Towards trial of war criminals
It should be victory of law and justice
THE resolution passed in Jatiya Sangsad on Thursday calling upon the government to immediately institute trial of war criminals of 1971 is both momentous and long overdue.
The process being set in motion is by itself a historic development; for, it goes to heal a major national wound we have carried on our collective conscience and the body-politic for nearly four decades. Through it, the nation will come to terms with itself by setting a deep-seated moral wrong right. In the process, rule of law and justice will be upheld.
We owed it to the countless martyrs and millions of murder, rape, arson, plunder and torture victims -- in one word, those millions who fell prey to genocide -- to bring the perpetrators to justice. It is a debt that we are only trying to repay, knowing full well which we can never truly do; but at least, it will be a tangible improvement on mere expressions of homage to their memory.
However, by way of absorbing lessons from history can we forget that it has taken 38 years for this moment to arrive? That is a shame we bear, and cannot truly live down. Murderers were patronised, appointed to high government positions without a blink of an eye. The rule of law was mocked at and its decline had taken the lowest dip as the assassins of Bangabandhu were indemnified. Not only that, they were rehabilitated through diplomatic assignments, with another affront to rule of law. Begum Khaleda Zia even made ministers of people whose involvement in actions against our independence struggle is well known.
Insofar as the trial goes, we must approach it from a high moral ground and not with any sense of reprisal or vengeance whatsoever. We should draw a line between those who politically opposed, out of self-belief, the creation of Bangladesh but didn't take up arms against it or commit criminal acts and those who perpetrated murder, arson, rape, torture and such crimes against humanity. No witch-hunting and revenge exaction should be allowed, even unwittingly.
Bangladesh must fulfil all internationally laid down rules and norms in undertaking the trial process. We ought to hold it in such a manner that the whole world sees in it the triumph of law and justice.
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