Duncan Brown, SCO, British High Commission, giving away certificate to a participant of the training on Thursday. Courtesy: RABNotice: Undefined index: pageID in /var/www/archive/newDesign/print_news.php on line 301
“I am now more conscious about human rights of our citizens including the criminals,” said a Rab official, who had just participated in a training course on human rights.
“As an officer from police I had training on human rights before but this time I had the opportunity to interact with members of the British police. I came to know many new things on how they arrest, interrogate and treat the criminals,” said the official.
An interactive training course on human rights for the members of the Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) concluded Thursday. Starting from March 2, the 12-day training was held at the Rab headquarters in the city.
The British High Commission and Rab Forces Headquarters jointly arranged the training where 54 Rab officials participated. Experts from British police gave training to the Rab members, said sources at the Rab headquarters.
According to participants the course was quite motivating as they were able to interact with the members of British police and share their experiences with them.
Asked if any new point of view came along during the training the official said that the perception of human rights is mostly similar in the British and Bangladeshi standards.
“Some of their ways and techniques are different from us. They interrogate a criminal in the presence of a defense lawyer. One doctor is posted to each police station to attend criminal in case she/he falls sick. These are fresh things for us in treating a criminal or a suspect,” said an official.
“Besides, they can detain a crime suspect up to 96 hours whereas we have to produce him to court in 24 hours,” he added.
While interrogating a criminal British police depend more on physical evidence like the weapon with which the crime was committed. Collecting physical evidence is easier for them because they are more technologically advanced in forensic analysis and crime scene investigation (CSI). They are also apt at collecting footsteps and fingerprints.
“When the weapon is displayed to the suspect during interrogation she/he recognises it and becomes mentally weak and gives confession. Depending on physical evidence is a bit tough for us since we are not technologically capable like them to conduct a CSI,” he said.
“We depend more on psychological factors and circumstantial evidence, for an example, we try to find whether anyone has seen the crime suspect while or after committing the crime. Bangladesh is a densely populated country and so if you do something even at the dead of night, it is very likely that a beggar or a homeless would see you,” said the official.
While arresting an accused the British police can use pepper spray and stunt gun in case the person does not cooperate.
“But here we at first tell the accused to come with us and if he does not then we touch the suspect. If he still fights then we are asked to apply force as much as he does. But we do not use pepper spray or stunt gun,” he said.
“The new ideas found about treating a criminal or a suspect will be duly sent to the higher authorities for necessary action and implementation,” he added.
Commander AK Azad, director of Rab's legal and media wing, said that different training courses are being arranged for Rab forces at home and abroad on a regular basis on interrogation, cyber crime, criminal investigation, intelligence work, forensic investigation and human rights.
“Previously many of our officers took training on human rights under Police Reform Programme and during a UN mission abroad,” he said.
“We are looking forward to giving further training on human rights,” he added.
Besides comparative study on arrest and detention the participants also went through the draft of the human rights doctrine prepared for Asia, the international standard of human rights, HR policies, right to life and structure and policing in Britain.
During the training the participants were briefed also by Army legal Service (ALS) and National Police Improvements Agency (NPIA) personnel.
"You are now well aware of human rights. Disseminate your knowledge to your colleagues and follow it while performing duties," said Rab Additional Director General Col Gulzar Uddin Ahmed at the concluding session of the training on Thursday.
“This is the first time I am hearing that Rab is doing training on the codes of human rights. This is a very positive approach because most people are afraid of them. If this kind of training is taken by Rab on a regular basis then it may help dispel their fearful image,” said a university student.
