The Awami League was responsible for the murder of 30,000 people and the perpetual incarceration of million in more than 70 camps. It is now trying to absolve itself of the war crimes by trying those who were defending their country.
On August 14th, 1975 Bangladeshi nationalists buried the secularism deep into the Bay of Bengal. Today Bangladesh faces new threats from India again.
After failing to take over Bangladesh on Dec 6th 1971, India is forcing a transit policy on defenseless Bangladesh that is fighting for her existence. The Transit facilities that Bharat is asking would clog existing Bangladeshi roads and pose a security threat to Bangladesh.
It would also exacerbate the situation in Northeast “India” where the seven Assamese states want freedom from Delhi. The Transit agreement poses a mortal threat to Bangladesh.
The Awami League leader said those who have “politically rehabilitated the war criminals” after the brutal assassination of Bangabandhu along with most of his family members “may try to create instability in the country ahead of the trial”.
Many of the BNP and its key Jamaat-e-Islami party (JI) leaders and several other rightwing groups have been accused of “war crimes” and helping the Pakistani military during the struggle for independence.
Media reports have said that authorities have gathered evidence against 25 high-profile “war criminals”, mostly from JeI, an ally of main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party.
The government on March 25 set up the special investigation agency and a 12-member prosecution team with Advocate Golam Ali Tipu as the chief prosecutor for the trial of “war criminals” accused of genocide. Zee News
Seeking Bangladeshi identity: Bangladesh was created in the name of Bengali nationalism. However the Hindu Bengalis who had opposed the partition of Bengal in 1906 opposed and did not join Muslim Bangladesh as Bengalis. Mujib regime killed, according to many, more than 30 thousand patriots, who opposed plunder by India and by the BAL, and through the regime
Bangladesh, four decades after the violent struggle [...] is planning to hold trials for those accused of committing war crimes. The plans for what could be highly sensitive war crimes trials come as Bangladesh celebrates Friday its 39th anniversary of declaring independence.
Bangladesh 14th August 1975: Bengali patriots killed Shaikh Mujib who was seen as an Indian agent and a sell out to Delhi. Bangaldeshis revolted against the Indian imposed "Rakhi Bahni" (run by a sitting Indian General) and rose against the so called "Treaty of Friendship" whose aim was to absorb Bengal into India.
Shaikh Mujib's body lay in the streets of days. It was Awami League of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman that mortgaged the national independence and state sovereignty signing the 25 years long-term unequal treaty with India.
By creating Rakkhi Bahini, Lal Bahini, Sheccha Shebok Bahini and other private Bahinis AWAMI-BKSALISTS unleashed an unbearable reign of terror killing 40000 nationalists and patriotic people with out any trial.
Ishaan Tharoor in an article in Time magazine published on Nov. 20, 2009 "To outsiders, this celebration of a justice [death penalty for mutiny against Mujib) long deferred may seem a bit too rapturous. But it cuts at the heart of the political traumas that have plagued Bangladesh since its bloody independence from Pakistan in 1971.
Mujib had been President of the new country for just four years before a coup hatched by disgruntled military officers, some of whom harbored Islamist or pro-Pakistani sentiments, led to his assassination and the installation of a military government. Since then, Bangladesh has endured a succession of army-run regimes, as well as a period of dysfunctional democratic rule marred by corruption and partisan bickering.
"What you're dealing with is a very fractured, highly politicized society," says Ali Riaz, chair of the Department of Politics and Government at Illinois State University. " Please see article in Time Magazine written by Tharoor which corroborates what Stanley Wolpert wrote in "Zulfi"--the Bangladeshi officers harbored pro-Pakistani sentiments--in fact Khnodakar Mushtaque Ahmed made a short lived announcement and declared a confederation with Pakistan.
That announcement was short lived and many believe that there were actually two coups, one on the night of August 14th, 1975 and the other on the afternoon of August 15th which removed the original copy makers and Khoondkar Mushtaque was relieved of any new role in the new BD government.
Bangladesh officials say those facing trial allegedly sided with Pakistan during the 1971 war of liberation. The government says defendants will be tried for crimes against humanity, genocide, murder, rape and arson.
Law Minister Shafique Ahmed, speaking to VOA’s Bangla language service, says justice has been a long time coming.
Ahmed says the long-held expectations of Bangladeshis for the tribunal are about to be fulfilled. He notes that the parties in the government, led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, campaigned on a platform of bringing war criminals to justice.
Ms. Hasina’s father, Bangladesh’s founder and independence war hero, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, had intended to hold such trials before he was assassinated in a 1975 coup.
Prime Minister Hasina has long contended some of those behind the coup would have faced trial for war crimes. The subsequent government freed more than 10,000 war crime suspects.
There are concerns, however, the tribunal could be used to extract revenge on opponents of the governing Awami League.
International Crisis Group Senior Asia Analyst Michael Shaikh, speaking from Chiang Mai, Thailand, tells VOA nearly all Bangladeshi governments have used the judiciary to get at political opponents.
“However, in this case, I think all eyes are on Bangladesh. This is a pretty incredible and important step for them. This has been a long-standing demand by countless Bangladeshis. Bangladesh should be given a chance to prove that it’s willing to play by international standards with the judicial process,” he said.
Tens of thousands of people in what was then East Pakistan took up arms to oppose Bangladeshi independence. Others who expressed loyalty to Pakistan were deemed as collaborators but were granted amnesty following the war.
The war – in which India, located between West and East Pakistan, provided financial aid and military support for the rebels – is believed to have left three million people dead.
Bangladesh says millions of people were displaced by the nine-month guerilla conflict and 200,000 women were raped. Rights groups have also alleged “ethnic cleansing” that targeted East Pakistan’s Hindu minority.
Pakistan contends the issue of war crimes was settled in a 1974 treaty signed by it, Bangladesh and India.
Bangladesh-Chittagong Hill Tracts: There are eleven ethnic multi-lingual minorities in the greater CHTs. They are Bawm, Pangkhua, Lushai, Khumi, Mro, Khyang, Chakma, Marma and Tripura. They have been divided in to three groups.
The Bawm, Pangkhua, Lushai, Khumi and Mro, Khyang are Kuki-Chin or Kuki group. The Tripura, Reang are Tripura group and the Chakma, Marma, Tonchangya, Chak are Arakanese group. These groups differ from each other in terms of languages.
Customs, religious belief and patterns of social organization.The population of the hill people in the CHT are divided as many as 3groups who the numerically superior ones are Arakanese group and the second are the Tripura group. The Kuki group are the third in numerical strength.
Officials say the tribunal will be led by three judges, including a High Court justice.
The chairman, Justice Nizamul Huq Nasim, told the Daily Star newspaper in Dhaka the trials will be held in a way so that “the real culprits, and not a single innocent person, are punished.”
The trials, which could begin as early as next month, are to be conducted by a 12-member panel of government-appointed lawyers.
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