By Pei Hu
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia
DHAKA, Bangladesh – On April 9th, 2009 the Bangladeshi government announced that it would create a war crimes tribunal within two weeks to try war crimes committed from the bloody 1971 liberation struggle.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who was elected last year, had promised to jump start the tribunal as soon as possible.
The Bangladeshi Law Minister Shafig Ahmed, told the media that the government was in the final stages of putting together the defendant list. “We have begun the process by deciding to appoint the investigating agency, prosecutors, investigation officers and form tribunals in two weeks,” Ahmed said.
The United Nation (UN) promised to aid the tribunal. Last Wednesday, the UN said that some of its top war crimes experts would advise Bangladesh on how to try the defendants accused of murder and rape. Renata Lok Dessallien, head of the United Nations in Bangladesh, told AFP “We have suggested the names of some top international experts who have experience in how war crimes tribunals operate across the globe.”
Dessallien also said the UN would look into whether Bangladeshi law complies with international war crimes law. Dessallien added, “This is the first time Bangladesh is conducting war crimes tribunals and it is important it understands how other countries have held them. There are some countries where mistakes were made and we don’t want Bangladesh to repeat those mistakes.”
“The UN will advise us so that we don’t make any mistakes and so that the process is transparent and does not create any questions” Ahmed said.
The tribunal was welcomed by human rights NGOs like Amnesty International.
During the 1971 war for liberation, Bangladesh was then West Pakistan and fought against East Pakistan to become an independent country. The alleged war criminals sided with West Pakistan and committed murder, rape, and arson. About three million people were killed during the war.
A private investigation that investigated the conflict listed 1,775 people responsible for the atrocities. The private group blamed top Pakistani generals and local Islamists that allied with Pakistan for the atrocities.
For more information, please see:
AFP – Bangladesh war crimes tribunals in two weeks – 9 April 2009
AFP – UN to help Bangladesh war crimes trial planning – 8 April 2009
BBC – Bangladesh to announce war probe – 7 April 2009
