By Pei Hu
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

DHAKA, Bangladesh – The United States government welcomed the Bangladesh government’s proposal to hold a war crimes tribunal.  The tribunal will prosecute war crimes committed during the 1971 war for independence from Pakistan.

United States Ambassador in Dhaka, James F. Moriarty said, “The trials of war criminals are being held in different countries and Bangladesh has to decide on the matter after taking experiences from those countries.”

On January 29, the Bangladesh parliament unanimously adopted a resolution seeking trial of war criminals involved in the liberation war. The resolution was in-line with an election pledge by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who took power this January.

Just one day later, the interior minister Sahara Khatun announced that Bangladesh has imposed travel restrictions on people suspected of war crimes, as the new government prepared to put them on trial. “My ministry has already ordered concerned authorities to guard all points so that no war criminal can flee the country,” Khatun told reporters.

During the 1971 war for independence, around 3 million people were killed, 200,000 women were violated and millions were displaced at the hands of the Pakistani army and local collaborators. Hence, the war criminals include people who opposed the war of independence against Pakistan and helped the Pakistani army in acts of genocide.

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Hasina’s father, was the Bangladesh’s first president.  Rahman launched a move for trying the war criminals, but it stalled after he was killed in a 1975 army coup.

Many accuse the Jamaat-e-Islami, the country’s biggest religion-based political party, of collaborating with the Pakistani army during the liberation war. However, the Jamaat denies these charges.

For more information, please see:

Daily Star – 4-Party Stance on War Crime Tribunal – 31 January 2009

Reuters – Bangladesh Bans Travel by Suspected War Criminals – 30 January 2009

Sindh Today – US Welcomes Bangladesh Proposal to Prosecute War Criminals –31 January 2009