War crimes trial: The nation at its defining moment

Mozammel H. Khan

In the life of a nation, there could be many moments of crisis, but the defining moment does not come very often, may be not even in decades or centuries. The most critical defining moment came steeped in blood on the fateful night of March 25, 1971. The following nine months saw the collective struggle and eventually, the will of a united people prevailed through the supreme sacrifice of 3 million martyrs. What constituted the most tragic part of this dreadful episode was that some of our own countrymen aided and collaborated with the occupation forces and in many cases tortured and killed our own people in cold blood. The most horrendous of these crimes was carried out, unfortunately, on the night of 14th December, just two days before our victory with the long-term evil design to deprive the soon-to-be-born nation of its most talented citizens.

Following our hard-earned victory, the government of the day promulgated the Bangladesh Collaborators (Special Tribunals) Order 1972 to bring to trial those who collaborated with the Pakistan Armed forces during the Liberation War in 1971. The government started the trial under a newly enacted law called the International Crimes (Tribunal) Act 1973. In the meantime, a general amnesty was declared by the government of Bangladesh on November 30, 1973 to all persons except those who were punished or accused of rape, murder and attempt of murder or arson. This well-documented general amnesty is now being deliberately misinterpreted by the detractors of the ongoing trial with the utter false claim that “Bangabandhu declared general amnesty to all collaborators.”Then came the most shattering moment of our national life, the tragedy of August 15, 1975.Over the decades, distortion, deception, destruction, deviation and dichotomy have taken the centre stage in every sphere of national life. It was late Ziaur Rahman who afterwards rehabilitated the alleged collaborators and allowed their entry into the political arena. And it was him who revoked the Collaborators Order 1972 in 1975 which consequently gave all the alleged criminals of war crimes a clean chit. Thus the party Jamaat-e-Islami, which was banned in the new-born state, was allowed to register and function as a political party. Since then, legal functioning of this much-hated party remains a debatable issue.

Dr Gazi Salehuddin, professor of Chittagong University, briefs member of the International War Crimes Tribunal investigation team about the brutality of the war criminals during the War of Liberation in front of a memorial at Foy's Lake in the port city on 25.09.2010 Star photo

The current government possesses the overwhelming mandate to try the war criminals as it was vociferously included in its last election manifesto. To maintain international standard and to meet the pre-requisites of being a signatory to the Rome Statute, the Bangladesh cabinet approved the International Crimes Tribunal (Amendment) 2009 on July 6, 2009, aiming to try those involved in acts against humanity during our liberation war. At this time, trials of eight alleged perpetrators of the war crimes are either towards the end or in the middle in the presence of their duly appointed lawyers and media, both local and international.

Over the last few weeks, the Jamaat activists were exercising their 'democratic rights' on the streets in cities all across the country. A report carried by The Daily Star (November 14, 2012) under the heading 'Shibir strikes terror in city', described a single operation on the capital's main thoroughfares in a single afternoon like this: “they snatched the rifle from a policeman and beat him with its butt, injured over a dozen other law enforcers, attempted to slit a Jubo League leader's throat, attacked law minister's private secretary's car, torched police motorbikes, vandalized three news vans and dozens of public and private vehicles and beat up the common people indiscriminately.” These 'democratic exercises' were carried out to press for their demand for immediate release of their leaders who are being tried for 'merely exercising their democratic rights' in 1971!

This time around, they have found a new ally, the most powerful nation on our planet, the United States; its diplomats in Dhaka have advised the Bangladesh government to negotiate with the Jamaat-e-Islami. In a statement on November 15, 2012, the US embassy expressed concern at the recent violence across Bangladesh and urged for dialogue to resolve differences. In their words, “the ability to engage in peaceful protest is a fundamental democratic right; there is no justification for the resort to violence. We believe dialogue is the best means for resolving differences.”

So, the US embassy considers Jamaat's protests, a glimpse of which is narrated above, as a 'democratic exercise'! It holds the view that the ongoing trial and release of the alleged war criminals are negotiable issues. The US embassy must have ignored that Bangladesh is a sovereign state and the trials are being held by a law enacted by the Bangladesh parliament. The law has been given thumbs up by most of the international human rights groups, including the EU and the trials are being held in an open court, a fact which is opposite to what is happening in Guantanamo Bay. It would not be out of context to remind the US diplomats that a 17-year old by the name of Omar Khadr, a Canadian citizen, was tried in Guantanamo Bay for his alleged killing of a US soldier in the battlefield in Afghanistan. He was not even allowed to hire a Canadian lawyer. The US military used bone-chilling torture techniques.Only last year the US President signed a law that allows him to “identify and arrest members of al-Qaeda, 'associated forces' and those who 'substantially supported' them to hold them indefinitely without charge or trial.” How palatable would it be for the people of the United States if a third state advises the US government to negotiate with al-Qaeda to 'resolve their differences'?

With its new-found ally, Jamaat activists are expected to be more resolved in exercising their 'democratic rights' in the coming days to press for their leaders' release. It was the threat of the 7th fleet at the Bay of Bengal that attempted to thwart our victory in December 1971 and now, some 42 years later, US diplomacy is active once again to impede our resolve to try the perpetrators of the crimes against humanity. The nation, it seems, is really at another important defining moment and this moment will stay no longer than the next one year, until the next general election. If the whole trial process is not over and the execution of the verdicts is not carried out within the said period, the process will be overturned, once and for all, exactly the way it had happened after the tragedy in 1975. Should the people of Bangladesh let that happen?

The writer is the Convenor of the Canadian Committee for Human Rights and Democracy in Bangladesh.