By AFP
The experts called for an
"impartial" investigation into the deaths of at least six Rohingya
men in gunfights with police after they were named as suspects in the killing
of Omar Faruk, a youth wing official of the ruling Awami League.
UN human rights experts have raised new
concerns about the treatment of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh following a
deadly backlash over the killing of a ruling party official.
Following the murder, local people vandalised
refugee shops and staged protests in one of multiple camps now home to a total
of more than 900,000 Muslim Rohingya who have fled oppression in neighbouring
Myanmar.
In a statement released late Monday in
Geneva, the six specially appointed UN experts on rights issues backed
Bangladesh's probe into the murder of Faruk.
But they added, "it is equally necessary
to ensure that the presumption of innocence is upheld and that reactionary,
summary and ad hoc justice is not doled out solely to placate the legitimate
concerns of the host community."
"We urge the Bangladeshi government to
carry out an independent, impartial and effective investigation into all deaths
that have occurred with regards to this case," they said.
Police inspector Ali Arshad told AFP at least
40 Rohingya have been killed in Bangladesh since July last year. Of those, at
least 33 were killed by Bangladeshi security forces in gunfights and another
seven were killed in shootouts among Rohingya groups, he said.
Rights groups have accused Bangladesh police
of staging many of these gunfights as a cover for the extrajudicial killings of
Rohingya, mainly suspects in drug smuggling.
The UN experts also expressed "serious
concerns" over "tight new restrictions" and a communication
clampdown in the refugee camps, where there is an effective internet blackout.
The clampdown follows the failure of a new
attempt to repatriate some of the refugees and an August 25 rally in which some
200,000 Rohingya marked two years since the exodus.
The UN experts said that since the rally, a
number of organisers have been questioned and subjected to
"intimidation".
"We are alarmed by the sudden crackdown
of the rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and
association," they said.
"These restrictions have been applied in
a discriminatory manner against members of the Rohingya minority," said
the experts who added that the "curfews and communications shutdowns could
facilitate further serious human rights abuses against them."
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Don’t forget to read more below:
UN FFM Report: 600,000 Rohingya still in
Myanmar at 'serious risk of genocide': https://lnkd.in/grp4Gvg
Can China Able to Help Find a Durable
Solution for the Rohingya Refugees Crisis? https://lnkd.in/g6qy_qK