US State Department Principal Deputy Spokesperson Vedanta Patel said the sanctions imposed by the United States against the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) and seven senior officers of the force for alleged human rights violations are not being lifted.
He said this at the regular press briefing of the State Department on Thursday local time in Washington.
He said, the US is not lifting the sanctions against RAB. These claims are false. The purpose of sanctions is to change behavior and promote accountability.
Earlier, Prime Minister's private industry and investment adviser Salman Fazlur Rahman told reporters in Dhaka last Tuesday (May 14) night, "The matter is related to the US Department of Justice, which is independent and separate from the White House and the State Department." They work independently.'
Salman F. Rahman said the White House and the State Department are in favor of lifting the ban on RAB, but it is up to the Judiciary.
"The matter is going through a process," Salman said after dinner with US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Donald Lu, who was on a three-day visit to Dhaka last week.
Notably, in January 2023, Donald Lew praised RAB's "extraordinary progress" in showing "respect for human rights" during his tenure.
At that time, he told reporters at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, "There has been a lot of discussion between us about RAB." If you've seen Human Rights Watch's statement this week, they recognized, and we recognized, tremendous progress in reducing the extrajudicial killings by RAB.'
"Which is great work," Lu added. This shows that RAB is capable of fulfilling the important duties of anti-terrorist and law enforcement forces by respecting human rights.