About time…but more needs to be done
The sanctions imposed on 5 of the regime’s security leaders and human rights violators by the United States this month https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy0526 is a case of better too little and late, than never. Years of engagement by thoughtful individuals in the diaspora has helped move this effort to this point. But far more needs to be done if the slide of Bangladesh to an irreversible Cuba-type dictatorship is to be avoided. Organizations like the regime’s Basij-type militia, the Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) should be put on par with the sanctioned Rapid Action Battalion; the BCL’s reign of terror, once limited to university dorms, has spread across the country, and the terror squad remains the dictatorship’s preferred option to intimidate, torture, maim, rape, and beat up democratic dissenters all over the country. Similarly, regime enablers in the judiciary, the media, and the useless election commission need to be held accountable: neither the United States nor the rest of the civilized world should allow this supporting cast of the Awami League dictatorship to visit Disneyland, the Sorbonne, and the Royal Albert Hall with impunity while their deliberate actions provide a veneer of legitimacy to a bloodthirsty dictatorship.