[vinnomot] WAR CRIMES: Govt. needs to start prosecutions

SAN-Feature Service

SOUTH ASIAN NEWS-FEATURE SERVICE

December 25,2007

 

WAR CRIMES: Govt.  needs to start prosecutions

Ripan Kumar Biswas

 

Of course the main agenda of the caretaker government is to hold a free and fair election, but this is high time to initiate legal actions against the war criminals and the trial is more important than the ongoing crackdown on corruption.

 

SAN-Feature Service : The term "war crimes" evokes a litany of horrific images. Although war crimes are basically violations of the laws of war that cover atrocities during armed conflict or International Humanitarian Law (IHL) that incur individual criminal responsibility, but the worst abuses of this century such as Stalin's purges and destruction of the kulaks or Mao's forced collectivization' s are not war crimes only. These atrocities are international crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity.

 

The world has suffered much genocide in human history, but the worst genocide in the annals of history in 1971 was not simply possible by the state-sponsored Pakistani army against Bangladesh . People suffered such attempted extermination with the help of local allies. What weren't happened with general Bangladeshis- murder, ill-treatment, torture, mutilation, corporal punishment, rape, enforced prostitution, indecent assault, summary executions, hostage taking, collective punishment, or pillage?

 

Observing the mass demand, though not as a collective groups, different political parties in Bangladesh have now committed themselves to undertake the trial and punishment of axis war criminals. They had the power to do so, whether as victors unrestrained by law, or through the application of law of war, or through the country's existing law. But neither any past government nor others political parties looked with favor upon arbitrary and ex post facto punishments.

 

So much is certain, that no civilized society, any more than a society at peace, can allow unpunished criminal activities. There are, in fact, enough precedents in the law of war and enough general principles of law recognized by civilized nations to provide a just and proper legal procedure against war criminals.

 

Whereas they were in the government, Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, senior leader of the BNP's (Bangladesh Nationalist Party) reformist group and former minister, asked the present military backed interim government to prosecute war criminals. Although Jamat-e-Islami was held responsible for its anti-liberation role in 1971, BNP was allied with them during Awami League rule in the movement against the then government and formed a coalition government after the 2001 general elections. Bhuiyan admitted that there were a lot of supporting documents to bring war criminals under trail, but all the previous governments failed to do it.

 

Awami League (AL), the major political party in Bangladesh which is supposed to associate closely with the issues of liberation war and its spirit and aspirations of independence, freely did include, within their folds, persons with serious questionable roles in the liberation war. Although AL moved several times jointly with questionable political parties and persons to win the political battle, it also demanded immediate trial of the war criminals and pledged that the party would never form any sort of alliance with or seek any support from Jamaat-e-Islami or any other anti-liberation forces to go to power.

 

Although freedom fighter is a relativistic term for those engaged in rebellion against an established government or regime that they consider to be oppressive, the literal meaning of the words could include anyone who fights for the cause of freedom from political, economical or religious suppression.

 

This is not quite the Bangladesh where lives were sacrificed; blood was shed for in 1971. Freedom fighters had fought gallantly with the enemies to free the motherland and to establish democracy, secularism and Bengali nationalism.

 

While millions of Bangladeshis are paying their heartiest gratitude to those freedom fighters and expecting that each and everyone, who fought in the complex and challenging situation and sacrificed their lives, should be highly respected and taken care of when they need, very often it is regular to see the sufferings, humiliation and deprivation of freedom fighters. Some of them are rickshaw-pullers, slum dwellers or even beggars. Most of the countries in the world respect their freedom fighters and senior citizens for their great contribution towards the country. Government has special priorities for those great heroes.

 

It mightn't be proper way according to the many critics while the sector commanders of eleven areas of Bangladesh during the liberation war and other political parties didn't attend the 36th Victory Day reception hosted by the president, Dr. Iajuddin Ahmed, on Sunday December 16, 2007 as part of the heartiest gratitude towards freedom fighters and the decision not to attend any state functions in which anti-liberation forces, including leaders of Jamaat-e-Islami, would be present and the demand of the state sponsor investigations against them, but those critics may not ignore that the non political government of Dr. Fakhruddin Ahemd can bring the war criminals under prosecutions rather  following the same footsteps of its predecessors.

 

In addition to come across the different recent comments of the anti-liberation forces about whether they were involved in 1971 tragedy or not, it is important to ensure them that the spirit of independence is still alive in the heart of millions of Bangladeshis.

 

Referring a response to a recent article ("Guilty at birth?", December 6, 2007) in the London based newspaper the Economist where Jamaat-e-Islami in Bangladesh were pledged guilty for their atrocities during the war of independence in 1971, its supremo Motiur Rahman Nizami, strongly denied any such link and reminded everyone that in the past 36 years, no one, not even the relatives of the victims' families, has taken any step to institute legal proceedings against the alleged perpetrators of war crimes.

 

Among many other individual initiatives, commander of Dhaka district freedom fighters' unit, Mozaffar Ahmed Khan, recently filed a case with the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's Court in Dhaka against four top leaders of the Jamaat-e-Islami – its ameer Matiur Rahman Nizami, secretary general Ali Ahsan Mujahid, assistant secretary generals Abdul Kader Molla and Qamaruzzaman and five others on charge of killing two freedom fighters at Keraniganj on the outskirts of Dhaka city during the independence war in 1971. But the case may be meritless as at the beginning it was not even registered with Tejgaon police station because the government didn't sanction the plaintiff in this case.

 

Of course the main agenda of the caretaker government is to hold a free and fair election, but this is high time to initiate legal actions against the war criminals and the trial is more important than the ongoing crackdown on corruption. If these criminals go unpunished, there would be recurrence of such crimes in the country and no political government will be able to bring them back under trail as because they will be obviously associated with such groups or persons.—SAN-Feature Service

 

Ripan Kumar Biswas is a freelance writer . e-mail :

Ripan.Biswas@ yahoo.com

 

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