UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for “calm and restraint” as students resumed their protests that were suspended last week, according to his Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric.
Guterres “remains deeply concerned about the situation in Bangladesh”, Dujarric said on Monday at his daily briefing.
“He notes reports of the resumption of student protests today and reiterates his call for calm and restraint,” Dujarric said.
The UN has raised its concern with “relevant authorities, both in the capital, Dhaka, and here in New York, and we count on Bangladesh to respect and uphold human rights, including as a top troop-contributing country to United Nations peacekeeping missions”, he added.
The students had been protesting against a 30 per cent reservation in government jobs for relatives of freedom fighters who wrested independence for Bangladesh from Pakistan in a bloody civil war in which, according to Dhaka officials, 3 million people were killed in the genocide by Pakistani troops and their supporters.
After the Supreme Court slashed the reservations to 5 per cent, student leaders last week put the protests on hold.
But the demonstrations resumed on Monday because the students said that the government ignored their demand to release all their leaders.
More than 175 people, including police, have been killed and over a thousand injured in the upheaval that has shaken the nation.
Guterres is “alarmed by emerging reports about the excessive use of force by security forces and credible evidence of human rights violations” and “reiterates his call for all acts of violence to be investigated promptly, transparently, and impartially, and for those responsible to be held to account”, Dujarric said.
Last week, the UN said it had “serious concern” about reports that Bangladesh authorities had deployed vehicles with UN insignias during the riots.
Dujarric said on Monday that the UN had taken note of statements from Bangladeshi authorities that UN-marked vehicles are no longer being deployed within the country.
With 5,859 Bangladeshi troops deployed in UN peacekeeping operations, the nation is the third-largest contributor of personnel to current UN missions.
(Arul Louis can be contacted at arul.l@ians.in and followed at @arulouis)
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