Sayeeda Warsi hails Shahbagh movement
Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, UK's senior state minister for Foreign and Commonwealth Office, yesterday hailed the youth demonstration at Shahbagh as a unique and peaceful movement. While appreciating the young generation for placing their demand against war criminals in a peaceful manner, Warsi also said the demand for death sentence might be a little extreme. She was addressing a views-exchange meeting at Prothom Alo office in the capital. “Bangladesh can work towards exposing the war criminals instead of demanding death penalty for them as this could make martyrs out of the war criminals instead of letting them serve their time in prison,†Warsi said. She further said Bangladesh should focus more on productivity rather than allow partisan politics to influence their ethics. Speakers at the meeting explained how the failure to render transparent and accountable justice has led the youth to demand death penalty for war criminals. "People haven't seen justice being rendered, which means the public institutions did not perform according to public expectations. The slogans chanted in Shahbagh are for change; we should not confine these slogans into the spirit of the movement," said Syeda Rizwana Hasan, chief executive of Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association. Speakers also said the demonstrators at Shahbagh fears presidential clemency for the war criminals and that they [war criminals] would be granted freedom if another party came to power. Robert Winnington Gibson, British high commissioner to Bangladesh, and Mahabub Hossain, executive director of Brac, among others, spoke at the meeting which was moderated by Matiur Rahman, editor of Prothom Alo.
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