I am ready to turn myself in Mr. Adviser
Mozammel H. Khan
In a piece for DS (March 5, 2004) entitled 'Dilemma of an expatriate' I concluded with the following: "I had a classmate in my hometown college; both of us were activist of the same student party. Over the years, he changed his political belief and in 1971, we were on the opposite sides of the history. As a leader of the infamous badar-bahini, he was assisting the occupation forces to carry out the genocide on our people. Currently, he is a very powerful cabinet minister of the alliance government. Had I been in Bangladesh, probably I was bound by the protocol to salute him. Would I be able to do that? This query resulted not from the fact that, he was a backbencher and I was the top student in the class, but only because he was instrumental in torturing and killing our people, while I was baiting my life to save them." The aforesaid classmate is no other than Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed, currently the Secretary General of the infamous Jamaat-e-Islami. Mojaheed has once again exposed his true self by not only denying that his party did not work against the liberation war but went as far as trespassing in the task of certifying that "anti-liberation forces never even existed." In his words, "allegation against him and his party colleagues are all false, imaginary and ill-motivated." His party's joint secretary Abdul Kader Molla, who also happened to be a classmate and next door neighbour of mine in the College hostel, used the most derogatory words ever used by any one against the freedom fighters. As I recollect both Mujaheed and Kader, whose criminal acts were vividly known to their peers through direct evidences and to the nation through the tragic experiences of their unfortunate victims, were absconding following our victory and only resurfaced after the August tragedy of 1975. In spite of their rehabilitation after the August '75 tragedy and Mujaheed's subsequent ascension to the cabinet as a powerful minister of the last government did not help to wash away his guilt to qualify either of them to join our College 'Class Group' of which our classmate Sajjad (Adviser Dr. C S Karim) is also a member.
These despicable comments of Mujaheed and Kader were further depraved by the contemptible observation of one Mr. S A Hannan that the war of 1971 was not a liberation war, rather a civil war, challenging the very preamble of our constitution that begins with the affirmation, "we, the people of Bangladesh, having proclaimed our Independence on the 26th day of March, 1971 and through [a historic war for national independence], established the independent, sovereign People's Republic of Bangladesh;" have intensified the demand for the trial of war criminals. The expectations of the people rose manifolds after an assurance by the Chief of the Armed forces in a gathering of the freedom fighters on March 27, 2007 to raise the issue of the trials with the government. In fact, many of the commendable actions of the government such as returning the true history of our liberation war in the school text books, bringing home the remnants of Birshestra Hamidur Rahman and the intention to rebury the all the seven Birshestra at the national mausoleum in Savar have created a conducive environment whereby it was possible for the common people to resist the burial of Rizu rajakar at his home town. For the first time since 1971 all our living sector commanders, the valiant freedom fighters, the socio-cultural organizations, members of the civil society, human right groups, editors of our influential dailies and all the major political parties have united in their demand to try the war criminals.
In the face of such a historical national unity, the Bangabhaban poured cold water by inviting the alleged war criminals in the victory day reception turning a deaf ear to the threat of boycott by the all those who mattered in 1971 as well as those who are likely to be mandated, through a fair election, in reshaping the future destiny of the nation. To our utter disappointment, the government opted to act as the host to those whose atrocious past are all over the news media and whose derogatory words are an ignoble affront to the supreme sacrifices of our martyrs, to tens and thousands of our living heroes and to the millions who stood by them. It is beyond any simple comprehension why a government that enjoyed the good will of our masses in its efforts to implement many of the undoable tasks, in addition to seemingly inconceivable act of putting behind bars the two most popular politicians of the country, has sided with a small group of alleged criminals and their lackeys, some of them shamefully teach at our highest institutions of learning. Incidentally, these are the very individuals who supported all the evil designs of the past government and its blueprint to manipulate the derailed January 22 election that brought the nation to the brink of disaster. I cannot imagine any colleague of mine in Canada, enjoying an enviable freedom of expression, siding with the Nazi war criminals. The en masse boycott of the Bangabhaban reception would remain a thorn on the part of the government and would surely be magnified when the situation would be conducive to make an objective evaluation of its performance.
In the face of such a concerted demand, the response of the Chief Adviser was one of evading the responsibility, albeit very articulate in commensurate with his prudent style. Lately, the nation has not heard anything from the army chief whose past affirmative actions and assurances have helped crystallized all the concerned components to a single nucleus. The most abhorrent response came from the Law Adviser, who in his usual rugged style, neither in conformity with the prudence of the CA, the main asset of the CTG, nor with the lucid sophistication of the army chief, the principal power behind the government, not only castigated those who are demanding the trial, but also invented conspiracy in the demand as he did on many other issues. I, for instance, would still like to believe that this is his personal response, not reflecting the policy of the government, as happened on many other issues in the past. The glaring one was his assertion that the current government was a national government; the claim was promptly disputed by the army chief. Neither do I possess any illusion about the Law Adviser's personal political belief (his smiling pictures with the alleged war criminals are all over the internet) nor am I bothered an iota by what he personally thinks about our demand (we achieved victory in 1971 without his participation). Previous governments' inaction of not carrying out the trial is not a tenable alibi for the current government to ignore the popular demand. Why this government, outside their constitutionally mandated singular task of conducting a free and fair election, is so devoutly acting to root out corruption when many governments in the past did not and could not do it? If the priority of a nation is guided by the wishes of its citizens, the current custodians of the Republic are handed out a historical opportunity to make a glorious mark in the upcoming pages of history.
To the contrary, if the visibly aggravated response of the Law Adviser when he proposed holding the trial of those who are demanding the trials of the war criminals after 36 years is really the official position of the current government, as a relentless advocate for bringing the war criminals to justice, I am ready to turn myself in Mr. Adviser, when your government initiates the trial as infuriately suggested by you.
Dr. Mozammel H. Khan is the Convener of the Canadian Committee for Human Rights and Democracy in Bangladesh.
Mozammel H. Khan
Canadian Committee for Human Rights and Democracy in Bangladesh
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Sign the Petition : Release the Arrested University Teachers Immediately : An Appeal to the Caretaker Government of Bangladesh
http://www.mukto-mona.com/human_rights/university_teachers_arrest.htm
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Daily Star publishes an interview with Mukto-Mona
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MM site is blocked in Islamic countries such as UAE. Members of those theocratic states, kindly use any proxy (such as http://proxy.org/) to access mukto-mona.
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Mukto-Mona Celebrates 5th Anniversary
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Mukto-Mona Celebrates Earth Day:
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Kansat Uprising : A Special Page from Mukto-Mona
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MM Project : Grand assembly of local freedom fighters at Raumari
http://www.mukto-mona.com/project/Roumari/freedom_fighters_union300306.htm
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German Bangla Radio Interviews Mukto-Mona Members:
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Mukto-Mona Celebrates Darwin Day:
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