Over the years, in the past three decades, the world has witnessed many crimes against humanity -- in Biafra, Nigeria, in Rwanda, in Cambodia and in Bosnia-Herzegovina. People have paid with their lives for their beliefs and for their aspirations. In this context, the martyrs of Bangladesh have not been alone.

The nine months between March and December 1971 have been symbols of crimes against humanity. From that point of view, the cases of persecution during this period were suitable for prosecution under different Conventions adopted by the United Nations.

In this context, the crimes perpetrated particularly in the month of December 1971, deserve special mention. What happened in the second week of that month was the culmination of an organised, pre-meditated, systematic campaign to decimate the intellectual population of the newly emerging country. Collaborators of the Yahya military junta, misguided in their interpretation of Islam focused particularly on teachers, doctors, lawyers, journalists, musicians, painters and film directors. This was done with the specific intention of effacing what they thought was the 'source of inspiration' associated with the struggle for Bangladesh.

A statistical survey carried out in the beginning of 1972 indicated that 968 teachers and educationists from different schools and colleges were assassinated during the last few weeks of the War of Independence. In addition, 21 university teachers were also brutally murdered. The survey also identified that in the second week of December 1971, 13 journalists and 51 doctors were also killed. There were also several litterateurs, painters and engineers. Most of these intellectuals were taken from their loved ones in the dead of the night. They were blindfolded, their arms were strapped and then they were executed. Some of them were also mutilated.

The criminals responsible for these heinous murders tried to glorify their inhuman acts by banding themselves under the banner of Islam and forming groups with Muslim titles 'A1 Shams' and 'A1 Badr'. Their source of encouragement and direct and indirect support was the occupation Pakistani armed forces and sections of their para-military presence.

Initially, after independence, steps were taken to convene a War Crimes Trial. The legal and administrative processes required for this purpose were also started. A number of Pakistani armed forces personnel were identified and indicted on charges of genocide and war crimes.

Nevertheless, this trial never took place. International pressure eventually persuaded our government of the day to abandon the exercise. Millions of citizens, over the subsequent decades learnt to forgive-- with time being the greatest healer. The vast majority however has never forgotten the atrocities and continues to recall the martyrdom.

Historically, the savagery of the Second World War led to the adoption of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. It was approved and proposed for signature and ratification or accession by the newly created United Nations General Assembly vide its resolution 260 A(III) of 9 December 1948.

Later, the UN General Assembly adopted for signature another Convention directed towards the 'Non-Applicability of Statutory Limitations to War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity'. This came into force on 11 November 1970, in accordance with Article VIII of the UN Charter.

The first Convention recognised that genocide had inflicted great losses on humanity at all periods of history. It also expressed the conviction that in order to liberate mankind from such an odious scourge, international cooperation was required. Article I of this Convention confirmed that genocide, whether committed in time of peace or in time of war, was a crime under international law, which had to be prevented and punished. In the same vein, Article II clarified that genocide included acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group through the killing of members of that group or through the causing of serious bodily or mental harm to members of that group. It was also accepted that genocide covered acts aimed at deliberately inflicting on any group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part. The more interesting aspect was the provision that persons committing genocide shall be punished, whether they are constitutionally responsible rulers, public officials or private individuals. The other significant provision was that a competent tribunal should try persons charged with genocide in the territory where the act was committed.

There was however a delimiting factor -- genocide would not be considered as a political crime for the purpose of extradition. Such extradition would be subject to laws and treaties in force.

The second Convention took the process a step further. By 1968, member states of the United Nations were convinced that due to the gravity of the crimes, there was need to look into the aspect of limitation. Consequently, there was renewed pressure from public opinion to address the issue of the rules of municipal law relating to the period of limitation. It was felt that this was impeding the prospect of prosecution and punishment of persons responsible for crimes against humanity.

As a result of this interest, it was decided that there would be no statutory limitation with regard to war crimes as defined in the Charter of the International Military Tribunal, Nurenburg and in cases of crimes against humanity whether committed in time of war or in time of peace as confirmed by resolutions 3(I) of 13 February 1946 and 95(I) of 11 December 1946 of the General Assembly of the United Nations. It was also underlined that the provisions of this Convention would apply to representatives of the State authority and private individuals who, as principals or accomplices, participated in or incited others to commit any of these crimes, or who conspired to commit them, irrespective of the degree of completion. It also included representatives of the State authority who tolerated their commission.

As is evident from the above, prosecution might have been undertaken to judge those guilty of crimes against humanity as perpetrated in Bangladesh in 1971. This was however not done. Our decision with regard to the martyred intellectuals was probably motivated by the fact that the judicial mechanism for trying the guilty parties was not very clear. It was also meant to be a magnanimous gesture towards reconciliation on the part of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and the people of Bangladesh.

One is tempted however to hypothesise that this generous approach in the part of Bangladesh could have contributed subsequently to the many killings that took place in Cambodia or in other parts of the world. Criminals felt that their actions would remain unpunished. It also encouraged many to pursue ethnic cleansing with impunity.

It has therefore been satisfying to human rights activists like myself, that the worldwide human rights movement has eventually created the important mechanism of the International Criminal Court. The ICC is the first permanent international judicial body capable of trying individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes when national courts are unable or unwilling to do so.

The Rome Statute of the ICC, which was adopted by the United Nations in 1998 and entered into force in 2002, has become the integral basis for the operation of the ICC mechanism. I signed the Statute on behalf of Bangladesh in 1999, but we have yet to ratify it. Bangladesh is not alone in this regard. Unfortunately, most of the other South Asian countries are in the same boat -- the wrong boat according to me.

Today, the process has moved forward but there are still many impediments. The most important of these is the steadfast opposition of the sole superpower of the world to its universal application.

One can only hope that in the interest of social justice and peace, the legal ramifications of the judicial process will be further strengthened so that we do not have any recurrence of martyrdom where intellectuals are kidnapped, tortured and assassinated for their values.

Muhammad Zamir is a former Secretary and Ambassador who can be reached at mzamir@dhaka.net.