The interim leader of Bangladesh, Muhammad Yunus, has told Sky News that former prime minister Sheikh Hasina will stand trial for crimes against humanity.
Ms Hasina is accused of overseeing a system of enforced disappearances during her time in government, as well as the mass killing of protesters in July and August last year.
Speaking to Sky News, Professor Yunus said: “A trial will be taking place. Not only her, but also all the people who are associated with her – her family members, her clients or associates.”
Ms Hasina, who was toppled by the protests and is currently in exile in India, is accused of overseeing a network of secret detention centres where it’s alleged her political opponents were interrogated, tortured and some killed – all under the banner of a “war on terror”.
Bangladesh has issued two arrest warrants for her. Professor Yunus said they had sent “formal letters” but received “no official response” from New Delhi.
He insisted, however, that Ms Hasina would face the court, whether physically present in Bangladesh or in absentia, in India.
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Professor Yunus recently visited one of the now infamous secret jails, code-named the ‘House of Mirrors’. The economics professor, known as the ‘banker to the poor’ and now chief adviser of Bangladesh, said he was beyond shocked at what he saw.
“This is just the ugliest thing that you can see, you can feel, or you can observe,” he said.
Ms Hasina is accused of using her security forces and police to oversee the abduction, torture and murder of hundreds of activists.
She denies the allegations and says she’s being politically persecuted.
Ms Hasina, her close aides and many of those accused of overseeing a network of as many as 800 secret jails have fled Bangladesh.
Professor Yunus said the number and range of people involved in the alleged crimes was “taking time” to work through.
“Everybody was involved in it all,” he said. “The whole government was involved in it. So you cannot distinguish who was really and enthusiastically doing it, who was doing it under orders and who was not quite supportive but carrying out those kinds of things.”
Ms Hasina, the military and police are also accused of a violent crackdown on protesters in July and August which the UN estimates killed as many as 1,400 people in the days before the former prime minister fled.
Professor Yunus tried to manage expectations around how quickly the families of victims will see justice, and whether that will happen under his watch.
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Elections for a new government in the country could happen as early as December.
“Some will get punished, some will still be under the process, some will still be untraceable,” he said.
Investigations into alleged corruption
The chief adviser has had a large in-tray to deal with since taking over a country in turmoil, including anti-corruption probes into those connected to Ms Hasina.
British Labour MP Tulip Siddiq, who is Ms Hasina’s niece, is one of those being investigated by Bangladesh’s Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC).
Professor Yunus said the case against her was “serious”, that she had a large amount of “wealth left behind” in the country and “everything” would be looked at.
Ms Siddiq resigned as anti-corruption minister in January after being named in the investigation in Bangladesh.
A spokesperson for the London MP said she “totally denies the claims” and had “not been contacted on these matters”.
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Managing refugee crisis
The influx of Rohingya refugees into Bangladesh is another challenge for Professor Yunus’s leadership.
There’s been a sharp rise in the number of the mainly Muslim minority fleeing Myanmar into Bangladesh after escalating violence in the country’s long-running civil war.
Professor Yunus said they were now in talks with rebel groups in Myanmar about the possibility of a “safe zone” to eventually help the Rohingya refugees to return to their homeland.
He also acknowledged big problems in Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh, home to the largest refugee camp in the world, where an estimated one million Rohingya refugees have fled to – and where “violence, drugs and paramilitary activities” are rife.
The tension, Professor Yunus said, “will not disappear”.
