Bangladesh has said that it forgot to remove U.N. markings from vehicles during an army-enforced curfew to contain deadly violence that spread across the country last week and killed nearly 150 people.
The United Nations said it has sought a response from authorities in the capital Dhaka after footage filmed by Reuters journalists on Sunday showed what appeared to be an armoured personnel vehicle marked with the letters ‘UN’.
The vehicle was carrying gun-bearing soldiers on a street in Dhaka, which last week saw days of deadly clashes as security forces cracked down on student-led protests against reservation quotas in government jobs.
Bangladesh Foreign Minister Hasan Mahmud told reporters on Wednesday that some vehicles had been “rented to the UN peace mission”.
“We forgot to remove the logo. Now the logos have been removed,” he added.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government had suspended internet services and called in the army to enforce a curfew from midnight on Saturday.
The students were agitating because a high court last month overturned a decision by Hasina’s government to scrap 56 per cent quotas in government jobs, reinstating them during an unemployment crisis in the country.
But the protests stopped after the Supreme Court on Sunday ruled in favour of an appeal from the government and scrapped most quotas, directing that 93 per cent of jobs should be open to competition.
The United Nations, international rights groups, the U.S. and Britain were among those who criticised the use of force against the protesters and asked Dhaka to uphold the right to peaceful protests.
“We have raised our concern about the situation in Bangladesh with relevant authorities in Dhaka and New York and also sought clarity regarding reports that some UN-marked vehicles may have been used during recent events,” Farhan Haq, a deputy spokesperson for the UN Secretary-General, told Reuters.
He said countries that contribute troops and police to UN peacekeeping are to use UN insignia and equipment marked with UN insignia only when they are performing mandated tasks as UN peacekeepers.
Bangladesh is the third largest troop and police contributor to the UN peacekeeping mission, after Nepal and Rwanda.