They are called when countries descend into war and turmoil:
UN peacekeepers - often the last bastion to protect
civilians when states fail.
Successful peacekeeping
requires the
highest standards
of conduct by
by our United Nations
peacekeepers
both civilian and uniformed.
But what do we really know about those who are sent to bring peace?
We get some really pretty
useless troops and some
pretty brutal ones as well.
With this investigation, we can reveal that at least two countries
sent peacekeepers
that were implicated
in torture and murder back home.
I bear witness to multiple extrajudicial killings, including
cold-blooded killing.
And that the UN seemingly
turned a blind eye.
This is impunity writ
large and nobody has
done anything to stop that.
We're in Bangladesh.
With nearly 6,000 peacekeepers deployed worldwide, it’s one of
the largest contributors of troops to UN missions.
Here at Bangladesh's UN training grounds, soldiers prepare for
their next deployment as peacekeepers.
Our visit is carefully orchestrated.
At no time are we allowed to speak with any soldiers directly.
Instead, their superiors answer our questions about UN deployments.
This is a matter
of pride for us
and we have
enormous people
willing to contribute
in peacekeeping operations.
A matter of pride - but also a lucrative one.
UN peacekeepers receive higher salaries than they do back home -
and the UN reimburses countries for their equipment.
According to government officials here, Bangladesh has received more
than 2.5 billion US dollars over the past 23 years.
As a nation of the peacekeepers,
I can assure you that we will always
be the key contributor in the peacekeeping affairs of the UN.
But the image the generals are so carefully trying to present during our
visit - is only one side of the story.
For years, human rights
groups and political leaders have
warned of wide-spread abuse by
Bangladesh's security forces -
the exact entities that make up
the peacekeeping forces.
And one group is of particular concern:
The Rapid Action Battalion - RAB -
an elite force founded to fight
terrorism and crime.
In 2023, we revealed- what the government continues to deny -
that RAB murders, abducts and tortures with the complicity of
the highest political level.
After their stint in RAB, officers are often sent on highly-paid UN
deployments, as a former RAB commander confirmed to us.
He was personally involved in human rights abuses and
later deployed to a UN mission.
As far as I know, everybody
goes to peacekeeping after
havingserved in RAB.
For months,
we tried to verify his claim.
Military sources helped us get
in touch with another former RAB
officer who was willing to talk to us.
Presently I am deployed ...
as peacekeeper ...
here is my UN identity card.
This is a sketch of a video confession the man recorded for us
while on a mission in Africa.
We corroborated his identity but his condition for talking to us was
that he remained anonymous.
While serving at
Rapid Action Battalion
I bear witness to
multiple extrajudicial killings,
including cold-blooded killing of
several young men.
After the bullet hit his skull some
blood and brain fragments splashed
on my uniform….
UN peacekeeping missions
cannot have
amongst them
officers who may
have been responsible for
these kinds of very serious abuses.
That defeats the purpose of peacekeeping.
We went to Copenhagen to meet a man who - on behalf of the UN - looked
into human rights abuses by Bangladeshi security forces.
My name is Jens Modvig.
I was a member of the Committee Against Torture
and rapporteur on Bangladesh.
Modvig and the other Committee's experts were appointed by the UN.
Their report on Bangladesh published in 2019
stated they were...
gravely concerned
about RAB’s abuses.
The recommendation was that
former and current members of RAB
should not be allowed to do
service in peacekeeping operations.
So in 2019, there was a clear recommendation
to exclude members of RAB.
And what happened after the report was published?
As far as we could tell: nothing.
We checked officers' social media accounts and analyzed hundreds of
photos - and found more men who
went from RAB to peacekeeping.
Classified military personnel files and UN deployment lists helped us
identify more than 40 former RAB officers who were deployed
after the Committee's report was published.
Three of them worked for RAB’s infamous Intelligence Wing - two
even as deputy directors.
Our sources confirmed that the Intelligence Wing supports
killing operations and runs a secret network of torture cells -
hidden deep within many of RAB's compounds.
Some cells have
equipment for waterboarding.
RAB calls this method
“water therapy”.
It can be used to make people talk.
So these men - who were part of
a unit that routinely tortures -
why didn't anyone stop them
from becoming peacekeepers?
Generally, it is up to the countries
that send troops to select -
and vet the majority of them.
But after several
sexual abuse scandals
involving peacekeepers,
the UN in 2012
implemented a new human rights policy.
Governments now have to certify that nominated soldiers have not
committed any criminal offense or any violation of international
human rights law or international humanitarian law.
So for each of these five men, who were most likely implicated in
serious abuses - Bangladesh must have signed this form.
What is happening
right now is that
they are asking an
abusive government to then
decide which officers
are abusive or not.
Now since we know that there is
no accountability mechanism or
even an interest in holding
people to account for
human rights violations,
that process is not working.
Confronted with our findings, UN Peacekeeping in New York wrote:
“We do not have the resources
to review the information
of all personnel deployed,"
and ”the vast majority
of troops perform well”
If Bangladesh was
seemingly able to circumvent the policy, might other countries
be doing the same?
In London, we met this woman
who has been exposing
human rights abuses for years.
I'm Frances Harrison.
I run the International Truth and Justice Project, which is
an organization that collects evidence around the end of war and
post-war violations in Sri Lanka.
Her laptop is full of photos and testimonies that document
the atrocities committed during Sri Lanka's decades-long civil war.
Harrison alerted us to this photo:
the man pointing at the bodies is
General Shavendra Silva.
He commanded an infamous unit
that the UN says committed war crimes.
Nevertheless, ten years later,
the Sri Lankan government
promoted Shavendra Silva to a
top position: that of Army Chief.
As such, he was
responsible for the deployment of
hundreds of peacekeepers.
Following an international outcry
the UN announced it would suspend
Sri Lankan army deployments -
except “where suspension
would expose U.N. operations
to serious operational risk.”
So the UN left a door open -
and indeed,
almost nothing changed.
The UN's own figures show
that in 2019, Sri Lanka sent
687 peacekeepers - and one year
after Silva's appointment,
it was still
sending 665 troops.
Can you imagine what that's like
for victims of the civil war, of
the violations, then to see that?
This is impunity writ large
and nobody has done
anything to stop that.
If I was still in the UN,
I probably wouldn't be able to be
this frank and to say we get some
really pretty useless troops and
some pretty brutal ones as well.
During our research we talked to many sources within the UN - but
this former official in Berlin was the only one willing to go
on the record.
My name is Andrew Gilmour.
I was the UN Assistant Secretary General for Human Rights from
2016 to 2019.
As such, he has first-hand knowledge of what happens when
the UN pushes countries to exclude alleged human rights abusers.
One country that was really important, literally said, OK,
we're going to pull out all together.
And the UN Secretary General at
that time, had to go basically to
that country and essentially
apologize to the head of state.
Otherwise, like four
UN peacekeeping
operations would have collapsed.
He wouldn't tell us which country -
and stressed that the UN does
what it can.
But his testimony points to one thing:
when it comes to peacekeepers,
the UN is seemingly
susceptible to blackmail.
There's a reason for this: faced with often deadly missions, Western
governments have increasingly pulled their troops out of
peacekeeping operations,
leaving the supplying of troops to
countries like Bangladesh, Pakistan, Egypt or China -
many of which are known
to have abusive security forces.
There are such situations where
literally thousands of people could
be killed in the
absence of UN peacekeepers.
Which when you have to balance
it, things, perhaps sending two or
three bad apples is a less
bad option than thousands of
people getting killed.
That's quite a shocking admission,
isn't it, sending
two or three bad apples.
I mean, let's look at
what the bad apples from
Sri Lanka have done.
It will obviously be very difficult
to have faith in the peace
that such a mission will create.
We should care who goes abroad
as a peacekeeper, because
they go in our name.