Editorial
Human rights image
Time to reform RAB
The Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), has now come under scathing scrutiny of a New York-based international human rights watch body for its records in extra-judicial killings. It has pointed to the government's failure to control it.
Such observation from an international body has brought ignominy not only for RAB, it has also tarnished the image of the government. Why does government allow itself to be so negatively portrayed in the eyes of the international community, when it is entirely avoidable?
While we are in part appreciative of RAB's role in fighting terrorism, in the same breath we have been decrying its part in extrajudicial killings through so-called 'cross-fires' and disappearances.
But far from taking cognizance of the outcries, the government's reaction to those has been one of denial. The international human rights body's report on RAB has again elicited identical reaction from the government.
Limon's case, for example, is the latest manifestation in the government's sticking to the denial mode. We think such an attitude is highly reprehensible and condemnable.
The government should face facts and immediately conduct enquiry into the accusations of extra-judicial murders and custodial tortures made against RAB and prosecute those found responsible for severe breach of law. The issue is very much RAB's accountability, which will have to be enforced from the top
It is, therefore, time the government take concrete steps to reform RAB.
The government needs to remember that in their electoral manifesto they had committed to putting an end to extra judicial killings.
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