Global activists urge probe into extrajudicial killings over last 15yrs

Global human rights advocates have called for more investigations into some 3,000 extrajudicial killings carried out over the past 15 years.
They also called for security sector reforms, repeal of the cyber security act, and accountability for the detention centres where the victims of the enforced disappearances were kept during the dictatorship.
The calls came when rights advocates of more than half a dozen top global human rights groups met Muhammad Yunus, the chief adviser to the interim government, at a hotel in New York on Wednesday.
Yunus is attending the UN General Assembly and holding a series of bilateral meetings with global leaders, multilateral lenders and heads of UN agencies.
Kerry Kennedy, president of the Robert F Kennedy Human Rights, led the delegation of nine human rights officials who met Yunus.
The interim government should send “a powerful message demonstrating that this is a new Bangladesh”, said Agnes Callamard, the Secretary General of Amnesty International.
Yunus said his government is committed to upholding human rights and freedom of speech in the country.
They discussed justice and accountability of the atrocities and human rights abuses committed during the July-August mass uprising and also during Sheikh Hasina’s 15-year-long dictatorship.
The interim government has formed a Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances. Also, a UN fact-finding mission is probing the human rights violations between July 1 and August 15.
Yunus briefly outlined how civil liberties and human rights were denied during the previous autocratic regime and what his government has done to establish human rights in the country since taking charge on August 8.
His government has set up several commissions, including one on police, to carry out vital reforms and institutional changes in Bangladesh.
Yunus also said his government would welcome criticism of its activities and vowed that the interim administration would uphold freedom of speech.
“This government isn’t bothered by any criticism. In fact, we are inviting criticism,” he said, adding the government “won’t restrict any voices” in the country.
Mohammad Ashrafuzzaman, formerly a Hong Kong-based human rights activist, and Julia Bleckner, a senior researcher of Human Rights Watch, also spoke during the meeting.