DHAKA: UN rights chief Volker Turk on Tuesday urged students at Bangladesh\u2019s Dhaka University, the heart of the uprising that toppled autocratic leader Sheikh Hasina, to \u201cprotect\u201d democracy to end cycles of revenge.
\n\u201cDemocracy is one of the most powerful ideas ever dreamed up by humanity… but it is also fragile \u2014 something that we must nurture and protect \u2014 particularly in its earliest stages,\u201d Turk said in an address.
\n\u201cI know you are aware of the pitfalls that led other pro-democracy movements into a dead end.\u201d
\nTens of thousands demonstrated on campus and in the surrounding neighborhood as protests against job quotas morphed into a nationwide struggle to end Hasina\u2019s 15 years of iron-fisted rule.
\nMore than 700 people were killed, many in a brutal police crackdown, before Hasina fled to India by helicopter on August 5.
\nSeveral of the top student protest leaders were enrolled at the university, some of whom are now part of the cabinet of the interim government which is led by Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus.
\nHasina\u2019s rule saw widespread human rights abuses, including the mass detention and extrajudicial killings of her political opponents. A Bangladeshi court this month issued an arrest warrant for the ousted leader.
\nTurk told students they had \u201cshown great courage in standing up for justice and equality,\u201d and that he was honored to address them \u201cat a pivotal time, and in a symbolic place.\u201d
\nBut he also warned them of the risks as they support the huge challenge of restoring democratic institutions.
\n\u201cBeware of the idea that the ends justify the means,\u201d Turk added.
\n\u201cThe process through which you seek change is just as crucial as the outcome. Strengthening institutions can be more important in the long term than tearing them down.\u201d
\nTurk, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, is on a two-day visit to Dhaka to meet with Yunus, the chief justice, army chief and other leaders, his office said.
\n\u201cInequality, cycles of revenge and retribution, marginalization, corruption, and gross human rights violations must be consigned to the past. There must be no repetition, no going back. The present and future belong to equality, to justice.\u201d
\nDozens of Hasina\u2019s allies have been arrested, while the last known whereabouts of the 77-year-old fugitive was a military air base near India\u2019s capital New Delhi.
\n\u201cWe cannot allow a vicious new cycle of reprisals and revenge to repeat itself,\u201d Turk added.
\n\u201cThe pursuit of justice must also go beyond trials of those responsible, and address the root causes to achieve the broader social transformation to which you aspire.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
DHAKA: UN rights chief Volker Turk on Tuesday urged students at Bangladesh\u2019s Dhaka University, the heart of the uprising that toppled autocratic leader Sheikh Hasina, to \u201cprotect\u201d democracy to end cycles of revenge. \u201cDemocracy is one of the most powerful ideas ever dreamed up by humanity… but it is also fragile \u2014 something that we …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":72217,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72198"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72198\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72218,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72198\/revisions\/72218"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}