The war crimes trial is unacceptable and irrelevant.
Who is speaking for the "injustice towards those who were killed, tortured, raped and burnt" by successive "democratic" governments?
I am tired of lip service about law and order, the constitution and people's rights - none of these exist. Until these are extended to the living, all attempts to extend them to the dead are cynical political ploys. No more, no less.
Emanur Rahman | m. +447734567561 | e. emanur@rahman.com
From: Isha Khan <bdmailer@gmail.com>
Sender: alochona@yahoogroups.com
Date: Thu, 7 Oct 2010 06:03:13 +0600
ReplyTo: alochona@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [ALOCHONA] New BNP stance on war crimes trial unfair, unacceptable
New BNP stance on war crimes trial unfair, unacceptable
THE opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party has visibly changed its position as regards the trial of the Bengali collaborators of the Pakistan army that committed war crimes against the people of Bangladesh in 1971. Until Tuesday, the party's spokespersons maintained that the BNP does not have any problem with the war crimes being investigated and the criminals tried, while warning the government that it must not victimise leaders and activists of the opposition camp, in the name of trying war crimes. Fair enough. But on Tuesday, the BNP chairperson, Khaleda Zia, told a gathering of a section of the freedom fighters, according to a report front-paged by New Age on Wednesday, that 'attempts are being made to push the nation to a confrontation in the name of war crimes trial four decades after independence.' Referring to the clemency given to the guilty of the Pakistani army by the post-independence government of the Awami League, and subsequent 'general amnesty' to the collaborators, Khaleda also said 'such double standard' of the ruling party 'must be resisted'. The BNP chairperson has taken a clear position against the 'war crimes trial' in the name of consolidating 'national unity'. We believe the new BNP stance on the issue of war crimes trial is unfair—and thus unacceptable—as it amounts to injustice towards those who were killed, tortured, raped and burnt by the occupation forces of Pakistan and their local collaborators during the country's liberation war.
It is historically true that the post-independence government of the Awami League officially 'forgave' the guilty officers of the Pakistan army, saying that 'the Bengalis know how to forgive.' It is also true that the Awami League government of the day granted 'general amnesty' to the local collaborators, of course, barring those involved in heinous crimes like killing, rape and arson. We believe such steps of the post-independence Awami League government were unjust, as those amounted to injustice towards those who sacrificed lives, underwent brutal torture, humiliation and enormous ordeal for the sake of national liberation. We believe the government of the day did not have the moral right to 'forgive' the perpetrators of war crimes.
However, the inability, or opportunistic reluctance, of the post-independence government to try the perpetrators of war crimes and their collaborators does not mean that the crimes cannot be investigated and the criminals punished now, forty years after the war of independence. There are instances in history that war crimes have been tried several years after the crimes were committed. It is better late than never, especially when it comes to justice. We have no reason to believe the mere trial of war crimes would divide the nation anew – the nation is already divided on political lines – as the number of 'collaborators' in 1971 was very few as against the entire population of the day who stood for the country's liberation from the occupation forces.
We, therefore, believe the government should go ahead with the trial of the collaborators of war crimes, and demand that the surviving officers of the Pakistan army who perpetrated war crimes in Bangladesh should be handed over to the war crimes tribunal for trial. Notably, the Pakistani authorities, while signing the tripartite agreement with Bangladesh and India for the repatriation of the guilty officers to Pakistan in 1973, promised to try their crimes in their homeland. But the Pakistani authorities failed to keep the commitment. It is time that Bangladesh demanded, at the least, that the guilty officers be tried in Pakistan in accordance with the commitment that its government had made four decades ago.
Meanwhile, the country's democratically oriented citizens committed to justice require to keep an eye on the whole process of the trial in Dhaka, so that the trial is fair and transparent, and that the government of Awami League cannot victimise its political rivals in the name of trying the perpetrators/collaborators of war crime, nor can it prolong the trial unduly for politically using the issue for parochial partisan interests for the years to come, as it has done before.
