AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL PRESSES BANGLADESH TO

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 DHAKA 000084 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/17/2018 TAGS: KDEM PGOV PHUM BG SUBJECT: AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL PRESSES BANGLADESH TO IMPROVE HUMAN RIGHTS Classified By: CDA a.i. Geeta Pasi. Reasons: 1.4 (b) and (d) ¶1. (C) SUMMARY: During a high-profile visit to Bangladesh, the head of Amnesty International (AI) urged the Caretaker Government (CTG) to take a number of steps to improve its human rights record. AI Secretary General Irene Khan met the country's top civilian and military leaders as well as a number of civil society groups during her early January visit, and her criticism on a range of topics from freedom of expression to law-enforcement abuses was front-page news. During a private discussion with the Charge d'affaires a.i. and Embassy representatives, Khan encouraged the international donor community to help professionalize Bangladesh's law enforcement agencies through training and to sign on to Amnesty's action plan for Bangladesh. She also heard concerns from victims of the Jamaatul Mujahedin Bangladesh (JMB) that the outlawed Islamist terrorist organization remained alive despite last year's execution of its top leadership. END SUMMARY. ¶2. (C) AI Secretary General Irene Khan's weeklong visit to Bangladesh that ended January 11 received intensive media coverage. A native Bangladeshi with family ties to the country's elite, she had access to the very top leadership, meeting with Chief Adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed and Chief of Army Staff General Moeen Uddin Ahmed, who provides crucial backing to the CTG. At a heavily attended news conference the day before she left Bangladesh, Khan termed the government's human rights record as "unsatisfactory," according to The Daily Star newspaper. It reported that she recommended the government suspend the Special Powers Act because it was being manipulated to detain politicians, business and journalists; seek United Nations advice to open an independent commission of enquiry into war crimes committed during the fight for liberation in 1971; immediately release four Dhaka University teachers detained in anti-government rioting last August; and create an effective National Human Rights Commission. She also expressed concerns about due process in the government's anti-corruption campaign and about extrajudicial killings by law enforcement agencies she said acted with impunity. Her critical comments were reported in detail in print and broadcast media; there was no immediate official government reaction to her statements. In private, a senior Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI) official told us the Government realized that Khan would be critical but that it would gain more by meeting her than by shutting her out. ¶3. (C) At a January 7 private meeting with CDA a.i., Acting Deputy Chief of Mission and PolOff, Khan reiterated her concerns about law enforcement agency excesses, saying the discipline of the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) paramilitary force and the DGFI appeared to deteriorate outside of Dhaka, raising questions about their command structures. She called for more transparency, particularly in investigating allegations of human rights abuses by law enforcement groups. She also voiced support for international donors to work together to provide appropriate training to those groups, particularly in areas such as economic crime investigations that have grown in importance under the anti-corruption campaign. The prominent local human-rights group Odhikar already has expressed support for human-rights training for RAB. ¶4. (C) Khan also recounted her visit to the Rajshahi region in northwestern Bangladesh, where she met civilians whose rural homes had been destroyed by the JMB. She heard complaints that the homes had not been rebuilt and that JMB cadres and the local officials who colluded with them were still in the area. She said she believed that the JMB was regrouping despite many of their leaders and activists being arrested in recent years by the RAB. The execution of six JMB leaders in March 2007 did not ignite a campaign of violence that had ben threatened by remnants of the terror group. ¶5. (C) We found Khan to be well informed about Bangladesh and sympathetic toward the stated goals of the Caretaker Government. She sought to convince the CTG it would benefit by engaging the human rights community. We think she could be an important ally for the U.S. Government and others in the international community interested in helping Bangladesh improve its human rights record. In particular, we believe the recommendations made by Amnesty in a 24-page memorandum to the Caretaker Government could be a useful tool. The release of the U.S. Government's annual human rights report will give us an opportunity to reinforce some of Khan's messages, including the need for greater transparency and other reforms in the law enforcement sector. DHAKA 00000084 002 OF 002 Pasi