Manning and recruitment of RAB has come to the limelight, once again. And the focus of this piece will be only on the secondment of officers and soldiers from the three services since the bulk of those accused and sentenced in the Narayanganj killings belong to the military. The Rapid Action Battalion has never ceased to be in the news ever since it was established in 2004, most of the time, unfortunately, for the wrong reasons. It is a matter of regret that a force, whose employment in the very seminal stages of its birth had inculcated a sense of confidence in the minds of the common man, would in the course of a short time come to be feared by the same public. It is a pity too that a force whose contributions in combating the religious extremists and terrorists are singular, should have to countenance calls for its disbandment from international human rights groups.
There cannot be a more undesirable situation where security forces, created for the purpose of providing safety to the people, would come to be considered by many as a source of their insecurity. And this has come about primarily because of the way the elite force has been employed since its inception, and the way its standard modus operandi has been flouted to combat societal violence resulting in the breach of the rule of law. Fingers have been pointed at the force for many of the “encounter killings” and enforced disappearances. And I repeat what I said two years ago in this regard; the circumstances of these deaths have been so repetitive and the explanations so absurd and implausible that it was difficult to take them at face value. RAB’s descriptions of the situations were the same as those churned out and recycled by the other law enforcing agencies. And this brings out a very fundamental element of good governance which is that there cannot be a negative correlation between security and individual wellbeing; more security of the citizens cannot mean fewer rights for them.
The recent focus on the elite force has been caused by the verdict of the trial court on the Narayanganj-seven murders. And while one cannot paint a broad brush of guilt on the entire force for the crimes of a few of its members (in this case quite a few), the matter does besmirch the image of the force in as much as the higher authorities of the offenders had failed to monitor the activities of officers and men in their charge. While a higher command can never be held guilty for the offenses or transgressions of the under command, it cannot, by the same token, shun the moral responsibility for the same.
The trial judge in his verdict has invoked carefulness and caution on the part of the authorities while recruiting personnel for the elite force. And he has hit the nail on its head. However, the term ‘recruitment’ is not quite applicable here, particularly for those from the three services, since all the military personnel seconded to this outfit are ‘selected’ from the three services and there are very stringent recruitment procedures for induction into the services and selection for secondment.
So where is the flaw? When the crème de la crème from all the three services are supposed to be selected for employment in the special force, how is it that we find many of them indulging in behaviour unbecoming of their calling? It is either that the selection is flawed, which means that the initial recruitment is flawed too, or that it has to do with the new environment that the military personnel find themselves thrust in, and succumb to the various pulls and pressure associated with the type of tasks they are deployed in, such tasks, I dare say, that had not been envisaged initially when the force was established. I believe the latter is true.
And I reaffirm my view that RAB per se is not the problem but the way they are employed. The fact is, and I restate what I have said in this regard in the past, RAB has been invested with unlimited powers that has caused it to become larger than itself. For such a force, unlimited powers with no accountability can be a dangerous mix. Narayanganj bears out our fear.
I have said in the past too that extrajudicial killings, later substituted by enforced disappearances, demonstrated lack of trust in the judicial system, its long winded process and the loopholes were exploited by the criminals to escape punishment or evade it, endlessly. And in the process of combating criminals, the method employed by the agencies replicated that of the criminals. Regrettably, along with the criminals, political opponents were also made victims of the illegal tactic.
It must be restated that when an elite force with specific tasks is employed to circumvent the legal process in administering ‘justice’ the rule of law becomes rule of men. And in that particular situation, when a law enforcing agency acts on illegal partisan biddings, the moral grip of the administration starts to slacken, and command becomes ineffective. Therefore, while selection of personnel for such forces is important, of equal importance, if not more, is exactly how the elite force is employed.
The writer is Associate Editor, The Daily Star.
Source: The Daily Star
