Tell int'l community about 1971 genocide

Speakers yesterday asked the government to raise voice in international platforms to establish the truth that genocide was committed by the Pakistani occupation army and their local collaborators during the Liberation War in 1971.

"No western countries consider that there was genocide in 1971. We have to break their misguided notion," said Shahriar Kabir, acting president of Ekattorer Ghatak Dalal Nirmul Committee. 

He was addressing a discussion titled "24 Years of Jahanara Imam's Movement: Achievement and Aspiration", organised to mark the 24th anniversary of the Nirmul Committee in the capital's WVA Auditorium.

Under the leadership of Shaheed Janani Jahanara Imam, the committee was formed on January 19, 1992 to campaign for trial of the war criminals.

The government should not be complacent about the completion of the trial and execution of top war criminals but rather shout take initiatives to fight the propaganda of Jamaat-e-Islami lobbyists abroad, said Professor Emeritus Dr Anisuzzaman.

After independence, the pro-liberation forces were content but the anti-liberation force did not sit idle and continued to conduct propaganda against the country secretly, he said. "Today while the pressure of the [war crimes] trial process is about to end, we should keep it in mind that there is no scope to feel complacent."

"We should remember that our opposition is spending a huge amount of money to engage lobbyists abroad to conduct propaganda against the trial. But Bangladesh did not take any step to refute the propaganda. This is our weakness," he said.

Shahriar Kabir said their biggest achievement was the trial of war criminals.

"In Cambodia, a Hybrid tribunal was able to complete the trial of only one war criminal in six years while our tribunal has finished the trial of 21 war criminals. Our tribunals have made the impossible possible. We thank the judges," he said.

Kabir demanded that the International Crimes Tribunal also try the Pakistani soldiers who committed war crimes, and that the wealth of convicted war criminals be confiscated and distributed among the people who suffered atrocities at their hands in 1971.

Civil Aviation and Tourism Minister Rashed Khan Menon said the movement initiated by the Nirmul Committee had revived the spirit of Liberation War and created contempt for war criminals.

Information Minister Hasanul Haq Inu said the committee proved that there would be results for persistent pressure.

Reiterating the demand for banning Jamaat, Communist Party of Bangladesh President Mujahidul Islam Selim said the superstructure of Jamaat should be broken down so that the party could not reorganise.

Ayesha Khanam, president of Bangladesh Mahila Parishad, martyred intellectual's wife Shyamoli Nasrin Chowdhury and the Nirmul Committee adviser Justice Syed Amirul Islam also spoke.