Home > Bengali expats support war crimes trial

Bengali expats support war crimes trial

Gather in capital for conference to show solidarity with the government.

Posted on February 22, 2012, 8:25 PM

Ghulam Asam of the Jamaat-e-Islami party is one of seven defendants facing charges by the tribunal

Dhaka:

The expatriate Bengali community this week offered its support to the government in the ongoing trial of alleged war crimes committed during the 1971 War of Liberation.

Some 300 Bengalis from 20 countries gathered in Dhaka for the first International Bengali Conference in Dhaka, during which they assured the government of their support and willingness to assist in any way possible.

“The Bengali community at home and abroad would like to build the nation based on the spirit of the liberation war. We are working to raise support from the international community for the trial of war criminals responsible for atrocities during the war and collaborating with the invader army,” said Abdul Kuddus, secretary of the London-based Bengali International, which organized the conference.

The commitment was given in response to a call by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for all Bengalis to support the actions of the country’s war crimes tribunal.

“I hope the world Bangalee (Bengali) community will carry out their duty to this end,” Hasina said during the opening address at the conference on February 19.

Hasina added that the nation is indebted to three million martyrs and an unaccountable number of oppressed people of the liberation war in holding the trial of alleged war criminals.

Shamsul Haque, president of Bengali International, said the organization was founded on the principal of justice.

“Our organization was set up to fight racism, and now we have been called to support the long-awaited trial. We will assist the [tribunal] with documents and information as much as we can,” he said.

London-based journalist Abdul Gaffar Chowdhury told the conference that expatriates stood in solidarity with their fellow Bengalis at home.

“Even if we live abroad, our hearts are in our homeland. We extend our support to the government for the trials of war criminals. It must be done to ensure justice to the families and relatives of millions of martyrs,” he said in his keynote address to the conference.

The Awami League-led government in 2010 established the International Crimes Tribunal in 2010 to prosecute Bangladeshis accused of collaborating with Pakistani forces during the 1971 liberation war.

The tribunal has arrested seven people – two from the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party and five from Jamaat-e-Islami, the country’s largest Islamic party – and charged them with crimes against humanity.

However, the two opposition parties accuse the government of carrying out a campaign of revenge and trying to use the trial to destroy the parties politically.

Critics of the tribunal have said that it does not conform to the rigorous international standards of similar courts in Rwanda and Cambodia.

Law Minister Shafique Ahmed countered saying, “The trial will be transparent and independent. International observers will be allowed to come and watch the trial. The accused will be given full opportunity to defend their case.”