Emphasizing the rights of free thinking, UN Resident Coordinator in Dhaka Robert Watkins on Wednesday said the killing of bloggers is ‘unacceptable’.If any person breaks the law of the land that is a separate issue but killing is not acceptable, he said while addressing the inaugural session of a workshop titled ‘Designation and Asset Freezing under United Nations Security Council Resolutions (UNSCRs) 1267 and 1373 that deal with the sanctions related to terrorism.The UN official also said people should have their rights to express views freely and without fear. “People should have their rights to express”.Foreign Secretary M Shahidul Haque also spoke at the event held at UNCLOS conference room of the Foreign Ministry. Government officials, representatives from the private sector, financial institutions are participating in the two-day workshop.The UN Resident Coordinator said Bangladesh has been blessed not to have terrorist problem and hoped that the workshop would help make officials aware of the tools available against terrorists. Blogger Niladri Chatterjee Niloy, hacked to death on Friday, was the fourth blogger murdered this year in Bangladesh.Earlier, Watkins in a statement described the fatal attack as “a heinous crime against yet another on-line activist and an attack on tolerance”.He called upon the authorities to investigate and bring the perpetrators to justice in a speedy manner, including in all the previous cases.” “The police need to take concrete measures to protect citizens. Besides, strong condemnation of these incidents from the all levels of society will be important to prevent further murders.”The UN in its earlier statement already drew attention to the seemingly increasing intolerance towards people peacefully expressing their views on-line. The Foreign Secretary said they are hosting the workshop to make people more aware of the global terrorists’ threat and tools available to counter those.The sanctions regime was first established by resolution 1267 (1999) on 15 October 1999 and has been modified and strengthened by subsequent resolutions, including resolutions 1333 (2000), 1390 (2002), 1455 (2003), 1526 (2004), 1617 (2005), 1735 (2006), 1822 (2008), 1904 (2009), 1989 (2011), 2083 (2012) and resolution 2161 (2014) so that the sanctions measures now apply to designated individuals and entities associated with Al-Qaida, wherever located. The 1373 resolution, adopted following ‘Al-Qaeda’ threats, targets international terrorism in general, and goes beyond 1267. The UN Member States are bound to criminalise the financing of terrorism and freeze without delay the funds and other financial assets or economic resources to stop terrorists act under this 1373 resolution.
