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Sent on the Sprint® Now Network from my BlackBerry®
Dear Alochoks
Again, there is no reason to doubt that genocide and mass rape occurred. There is no doubt that genocide is defined by the intention of the killing and not the numbers killed. All the rape victims helped by the noble ladies mentioned are very real. But by the same token if the numbers of 3 million or 400,000 are reduced the terms genocide or mass rape will not be affected. Nor will the pain of our losses.
Rather, the sheer bloody minded refusal to do anything more than multiply 68,000 villages by an estimate of those killed per village, does the memory of all those victims a disservice. It indicates a web of inabilities, insecurities and complexes which we are simply not willing to confront. And in doing so we can see why we are where we are today.
The Prime minister announced on Army Day two years ago in front of the families of war victims that a search for mass graves will start. It has not started.
Privately many people assert that Sheikh Mujib mistakenly translated 3 lakhs in Bangla to 3 million in English. Well. The standard of English of many a learned man in 2011 is still appalling so we cannot begrudge Sheikh Mujib for possibly making that mistake. But are we to then seize upon that mistake (if it is true, if it is the key source of the 3 million number) as a golden opportunity to make our losses seem 10 times more serious? Who does that? What does that make us?
Many will be offended but only because we have created a culture where such matters are easily discussed in private but never in public. We need to talk publicly about such things and start trying to establish what the facts are. Other countries discuss without disagreement what happened 200 years ago. We can't agree on what happened 2 years ago!
We know very well how many men helped those rape victims in 1971 and since. These are the same men who start their political speeches by lifting their crooked forefinger and with mock emotion declare "Amader char lokko ma bon…." They don't really give a damn.
Murder, rape, corruption and extortion is committed daily by operatives of AL and BNP. Let's not complain or fight for reform especially when our preferred party is in power! But let's sing about murder and rape in 1971! What the heck is this?!
Those in their ivory towers should not be offended by slander, insult and mockery. These are the essential tools of Bangladeshi politics – the very same politics practiced by their preferred party and the very same politics which they do not complain about when their preferred party is in power.
I say we smash all our taboos and challenge everything that props up our political culture and established thinking.
Regards
--- In alochona@yahoogroups.com, Farida Majid <farida_majid@...> wrote:
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> It is Sarmila Bose who is exaggerating the extent of her 'research' and fieldwork in Bangladesh. I have testimony of people whom she contacted during her very brief visit researching "rape." Her notetaking was abysmal! She refused to hear my childhood friend, Maleka Khan's report on the dozens of Rehab Centers for women that were set up in 1972 throughout the country. My mother, Maleka, Begum Sufia Kamal, Badrunnessa (AL MP), Farida Hassan (later BNP MP), Dr. Sultana Zaman and many other women social workers worked indefatiguably during those days. I myself accompanied them in 1972 on their trips to the villages for finding rape victims. The process was painful on the part of the survivors to own up to victimhood. My mother was one of the founders of Dustho Mohila Punorbason Kendra still functioning as a women's hostel in Eskaton area of Dhaka city.
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> Why is Bose, and other sympathizers of mass murder and rape, so anxious to establish how exaggerated the NUMBERS are? Will lesser number of people killed wipe out the word 'genocide' and lessen the criminality of mass murders and rape? But, as I have clearly pointed out, the question of number itself is immaterial. For instance, the communal carnage of Gujarat in 2002 where over 2000 Muslims were slaughtered and innumerable women raped and 10,000 people displaced has been designated as a 'genocide' because of the manner in which the riot was conducted.
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> Once again, the legal definition of Genocide deals with the intent to commit genocide, not the actual numbers. Yet Jamaatis and the nuveau-rajakar types NEVER talk about the intention, the purpose and goal of committing the atrocities.
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> By the way, Mr. Shahadat indulged in falsehoods about me in the following:
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> Ms. Majid was in India at her home during that period, as Ms Bose was. Am I correct?
> Ms. Bose did a research in the grass root inside Bangladesh. Ms. Majid relied on the news and propaganda and got settled what she heard or read without proper analysis of the numbers.
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> What could be the purpose of these baseless, ridiculous lies about me? Where could he have possibly got the ideas? The intention to slander is surely the point.
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> Farida Majid
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> To: alochona@yahoogroups.com
> From: shahadathussaini@...
> Date: Mon, 16 May 2011 10:29:08 -0400
> Subject: RE: [ALOCHONA] Re: A Genocide or Holocaust does not have the other side of the story
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> Ms. Bose never denied Genocide in Bangladesh at the time of Liberation. What she said in her 'Dead Reckonninmg: ' is that the number had been balooned without taking field statistics.
> Ms. Majid was in India at her home during that period, as Ms Bose was. Am I correct?
> Ms. Bose did a research in the grass root inside Bangladesh. Ms. Majid relied on the news and propaganda and got settled what she heard or read without proper analysis of the numbers.
> Genocide occured, nobody on earth can deny it. Lot of innocent people had been killed by all the parties in the conflict (members of pakistani army did most). 195 real war criminals should have not been released by the then government of Bangladesh. International War Tribunal Act of 1973 was intended for prosecuting with international justices on the bench.
> Shahadat Suhrawardy
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> To: alochona@yahoogroups.com
> From: Ezajur@...
> Date: Mon, 16 May 2011 09:14:48 +0000
> Subject: [ALOCHONA] Re: A Genocide or Holocaust does not have the other side of the story
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> Dear Farida
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> AL will soon be sending tens of thousands of poor women to this jahalia. I condemn it. You don't.
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> I believe genocide did happen in 1971. I never denied it. Simple. So please try to focus.
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> I believe the legal definition of genocide by the UN (1948) is a good one.
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> The AL BNP Scuffle is the single biggest problem in Bangladesh today. Commentators who avoid it and actively seek to deflect from it are quietly partisan.
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> You say you are not politically affiliated but you avoid mentioning this government in any discussion and condemn no injustice or error committed by it.
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> Your activist brothers, `jara party koreh', should be `coloured' if they partake in status quo politics or do not stand up against criminality in their party or do not clamour for political reform.
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> I know you are a leader, honest and capable. So are many others. Don't take it from biased brother activists – take it from your `enemies'. But you are a leader who inadvertently supports the status quo today with all its injustice.
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> It is your democratic right to want `Bismillah' removed. There are good intellectual and practical arguments for it. But in fighting for it you are silent or obtuse on any number of other issues which require open condemnation.
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> You effortlessly excuse family politics by saying it is common in South Asia but keep silent on the undemocratic stranglehold on power of these very same families.
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> So let's look at what you have proposed:
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> try to PROVE how good 1971 Genocide was? What? Who said it was good? It was awful and it was genocide. There is nothing to admit or deny on this.
> I feel morally obliged to support Sharmila Bose because shes hacks off people like you by even daring to question whether 3 million actually died or 400,000 were actually raped. Numbers matter because numbers are used by politicians to delude our people and maintain status quo politics.
> Yes I remember the WCT. I welcome it and have never commented against it. There is nothing to admit or deny on this.
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> I hope the WCT has been set up to your satisfaction and as such the number of lawyers used by JI should prove in vain. I hope so.
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> Your invitation is a generous one. The subjects you wish to debate are absurd: why genocide and crimes against humanity are good? In clear English: genocide and crimes against humanity are awful and they did happen in 1971.
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> Just because you are right about the awfulness of genocide in 1971 does not give you the right to make the numbers killed and raped taboo. Nor does it give you the right to stay silent on what is destroying our nation today.
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> I am happy to debate you in Dhaka on why, though I care not a jot for her, I am glad Sharmila Bose annoys people like you, the difference between your politics and mine, and whether the number 3 million should or can be questioned. These are the subjects that I mentioned to Dr Mohsn Ali of New York.
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> I embrace every quaint insult you have used against me. To be fair, I have indeed used worse. It is a simple function of our forthright passions. Though you object to abusive behaviour by me even though I can be easily ignored, you cannot possibly stand openly against the abusive behaviour of our political classes which so greatly damages our nation.
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> I am happy to lose the debate. I am happy to be proved wrong. All that matters is the truth.
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> A genocide or holocaust does not have another side of the story. This is true. I am not presenting another side of the genocide of 1971. I am presenting the other side of some intellectuals and the other side of our country's lousy political narrative.
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> Ezajur Rahman
> Kuwait
> --- In alochona@yahoogroups.com, Farida Majid farida_majid@ wrote:
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> > Relentless hurling of abject abuse at Farida Majid by Ezajur of koo-koo land of Koo-Wait (waiting in unending Jahiliya for the dawn of civilization) will not do the job of proving what is morally RIGHT in supporting genocide. Legal definition of Genocide is provided by United Nations Charter. For those who are so enamored of mass killing of unarmed civilians, please hurl abuses at that organization.
> >
> > Ejazur's atrophied brain refuses to see anything beyond AL-BNP scuffle. One has to lick his feet, be his mo-saeb, otherwise a person is labelled "sycophant of AL" no matter what the rest of world knows about that person's political affiliation. He is an egotistic moron for harping on and on about a subject that he is shamelessly ignorant about.
> >
> > It is ironic that I often get 'phone calls congratulating me after an article is published in the paper from other activist brothers saying, "Apa, apnar moto leader-rai desh-take shamne niye jabe. Amra, jara party kori tara to kalard (colored) hoye gecchi." My repeated statement in Alochona that I do not do 'party' in Bangladesh falls on deaf ears.
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> > I would plead with the Moderator of ALOCHONA for curbing these personal abuses expressing pure, unadultrated malice, based on ridiculous falsehoods. It dumbs down any intelligent exchange of ideas. It is certainly not conducive to the noble purpose for which the originator of this yahoogroup started the forum, and who personally requested me several times before I agreed to join it 12 years ago.
> >
> > For Ejazur and FAlamgir of zulumgiri communalism: Please, try to PROVE how good 1971 Genocide was and how you feel "morally obliged" to support the claims of Sarmila Bose. You don't have to travel to New York City to do that. How about holding that proposed debate here in Dhaka City? It is time to stop talking in emotional, abusive terms. We have a functioning War Crimes Tribunal, remember? A presentation of defence argument FOR the crimes against humanity will be officially admitted at the Tribunal. Please contact the Jamaati lawyers advising the Defence at the Tribunal.
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> > Farida Majid
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> > : A Genocide or Holocaust does not have the other side of the story
> > Date: Sun, 13 Mar 2011 18:13:39 -0400
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> > Raising serious objection to Sarmila Bose’s “testimony� on Bangladesh Genocide of 1971.
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> > It is not enough to be simply emotional and object to Sarmila Bose’s incredulous insensitivity to crimes against humanity committed in 1971 in Bangladesh. We have to show how easy it is to prove that her so called “study� is methodologically wrong, logically fallacious and her conclusions fatuous and risible.
> > How risible? Consider her recent most articles extolling the virtues of General Niazi, the butcher of 1971 in the then East Pakistan. Niazi must have been a virtuous General to the Military authority that had deployed him. Yet I have read personal opinions of one high ranking Officer after another in the Pakistani armed forces of the time expressing disgust at Niazi’s blatant anti-Bengali racist attitudes and sadly admitting that Niazi was a disgrace to the uniform he was wearing. This does not point to a “carefully sourced� study, does it? Where did Sarmila Bose cull the information on Niazi’s praiseworthy actions in East Pakistan from when Niazi’s own account of events admits “errors of judgment�? Sarmila Bose is making up the virtues. For that task she did not have to be either “careful� or faithful to any real source.
> > Her most outrageous posturing pertains to the case of wide scale rape that was definitely used as an important instrument of war in 1971. Distorting the fact that numerous rehabilitation centers set up all over newly independent Bangladesh (my mother worked in one of them as a social worker in 1972) which actually extended Govt. and non-governmental help towards innumerable injured women, she writes:
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> > << Even if only a fraction of the total number of victims came to these centres, on the basis of their evidence, an estimate could be made of the total number and provide reliable information on who the victims were, who the perpetrators were, and the dates, places and circumstances of sexual violence.>>
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> > She is not interested in the trauma, the human misery, the wounded honor, or the shame that would prevent women from parading their story of victimization out in the public. She insists on hard math. The exact head count â€" the time, date and place â€"as if rape in a war of aggression is to be treated as any old municipal crime.
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> > Is her demand remotely realistic under the circumstances? Even the law does not require these details in a War Crimes Tribunal dealing with crimes against humanity. What the International Criminal Court requires is the establishment of the fact that the crimes were committed in a “widespread and systematic� manner. For that there is plenty of evidence on the ground, and also coming from Hamoodur Rahman Commission Report and other witnesses from within the Pakistani armed forces.
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> > I can gather more testimonies if and when necessary. For the moment I have gathered the following from a Pakistani source:
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> > A response by our Brig. FB Ali, to the article sent earlier, is being forwarded to put things in perspective.
> > Do we really need testimonials from the Assistant Editor of an insignificant Indian paper to reassure us that our army did OK in EP? Is that our level of self-confidence now?
> > Why do we need fairy tales and stories about things we all know about, either first- or second-hand?
> > The fact is that the soldiers and younger officers fought well in EP (as they have done everywhere else). The mid-level officers' performance was a mixed bag, some good, some bad, most average. The senior officers (Brig and above) performed poorly, with some exceptions. Many of the generals behaved terribly, and should have been shot for cowardice and the war crimes that they committed by directing or allowing their troops to commit atrocities against the civilian population.
> > "Tiger" Niazi was a disgrace to the uniform he unfortunately wore. He was a fraud, a lecher and a coward. When he was GOC 10 Div, it was well known in the garrison (I was there) that his staff car would often be found standing in Heera Mandi at night. As GOC EP he used to go around visiting troops and asking JCOs: How many Bengali women have you raped? When discussing his surrender with the Indian general he kept trying to ingratiate himself with him by telling dirty jokes. These are just a few highlights of this great self-styled Mujahid, who now also has the glowing testimonial of Ms Sarmila Bose.
> > Brig. FB Ali
> >
> > Sarmila Bose is a disgrace to the Bangalee race and to civil society of all times and all places.
> >
> > Prof.Farida Majid
> > Poet, scholar, literary translator; taught English at CUNY and Bangla at Columbia University in the City of New York.
> >
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