Trial of war criminals
The politicians, who are clamouring for trial of war criminals and debarring religion-based politics, are themselves guilty of such crimes.
From H.M. Ershad's rule to the last days of the Awami League regime such a hue and cry was never raised by these politicians.
On e-mail
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Eng. Md. Aminul Hoque from Khulna has eloquently written that we should wait for the elected government to be in place to carry out the 'trials of liberation war criminals'. The demand for a tribunal under a commission or a tribunal for those who committed crimes against humanity in Bangladesh in 1971 has been there for a long time. Shaheed Jononi Jahanara Imam brought it to the forefront in 1990 when she began the campaign to bring the collaborators to justice. A public trial was also held in 1992 at the Suhrawardy Udyan. At that time we had an elected government i.e. BNP which decided to challenge Jahanara Imam by charging her in a case of treason. She along with 24 other eminent personalities were accused in this case and when she died in 1994 it was still hanging on her head since the case was never dropped. During the Awami League regime (1996-2001) nothing was done about the collaborators. It is very clear that the political parties don't have the mindset and political intent to move against the collaborators, just like they never dared to fight the corruption that was eating away our country, bring about the judiciary separation, make the civil administration more efficient and transparent besides bringing about moral, social and economic changes to the nation with a vision to moving forward. Fortunately for the nation, the present caretaker government that came about after January 11 this year decided to bring about all those changes including setting the record straight to hold a free and fair election.
Many may argue that this government does not have the mandate to do all these things but under the 'doctrine of necessity' and most importantly 'people's demand' they have brought about all those changes. Similarly, it is our demand that they set up a tribunal to try the collaborators and war criminals, so that we can set the records right and get rid of this guilt.
The present government with such an overwhelming support of the general masses and the military can surely bring about great changes which will reflect the spirit of our liberation war when we dreamt of creating a country which would be free from all evils and citizens would have equal rights under the four principals of nationalism, socialism, democracy and secularism.
Akku Chowdhury
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