Bangladesh to model 1971 war crime trials on Nuremberg proceedings

BBC Monitoring South Asia – Political
Supplied by BBC Worldwide Monitoring

April 11, 2009 Saturday

Bangladesh to model 1971 war crime trials on Nuremberg proceedings

LENGTH: 552 words

Excerpt from report by M. Abul Kalam Azad headlined “Government to amend law, follow Nuremberg trials model” published by Bangladeshi newspaper The Daily Star website on 10 April
The government will follow the historic Nuremberg Trials as the model to amend the International Crimes (Tribunals) Act 1973 in the next few days to incorporate a provision for trying war criminals in absentia.
Many of the 1971 war criminals are now hiding in different countries and the act does not have the provision to try them in absentia.
The government has also finalised formation of formation of the investigation agency, which will comprise five or seven members headed by a Criminal Investigation Department (CID) official.
State Minister for Liberation War Affairs ABM Tajul Islam yesterday told The Daily Star that a three-member tribunal headed by a High Court (HC) Judge would also be formed in three weeks for the trial as the government is very serious about expediting the trial process.
“The home ministry will form the investigation agency today or tomorrow,” he added.
Besides the senior CID officer who will lead the investigation agency, officers from the Special Branch and the Detective Branch of police will be there, he said, adding, “However, it has not been decided yet if the agency will also have representatives from National Security Intelligence [NSI] and Directorate General of Forces Intelligence [DGFI].”
Tajul Islam said those who are working on war crimes trial would assist the agency in its probe into the 1971 genocide.
Some three million civilians were killed by the Pakistani occupation forces and their collaborators during the nine-month Liberation War in 1971 while about 200,000 women were violated, and tens of thousands of homes were torched and plundered.
Sources in the Liberation War ministry said the government would request Yale University in USA to provide some documents and research papers it prepared following a research on the genocide. These documents will be valuable for the trial.
About NSI and DGFI, the sources said they are considering making the two agencies as associated bodies if their officers are not incorporated in the investigation agency. “Since the DGFI has the most important documents and evidence, it may finally be included in the agency,” a source said.
Bangladesh will request all UN member states for cooperation in holding the much-awaited trial of the war criminals in a fair and transparent manner and capturing fugitive war criminals.
“We will especially request countries with which we do not have any treaty regarding exchange of criminals,” said Tajul Islam.
Six cases have been filed so far across the country in connection with war crimes committed during the Liberation War. The cases will be brought under tribunal once it is formed, he added.
The UN has offered Bangladesh assistance for the trial. The local office of United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has also named four international experts in the field. Profiles of these experts have been submitted to the law ministry.
An initiative to prosecute the war criminals was called off after change in power following assassination of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and most of his family in 1975.
[Passage omitted]
Source: The Daily Star website, Dhaka, in English 10 Apr 09

LOAD-DATE: April 11, 2009

LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

PUBLICATION-TYPE: Transcript