[vinnomot] War Criminals of 1971: Time to Take Action

SAN-Feature Service

SOUTH ASIAN NEWS-FEATURE SERVICE

November 3,2007

 

War Criminals of 1971: Time to Take Action

 

Dr. Abdul Momen  

 

The International CrimeAct of 1973 of Bangladesh is still active and Article 47, Section 3 of the Act allows trial of war criminals. Therefore, the military-backed government

of Fakhruddin Ahmed that has started many essential reforms can try the war

criminals and punish them provided it has the mindset and commitment.

 

SAN-Feature Service : It is highly misleading that Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman government pardoned all the war criminals and he did nothing during his 'war ravaged  reconstruction period'. The facts show otherwise.

 

In fact, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman government started prosecuting the perpetrators of 'crime against humanity' or 'war criminals' immediately after independence  and he also passed the Collaborators Act (1972) and the International Crime Act of 1973 that barred re-entry of any collaborators to Bangladesh.

 

Sheikh Mujib promulgated the Special Tribunal Order on January 24, 1972 (PO

No 8 of 1972) after 14 days of his return from Pakistani jail to try those

Pakistani collaborators, Razakars, Al-Badrs and other stooges of the

Pakistani army. Under this order he arrested 37,000 collaborators amidst of

strong opposition by left-leaning journalists like Enayetullah Khan [see his

write-up titled '75 million Collaborators', the Holiday, 1972]. Out of them,

26,000 had no grievious criminal charges filed against them; therefore they

were pardoned and released in a general amnesty.

 

However, nearly 800 cases were completed and given jail sentences. Another 11,000 were in jail including Nizami and Abbas Ali Khan of the Jamat-e-Islam Party (JI), and

their prosecution was at various stages of completion. In addition, those

that were involved in 'crime against humanity' and against Bangladesh, were

denied Bangladesh nationality and passports.

 

On November 4, 1972 all religion-based politics were abolished as per

sections 12 and 38 of the Bangladesh Constitution of 1972.

 

Unfortunately, when General Ziaur Rahman, a freedom fighter  emerged as a

'strong man' in 1975, he abrogated the Collaborators Act and released all

the prisoners including those that were sentenced, and those under

prosecution. For political and personal reasons he allowed religion-based

parties to operate and started reinstating and rehabilitating them. No

wonder, those who were guilty of 'crime against humanity' and collaboration

with enemy (Pakistan) state started returning from abroad especially

Pakistan and Saudi Arabia and they were given Bangladesh citizenship and

passport. The worst example if this was Golam Azam of the JI Party.

 

On those days I was working for the Bangladesh government and many

individuals and their relatives that had no Bangladesh passport approached

us for consideration. However, once General Zia took over, all of them were

issued Bangladesh passport or 'travel documents' to return to Bangladesh.

 

It is sad that few vested quarters including Abdul Mannan Bhuiya, the ousted

BNP Secretary General  are misleading the public and the nation by stating that Sheikh Mujib pardoned  them or shifting the responsibility by asking why they were not prosecuted before.

 

The fact is, Sheikh Mujib started the prosecution and he pardoned only those

that did not have criminal cases against them. He did not pardon those

(Razakers, Al-badr or Al-Shams) that had 'criminal cases' and those that

committed 'crime against humanity or war criminals' such as rape, murder,

and the like. Thousands of these criminals were in prison during his time

awaiting trail, and many were absconding abroad including Golam Azam, the

leader of the JI party where they were involved in anti-state activities

abroad. He did not get time to complete the prosecution because he was

murdered with most of his family.

 

After the massacre of Sheikh Mujib and his family plus his close associates;

Prime Minister Tajuddin Ahmed, Acting President Syed Nazrul Islam, Secretary

General AHM Qamruzzaman and Home Minister Monsur Ali, the founders of

independent and sovereign Bangladesh in 1975, one after another

civil-military-technocratic or cantonment-based governments ruled the

country. In 1996, when pro-people and pro-liberation government of Sheikh

Hasina came to power after 21 years with marginal votes; it neither could

reinstate the Collaborators Act nor could revive the original constitution

of 1972. Secondly, it followed 'judicial process and rule of law' and

therefore, it did not set up any 'kangaroo court or special tribunal' to

prosecute the criminals. One can debate that as a weakness of the Hasina

government or not.

 

Therefore, it failed to punish the war criminals and the culprits. But that

does not justify that the criminals of 'crime against humanity' or war

criminals should not face justice. It would be unfair if they are allowed to

go free or untouched. Fortunately, now is an opportune moment to revive the

clause that 'no religion-based political party can register or contest in

Bangladesh election' and those found guilty of 'crime against humanity' to

be fully prosecuted. Unless the criminals and murderers are fully

prosecuted, you can neither establish 'rule of law' nor can stop political

killing in Bangladesh.

 

Secondly, Islami activist S. A. Hannan, a retired bureaucrat following the

JI party line of argument tried to mislead the public by stating that there

was 'no genocide' in East Pakistan in 1971.

 

Genocide is the deliberate and systematic destruction of an ethnic,

religious or national group. While precise definition varies among genocide

scholars, the legal definition of it is found in the 1948 United Nations

Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide

(CPPCG). Article 2 of the CPPCG defines genocide as:

 

Any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in

part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: killing

members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of

the group; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life,

calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;

imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; [and]

forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

 

In 1971 the Pakistan occupation army plus their collaborators like the

Jamat-e-Islam, the Islami Chatra Sangho (currently renamed Islami Chatra

Shibir) and their militant killing squads--the Al-Badr and the Al-Shams

tried their utmost to apprehend and kill those that demand an 'independent

Bangladesh'. Since majority of Bengali speaking East Pakistanis (Sheikh

Mujib got 167 out of 169 seats in East Pakistan) or ethnic group favored an

independent Bangladesh, they waged a war with intent to destroy that ethnic

group. The Pak army systematically opened fire on unarmed masses of Bengali

ethnic group on the midnight of March 25th, 1971 indiscriminately resulting

which, as per various reports 19,000 to 25,000 Bengali ethnic people died on

that dark night alone and over a period of 10 months, 3 million reportedly

killed, 30 million were dislodged from their homes and 10 million had to

take refuge in neighboring India due to cleansing operation, fear and

repression. In global rankings, the 1971 Bangladesh genocide is second only

to that of Nazi genocide of Jews.

 

In order to cripple the whole 'Bangali nationalism and nationhood' the Pak

army in collaboration with the Jamat-e-Islam and few other such parties and

their affiliates systematically and calculatedly murder the Bengali

intellectuals, writers, doctors, journalists, educators and their political

leadership. In addition, in order to cleanse the society of Hindu

population, the Pak army and its collaborators calculatedly killed and/or

uprooted them. No wonder, over 10 million East Pakistanis (out of 75

million) mostly Hindu minority took shelter in the neighboring India. When

army captured me on April 20, 1971, they tested me whether I could recite

'kolema' (the 1st pillar of Muslim faith) and then they checked whether I

had my circumcision, a symbol of being Muslim in the subcontinent.

 

Anyone not able to recite the Kolema, or males without circumcisn were

killed because they could not show proof of their religious identity. Such

is a testimony of cleansing of a religious group, a clear evidence of

genocide.

 

But Zia's gutting of the relevant laws missed one. The International Crime

Act of 1973 of Bangladesh is still active and Article 47, Section 3 of the

Act allows trial of war criminals. Therefore, the military-backed government

of Fakhruddin Ahmed that has started many essential reforms can try the war

criminals and punish them provided it has the mindset and commitment.

 

It is time to take action.—SAN-Feature Service

 

[The author, Dr. Abdul Momen, is a former senior civil servant for various governments of Bangladesh and  currently a professor of Economics in  Boston.]

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