send a task to find out what happened.

Finding the crisis's cause and stopping it from happening again

While the UN advance team was in Bangladesh this week, the chief advisor to the temporary government sent a letter to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights asking the UN to start a probe as soon as possible.

Sources say that the government wants to hold people responsible for human rights violations during the quota reform movement, the student-people uprising, and the period after the rebellion, from July 1 to August 15. They plan to do this through a fair and unbiased UN fact-finding mission.

The government also thinks that the violence against people during the movement, the uprising, and the time after the rebellion did not happen all in one day. The reason for this kind of violence and where it came from need to be found by looking at the facts. Also, suggestions must be made to stop this kind of violence. Based on what the UN says, the temporary government will take the steps needed to hold those responsible for past violence accountable and stop it from happening again.

Ravina Shamdasani, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, also discussed the letter from the top assistant. She said that Muhammad Yunus, the Chief Advisor, had officially asked Volker Türk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, to lead an unbiased and independent fact-finding mission into human rights violations from July 1 to August 15.

In the coming weeks, the Office will send a fact-finding team to Bangladesh to investigate the violations and abuses during the protests. The team will report these violations and abuses, investigate what caused them, and make suggestions for improving justice, accountability, and long-term changes. She also said that the interim government and security forces promised to support the team fully in their work.

In this case, Syeda Rizwana Hasan, an advisor to the temporary government's Ministry of Environment, told Prothom Alo over the phone on Friday evening, "Bangladesh does not only want UN help with investigations." They will discuss what we should do now to improve our security forces and how to ensure that similar things do not happen again in the next few days.