HOUSTON March 22— From Finland's Helsinki to California's Santa Clara, from Los Angeles to Sydney, Australia, expatriate Bangladeshis are planning to mark Bangladesh's 42nd independence day with a worldwide campaign in 40 cities all over the world to express solidarity with a remarkable youth-inspired people's movement in Dhaka's Shahbag Square which began Feb. 5.
The events will be hosted March 24 in over 20 cities in the U.S. as well as cities as far apart as London, South Korea's Chungju, South Africa's Cape Town and Fukuoka in Japan.
Passionate yet completely nonviolent, the movement that began in Dhaka demanding maximum punishment for convicted war criminals, has drawn praise from U.S. Ambassador to Bangladesh Dan Mozena, who said in Dhaka: "It's an example of people's peaceful manifestation to express their views in public. It's an important part of democracy."
For many expatriates, it's an opportunity to reassert the humanist values of Bangladesh's Independence in 1971. Most of the accused are top leaders of Bangladesh's leading Islamist party, the Jamaat-e-Islami, which activists want to be banned.
"March 24 offers a great opportunity to express solidarity with the Shahbag movement that demands maximum punishment for 1971 independence war criminals," said Dr. Mahmood Hussain, a marketing professor at San Francisco State University. "So we, Bangladeshi people living abroad, will join other Bangladeshis to gather in public places to let the world know that we stand united against the war criminals as well as against any extremist Islamist groups that are to trying to save these criminals."
Triggered by a perceived lenient sentence of convicted war criminal Quader Mollah who was found guilty of killing over 300 people and rape in 1971, a spontaneous crowd gathered Feb. 5 at Dhaka's Shahbag square demanding justice for 1971 war crimes, which Bangladesh says claimed 3 million lives and thousands of rapes.
The crowds, which often swelled to 100,000 have made passionate demands for maximum punishment of war criminals and a ban on Jamaat-e Islami, the Islamist party that harbors most of those accused of war crimes.
The movement struck a chord with Bangladeshis abroad, and supporters have already publicly expressed solidarity for Shahbag activists in 126 cities in 23 countries.
Bangladeshis abroad, working together under a loose rubric organized through the Facebook group Shahbag Abroad, are networking through social media and other means to make a united statement for pluralism and tolerance March 24.
While political turmoil has roiled Bangladesh as Jamaat and its allies have fought violent battles with police, activists of Shahbag Square and its many supporting gatherings all over Bangladesh have remained completely nonviolent.
The spontaneous support from abroad continues to grow.
"We, the Bangladeshi people in South Korea, are standing together extending our support for the ongoing trial process trying crimes against humanity." said Subrata Deb Nath, a research assistant in Soonchunhyang University in Cheonan, South Korea.
Shahriar Pavel added from Sydney, Australia: "We demand all peace lovers across the globe stand beside Bangladesh and help continue the international crimes tribunal."
Dr. Zakia Afrin, adjunct professor of law, at Golden Gate University in San Francisco added that Bangladeshis need closure. "Mere end of war does not bring peace," said Afrin, who has worked before with Amnesty International. "For sustaining positive peace in Bangladesh , we must look at our tortured past and seek to remedy it. Not just for the loved ones we lost, for everyone, for all generations to come. This gathering is not about demanding death penalty, its about the pursuit of justice."
More information is available at http://shahbag.info
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WHERE IT'S HAPPENING
40 cities. 11 countries. 5 continents.
NORTH AMERICA
USA: Albuquerque, Atlanta, Auburn, Austin, Boston, Chicago, Columbia, Columbus, Dallas, Detroit, Honolulu, Houston, Los Angeles, New Jersey, New York, Philadelphia, Raleigh, Reno, Ruston, San Francisco Bay area, Tampa, Washington DC
CANADA: Calgary, Ottawa, Vancouver
ASIA
CHINA: Tianjin
JAPAN: Fukuoka
SOUTH KOREA: Chungju
AUSTRALIA
Melbourne, Perth, Sydney
EUROPE
UK: Leeds, London, Sussex
FINLAND: Helsinki, Espoo, Tampere
GERMANY: Stuttgart
SWEDEN: Umea
AFRICA
SOUTH AFRICA: Cape Town
BACKGROUND INFO
We will be happy to provide contact information about people quoted in the article (except US envoy Dan Mozena. We encourage you to verify our account of events in Bangladesh by contacting independent sources.)
- The movement is unique in that this is a mass people's movement against Islamists in a Muslim-majority country, probably a first.
B. It's completely nonviolent, made evident by the fact that women feel safe in attending in large numbers, very rare in Bangladesh's bare-knuckled politics. Elderly people, families with toddlers in tow, felt comfortable attending.
- It has remarkable staying power. For 17 days, demonstrators stayed there day-and-night continuously. It's still going on.
D. The sponaneous support it has drawn — both in Bangladesh and abroad from expatriates — is unprecedented since the 1971 Bangladesh war of independence.
News reports:
A 40-Year Quest for Justice
By Shahidul Alam | New York Times, Feb. 28, 2013
weblink:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/01/opinion/bangladeshs-40-year-quest-for-justice.html?_r=0
Vast Throng in Bangladesh Protests Killing of Activist
JIM YARDLEY | New York Times Feb. 16, 2013
weblink:
Politics in Bangladesh Jolted by Daily Demonstrations
By JIM YARDLEY | New York Times Feb. 12, 2013
weblink:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/13/world/asia/politics-in-bangladesh-jolted-by-huge-protests.html
Shahbag protesters versus the Butcher of Mirpur
By Tahmima Anam | The Guardian Feb. 12, 2013
weblink:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/feb/13/shahbag-protest-bangladesh-quader-mollah
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