Bangladesh rights record faces US scrutiny

(July 20, 2012) Accusations of extrajudicial killings by Bangladeshi paramilitary forces and the South Asian nation's refusal to grant refuge to fleeing refugees faced scrutiny from U.S. lawmakers on Thursday. The congressional hearing also examined allegations of abuses against labour and opposition activists in the moderate Islamic nation, whose human rights problems weigh on Washington's efforts to forge stronger relations. Lawmakers singled out for concern Bangladesh's Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), the paramilitary unit formed to fight organized crime but Human Rights Watch calls it a death squad. Top U.S. diplomat for South Asia, Robert Blake, said the unit's record has improved, but cited figures from a Bangladeshi rights group that the battalion has committed 34 killings so far this year. That compares with 83 deaths in 2010 and 51 in 2011. Bangladesh's government, elected in 2008, denies the battalion has committed unlawful killings on its watch. John Sifton of Human Rights Watch said the government _ which had promised before the election to crack down on the abuses _ needs again to admit there's a problem. US lawmakers also voiced concern that ethnic Rohingya women and children fleeing communal violence in western Myanmar last month had been turned back by Bangladeshi authorities. Clashes between the Rohingya, who are Muslims, and Buddhists in Myanmar's Rakhine state left scores dead and tens of thousands displaced.