The UN rights office has said its fact-finding mission found no 'genuine effort' by the ousted regime to hold the security and law-enforcement agencies and their activists accountable for serious rights violations and abuses during last year's uprising, reports BSS.
The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) report on human rights violations in Bangladesh in July-August 2024 stated that despite being warranted by Bangladesh's own domestic laws, former senior officials confirmed that no investigations into the security forces' use of firearms were conducted.
Between July 1 and August 5, 2024, OHCHR was unable to ascertain any genuine efforts by the former government's authorities to investigate, let alone ensure accountability for, any of the serious violations and abuses committed by security forces and Awami League supporters, it said.
Allegations of torture and serious ill-treatment were not investigated while former officials cited the pressing security situation prevailing at the time, claiming that no victim complaints were received.
But the OHCHR said numerous reports detailing alleged violations published by credible local and international media, and reports issued by human rights groups should have given ample cause to open investigations at their own initiative.
The report noted that on July 17, the then premier Sheikh Hasina announced the formation of a judicial inquiry headed by three judges, while blaming all incidents on 'opposition instigators' and 'terrorists.'
The OHCHR said inquiry was assigned to investigate the 'incidents of death, violence, vandalism, arson, looting, terrorist activity and damages caused by the quota reform movement'.
It said the purview of the enquiry suggested 'an exclusive and one-sided focus on the acts of protesters alone, leaving to one side the much more widespread violence of the security forces'.
"Rather than taking steps towards ensuring accountability, the authorities appear instead to have made coordinated efforts to suppress the truth about violations that had occurred," the report read.
The OHCHR said the intelligence agencies of police and other forces maintained a presence at hospitals where many victims were treated and also confiscated records with important evidentiary value from them.
