Trial of war criminals should not be politicised, used as political weaponAI Asia Pacific Programme Director Sam Zarifi tells The Daily Star Sam Zarifi The government, people and the media should ensure that the trial of war criminals is not politicised and not used as a political weapon, Amnesty International (AI) Asia Pacific Programme Director Sam Zarifi said. He also expressed deep concern as no resolve of the investigation into the mutiny by BDR jawans has been made public yet.The Amnesty official said this in an interview with The Daily Star last week during his visit to Bangladesh. Zarifi also called on the government to ensure right kind of education for all to combat militancy. The government should also ensure human rights of both BDR jawans and militants when they are in custody, he said.. BDR Mutiny Sam Zarifi said the rights of the people who are accused of mutiny should be ensured and it's important to ensure that the resolve of the investigation is credible."The resolve has to be real justice," he said."We, Amnesty International, do not want to see this tried as a court martial. International law doesn't really favour court martial. So, we would like to see these things done as a legitimate civilian process," Zarifi noted. "And I think its up to the government to make sure that the judicial process it comes up with is serious and transparent and conforms with the international standards." Mentioning that there are allegations of abuse of BDR detainees and a number of them died in custody, Zarifi said, "The government must ensure that all detainees are treated properly." War Crimes Trial As the government considers moving forward with war crimes tribunal, the government should look closely at the War Crimes Tribunal Act, 1973 to see if it conforms to the international law and whether it needs to be updated or amended or reformed anyway, the Amnesty official said. The Amnesty International encourages the government to get the best advice and expertise for the trial of the war criminals, he added. "We may or may not comment on the process as it develops, but it's for the government to decide who the best sources of expertise are. As international law has developed a lot of experience since 1973 and those can usefully be incorporated into the 1973 law," said Zarifi. One of the key things to see is that the process of trying war criminals is not political, he added."Political status of the people involved in the crimes should be irrelevant," Zarifi said, adding that the issue of political status should not make a difference in the trial process. "The political issues are something beyond the human rights issues. But except that we want to be absolutely clear that there would be no politicisation of the process and that it would not be used as a political weapon," he added. Zarifi explained that these are the most complex criminal cases imaginable and the events of 1971 war involves millions of people. He also stressed the need for training for judges, prosecutors and defence as the trial process involves dealing with specialised branch of law. "There are some basic training that should be necessary for judges, for prosecutors and for defence. So good training is absolutely necessary." He also stressed the need for consultation with experts not only from Europe and America but also from Guatemala, Cambodia, Indonesia or East Timor who can tell how things should be done. The Amnesty International would certainly monitor the development of the trial process very closely, he added. Role of Media in War Crimes Trial According to Zarifi, media has to play two very important roles. "One is that media should ask people, who are talking about the war crimes tribunal, whether they have asked the right people the right questions, " he said, adding, "The key function of media is to act as watchdog of people in power." The second role of media is to inform the people of Bangladesh about the experiences of other peoples across the world by telling that there are widespread support for real justice process," he added. Zarifi also urged media to ensure that criticisms about war crimes trial are not political and they are not designed to prevent the people of Bangladesh from having justice.Media should also tell the people of Bangladesh that there are different models of war crimes tribunals and some of them have worked and some of them haven't, and let the people have a will in deciding what would be the shape of this process, Zarifi explained. Militancy With regard to rise of militancy in the country and the government's duty to curb it, Zarifi said, "The government should ensure that everyone, whether in public, secular or religious high schools, is getting right kind of education, and that is very important." "Again we go back to the notion that we need a very strong judiciary and a very strong security forces operating within human rights parameter to combat militancy," he added. Sharing the experiences of Amnesty International in militancy around the world, Zarifi said very often the government creates an environment in which militancy thrives. He also laid emphasis on ensuring human rights of captured militants."The torture of militantd or the human rights violation of militants actually strengthens their hands," said Zarifi. Cautioning the Government of Bangladesh not to repeat the mistakes of Pakistan government while combating militancy, Zarifi said, "The government should not allow abuses by militants to go unpunished, but it must not resort to human rights violation in the name of combating militancy," he added. National Human Rights Commission Mentioning that the government did not work as per its promise to create a National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Zarifi said, "We really hope that the government will prioritise the creation of a very strong, very robust human rights commission. "A strong human rights commission with the ability to investigate matters properly to protect the rights of people and question the government directly is very essential for Bangladesh," he added. Police Reform Referring to draft police reform ordinance Zarifi said, "It is absolutely clear that police in Bangladesh need to be reformed, they need to have very clear civilian oversight with the monitoring of human rights.""We hope that the new government will also give priority to the creation of a professional, non-political and human rights-friendly police force because ultimately the police are responsible for protecting human rights," he added. Judiciary Independence of judiciary is a basic requirement for the protection of human rights, said Zarifi. "It's not just enough to pass a law. The independence of judiciary has to be protected in practice.. We would like to see that the government is continuing its efforts to ensure that judges and government officials are responsive and doing what they are supposed to do," he added. Student Politics Identifying involvement of student wings of political parties in violence and intimidation as a historical problem in Bangladesh, Zarifi said, "We would like to see an end of this kind of behaviour. Obviously the first obligation of the government is to protect people from the activities of groups that resort to violence and we would like to see that the government and its political wing take necessary steps to make it sure that there is no more resorting to violence." Industrial Labour About the rights of industrial workers in the country Zarifi said, "It is very important to make sure that Bangladeshi workers are protected because the tendency of business is to get the cheapest labour, but it can't be at the cost of working people." |
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