| Sector Commanders Forum | ||||
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We demand Trial of War Criminals |
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The Sector Commanders Forum was established in 2007 by the surviving Sector Commanders of the 1971 Liberation War (Major General K.M.Shafiullah BU, Lieutenant General Mir Shaukat Ali, BU, Lieutenant Colonel Kazi Nuruzzaman BU. Major Rafique BU and Lieutenant Colonel Abu Osman) under the leadership of the then Deputy Chief od Staff of the Liberation Forces AVM A.K.Khundkor BU. One and only demand of the SCF has been for the trial of the War criminals by the Government by setting up a Special Tribunal under International Crimes (tribunal) Act XIX/73. The signature campaign began on April 14 2008 to raise awareness for the demand so that the present caretaker Government can began the process of the trial of the 1971 war criminals (both the Pakistan Military perpetrators and their local collaborators). |
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| Bangladesh emerged as a democratic, secular country from the ashes of Pakistan in December 1971. For a brutally cruel period of nine months before that, the Pakistani Army had carried out an orgy of loot, rape and mass killings of the Bengalis, especially the people of the minority communities. However, the Pakistani Army had failed to comprehend the grit and resolve which their oppression had caused to germinate within the people. This well equipped army, which loved to call itself the “invincible soldiers of Islam” suffered a most ignominious defeat. But in the process, three million people were killed and about 280,000 women raped in one of the worst genocides of the 20th century. Immediately after the war, the trial of those people accused of committing War Crimes was started. This included 195 Pakistani soldiers directly involved in murder and rape as well as their local collaborators—who were mostly people with tendencies towards religious fundamentalism. Unfortunately for the country, the trial had to be halted in 1975 because of a combination of national and international compulsions. Today, these collaborators have regrouped in Bangladesh as several ragtag religious fundamentalist parties, whose only agenda is to oppose any move made by the people towards becoming a modern, democratic and religiously tolerant nation. It is in this backdrop that the surviving members of the Sector Commanders (of the 1971 War) launched a countrywide movement in 2007 demanding that these people should be tried for War Crimes. Their underlying argument was that the beginnings for a just and fair society cannot be made without addressing the “original sin”, i.e. without those people accused of War Crimes going through a process of trial. The Chief Advisor of the caretaker government as well as the Chief of the Bangladesh Army have supported the trial. However, the fundamentalist forces are opposed to it and have started distorting the facts. The trial is unlikely to happen without international pressure like the UN sponsored trials of War Criminals in Cambodia, Bosnia and Herzgovina. It must also be understood that adequate mechanism for the trial already exists in a Tribunal known as the International Crimes (Tribunal) Act, 1973, which was passed by the Bangladesh Parliament in 1973. The movement has drawn enormous spontaneous support from the entire population and has acquired the dimensions of a “peoples’ cause”. This signature campaign is making an appeal to you to lend your support and your friend’s support for the Trial.
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