UN calls for Bangladesh army probe after Al Jazeera investigation
Al Jazeera’s Investigative Unit revealed Bangladesh bought Israeli-made surveillance technology used to monitor cell phones.
The corruption involves Bangladesh’s Chief of Army Staff, General Aziz Ahmed, who is due to meet senior UN officials in New York next week.
In All the Prime Minister’s Men, Al Jazeera’s Investigative Unit revealed that Bangladesh’s military purchased sophisticated and highly intrusive mobile phone surveillance equipment from Israel, which Bangladesh military commanders claimed was “for one of the Army Contingents due to be deployed in the UN Peacekeeping Mission”.
A spokesperson for the UN said that this was not the case.
“Such equipment has not been deployed with Bangladeshi contingents in United Nations peacekeeping operations,” the UN spokesperson told Al Jazeera.
“We are aware of the reporting by Al Jazeera Investigations concerning allegations of corruption against senior officials in Bangladesh and the press release issued by the Ministry of Defence of Bangladesh. The allegation of corruption is a serious matter that should be investigated by the
Bangladesh is the largest overall contributor of uniformed personnel to UN Peacekeeping missions, with more than 6,800 presently deployed in peacekeeping operations around the world.
IMSI-catchers
The surveillance equipment is called an “international mobile subscriber identity-catcher”, or IMSI-catcher. It is a tool that emulates cell towers to trick cellular devices into providing locations and data that is then captured by the device.
It can be used to track hundreds of attendees of demonstrations simultaneously, among other things.
The Bangladesh army said that the equipment was made in Hungary and not Israel, which the Muslim-majority country does not recognize.
No comments