UN to deploy team to Bangladesh to probe rights abuses, violations during mass uprising

GENEVA -- The U.N. human rights office said Friday that it will deploy a fact-finding team to Bangladesh to investigate alleged rights abuses and violations through use of excessive force by security forces to quell protests led by students against the former government this summer.

The office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said he had received an invitation from the country's interim leader Muhammad Yunus, to send the team to Bangladesh. The visit is set to take place in coming weeks.

Yunus, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, took over this month as head of the government after former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina stepped down and fled the country to India amid a mass uprising.

The United Nations has reported nearly 650 people died since July 15 when the student protests turned violent, and the figures also covered the deaths of many in new violence after Hasina left the country on Aug. 5.

A U.N. advance team visited Bangladesh over the last week and met with student leaders of the protests, including some who had been detained, as well as interim government and police officials, journalists, rights defenders and others.

The team received commitments from authorities and security for their “full cooperation” with the team's work, the rights office said.

“The U.N. human rights office looks forward to supporting the interim government and people of Bangladesh at this pivotal moment to revitalize democracy, seek accountability and reconciliation, and advance human rights for all the people in Bangladesh," the rights office said in a statement.