On Bangladesh Detentions, ICP Asks UN, Spox Calls It Merely Local Matter

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 20 -- After Bangladesh detained even hostages of the bakery attack in Dhaka, after calling the UN to drop Saudi Arabia from the Yemen child killer list, Inner City Press on July 20 asked UN spokesperson Farhan Haq, UN transcript here:

Inner City Press: Can I ask about Bangladesh? There is a call after that terrorist attack on the Holey artisan bakery, a number, some of the hostages, at least two by name, have been… haven't been either released or charged, and so a number of human rights groups have said that the Government should either charge them as being part of the plot or release them rather than keep them incommunicado and not even said where they are.  Is the UN system aware of that and what is their view of it?

Deputy Spokesman:  I don't believe we would have any comment on this at this stage because this is a matter that is being handled by the local, that is to say the domestic legal authorities; but we hope that they will follow basic due process in terms of their follow-up activities.

  Deference to all "local" proceeding? That's not the UN policy elsewhere...

Amid the violence in Bangladesh in February and March of 2015, Inner City Press five times asked the UN how it reviews whether the military personnel it uses from Bangladesh have not been involved in human rights violations. February 5 video;  UN's February 20 transcript; February 23 transcript, video here.

 Follow @innercitypress Follow @FUNCA_info