DHAKA: The United States and Britain should immediately stop supporting a Bangladeshi anti-crime force blamed for killing hundreds of suspects without trial if there is no visible effort to reform it, a rights group said Thursday. The Rapid Action Battalion, or RAB, was responsible for more than 1,000 extra-judicial slayings in the preceding five years, a 2009 report by Human Rights Watch alleged. The United Kingdom and United States have trained the Bangladeshi force as part of a counterterrorism strategy since at least 2008, leaked US.diplomatic cables say. Britain trained RAB members on human rights issues, investigative interviewing techniques and other skills, according to a cable written by US Ambassador James F. Moriarty in May 2009. The US provided only human rights training in adherence to a US law that made further assistance illegal because of the battalion's past human rights violations, a cable he wrote in August 2008 said. The cables were released by WikiLeaks and published on the Guardian website. The United States and Britain favor bolstering the RAB to strengthen counterterrorism operations in Bangladesh, and Moriarty wrote that it was the “enforcement organization best positioned to one day become a Bangladeshi” FBI. India, Bangladesh's influential neighbor, also thinks the RAB could be a good option to fight terrorism, according to the cables. The Muslim-majority nation of 150 million people has struggled against a terrorism threat in recent years after the Jumatul Mujahedeen Bangladesh group, which wants to establish strict Islamic law, bombed government offices and courts. RAB led operations against the group and captured its top leaders, who were later hanged. The Jumatul Mujahedeen Bangladesh is trying to gain strength and other terror groups have international ties, Bangladeshi officials and local media say.
