International Criminal Court and success of Bangladesh

Mostafijur Rahman Nasim: Bangladesh is a small country in the subcontinent. The nation has a bloody history which is totally rare in the globe. Bangladesh appeared in the world map in 1971 through nine months long war.

However, the whole nation had to pay a lot during the war between Paki rulers and freedom loving people of Bangladesh.

In 1947, after the demise of British Empire, Bengal was partitioned as a province of West Pakistan with being renamed as East Pakistan. Dhaka was declared as its capital. Despite of adequate resources and demographic weight of East Pakistan, the entire Pakistan’s government and military was largely dominated by the upper classes from the west. Then Paki rulers tried to oppress the whole Bengali nation in many ways. Pakistan declared Urdu as the only official language of the entire Pakistan which triggered a massive dissatisfaction among the people of the east. Killer rulers opened fire aiming general students on 21 February, 1952. Ultimately, then authority in Pakistan was forced to bow their heads before people's desire.

Bangladesh Liberation War was commenced after Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman declared Bangladesh’s independence just before getting arrested in the early hours of 26 March 1971 by Pakistani military. The Bengali nation was united to get their freedom from Pakistani torture.

On March 25, 1971, Pakistani military started mass killing to vanish the existence of Bangladeshis from this land. Pakistani soldiers and their collaborators commenced "Operation Search Light," which was designed to liquidate Bengali policemen, military officers, nationalist Bengali politicians, professionals, intellectuals, Hindus, students and other unarmed Bengali civilians.

But, it is a matter of great sorrow that a large number of Bangladeshi born Pakistani supporters joined the killing. History says the supporters jointly formed several team and organization named 'Razakar, Al-Badr, Al-Shams and others. The Al-Badr was constituted in September 1971 under the auspices of General Amir Abdullah Khan Niazi, then chief of the Pakistan Army eastern command. Members of Al-Badr were recruited from public schools and madrasas. The killer unit was used for raids and special operations the Pakistan army command initially planned to use the locally recruited militias (Al-Badr, Razakar, Al-Shams) for policing cities of East Pakistan, and regular army units to defend the border with India.

Local cohorts and Pak military forces jointly committed genocide during the war of 1971. However, the nation finally got independence losing more than 30 lakh souls. The nine month long Bangladesh’s Liberation War was won on 16 December 1971. 

Lot of ups and downs took place in the country of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. The father of the national was brutally killed along with whole family members due to conspiracy of anti-liberation groups in the country. 

The incumbent government led by Awami League took initiatives to start trial after a long time of liberation war. In 2008, after forming the government, Awami League took initiatives for the trial of criminals against humanity during Liberation War that was mentioned in their election manifesto. Consequently, the party Awami League showed firm attitude on the issue.

Although, there was lot of troubles on the way to continue the trial against war criminals but the incumbent government led by the daughter of Bangabandhu showed her caliber punishing war criminals.

The successful part in this regard is, recently, the International Criminal Court (ICC) President Justice Silvia Alejandra Fernández de Gurmendi expressed her satisfaction over the proceedings of war crimes trials in Bangladesh. 

According to a press release of Supreme Court, “The experience of Bangladesh in holding war crimes trial will play an important role in development of overall judicial system in the national level,” ICC President said.

War criminals were punished across the globe. But, there were some so called people who tried to save these collaborators showing their political identities. Besides, the shame part is, the Pakistani rulers still cry for their cohorts here in Bangladesh. However, the iron lady Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, the daughter of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, has succeeded to bring an end to the black part of Bangladesh history. Bengali nation is now free of that black spot. And the whole world is congratulating Bangladesh. 


risingbd/Dhaka/July 11, 2017/Nasim/Shahnewaj