Reports on the

Current Situation in Bangladesh

#1

Dr. Enayet Rahim

I have been advised by some well-wishers and friends not to write about the current situation in Bangladesh, especially since I told them that I might be visiting Dhaka in the next couple of months or so, they are concerned about my safety. I am amazed by this. How rapidly my country has gone to the dogs!!

I used to be proud of the traditionally democratic values of the Bengalee people and would boast about it among friends. But seems the recent turn of events has shattered that dream.

Bangladesh is going the way that Germany did in 1929-30-31-32-33// Please read the history of the Nazi party. I can see the exact reflection in Bangladesh. I can see Adolf Hitler, Joseph Goebles, Herr Ribbentrop, Hermann Goerring.......match them to the players in Dhaka.....you will find exact duplicates. They first chased the top Jewish heirarchy, who they blamed for the defeat of World War I, and then expanded it to include every Jew...man, woman, child for their misfortune. First they looted their property, banned their clubs; then they went after their blood. Finally it was every Jew...man, woman and child who were to be rounded up and butchered. Blame was spread to include the children, and even unborn children, so Hitler decided on the "final solution", so future generations would not be born. When I hear the shrill slogans from Dhaka to kill the children of "Razakars", even their grandchildren, and even future generations to come, I shiver.....I get the cold feeling in my spinal cord, I cry....is this what is coming ?

Are the followers of Prophet Muhammad going to face the same cruelty that the followers of Prophet  Moses faced less than a hundred years ago. Are these new Aryans ( the superior Bakshal race) as ruthless as their compatriots ( Nazis) of a couple of generations ago ?

#2

Toby M. Cadman 5 March 2013

"One must ask what is the point in a trial, where the only acceptable result is execution": have politics irreversibly stolen fair and impartial justice from the victims of the 1971 War of Liberation?"

I first visited Bangladesh in October 2010 and was greeted with a VIP red carpet reception at the Hazrat Shahjalal International airport in Dhaka. I was rushed from the airport to the Sonargoan Hotel to speak at an event hosted by the Bangladesh Supreme Court Bar Association on fair trial issues in war crimes trials. I was then taken to the old Supreme Court building that housed the International Crimes Tribunal and met the Tribunal Judges, two of whom have since resigned, and the Tribunal Registrar. This was my first visit to South Asia and I was startled by the warm reception. I realised during this brief visit the enormity of my role. It was to save the leaders of the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, an Islamist political party with conservative Islamic views not favoured by the west. I remarked to one of my colleagues that this was a once in a lifetime opportunity for a young lawyer; I was not wrong.

The almost royal reception I received was short lived. The infamy that this case has brought has not diminished my status as an integral part of Bangladeshi politics – I am frequently recognised by members of the Bengali diaspora in East London and Manhattan taxis alike – I am not revered for any great achievement, I have become a thorn in the side of a government hell bent on destroying any political opposition.

The central problem in all of this is that the people of Bangladesh, a wonderfully warm and divergent population, are deeply divided by the issue of war crimes. Rational individuals lose all sense of reason when questioned about war crimes. Fair trial and due process rights have no place. All those accused of war crimes must be convicted and duly executed. Nothing less will suffice.

The demonstrations in Shahbagh epitomise the current political climate. The streets are filled with simply thousands of screaming supporters calling for death. Adults and children alike are sporting bandanas and T-shirts calling for the Islamist party leaders to be hanged until dead. One must ask what therefore is the point in a trial where the only acceptable result is execution. One is reminded of the words of Justice Jackson, Chief Prosecutor of the International Military Tribunal, Nuremberg who stated:

If you are determined to execute a man in any case there is no occasion for a trial. The world yields no respect to courts that are merely organized to convict.

We must never forget that the record on which we judge these defendants today, is the record upon which history will judge us tomorrow. To pass these defendants a poised chalice is to put it to our lips as well. We must summon such detachment and intellectual integrity to our task, that this trial will commend itself to posterity as fulfilling humanity’s aspiration to do justice.

The present situation in Bangladesh is critical. The demonstrations in Shahbagh, that followed the first two convictions before the Bangladesh International Crimes Tribunal (hereinafter: the Tribunal) have been compared to the revolution that started on Tahrir Square in Cairo. However, there is little comparison to be drawn. The Egyptian revolution sought to overthrow a dictator and return the democratic vote. The demonstrations in Shahbagh are seeking the execution of the leaders of an Islamist political party, and ultimately seeking the abolition of a democratic political party due to its Conservative Islamic beliefs and due to its perceived anti-liberation position in 1971 by supporting a unified Pakistan. One simply has nothing to do with the other.

The danger in what is occurring on the streets of Dhaka today is that mob rule prevails and the country is descending dramatically and rapidly towards civil war. The current Government is doing little to stem the flow of violence. If anything, by supporting the [Shahbagh] protesters, it is throwing fuel on the flames of discontent. To this point, the Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina Wajed, has been reported as saying in Parliament that she would talk to the judges to convince them to take the sentiments of the protesters into account in formulating their decisions. It is notable that one of the first judgments issued by the Tribunal referred to the ‘will of the people’ in reaching its decision clearly demonstrating the emotive manner in which these trials are now being conducted.

On 28 February 2013, the third accused, Maulana Delwar Hossain Sayedee, was convicted and sentenced to death following a trial that was characterized by prosecutorial and judicial misconduct, witness perjury, witness abduction and a flagrant denial of basic human rights standards. The call for death echoed by the Shahbagh demonstrators has seemingly dictated the course of events unfolding in the Tribunal in an atmosphere where defence witnesses are now too afraid to appear and where the judges have now been swayed by mob, anti-Jamaat sentiment. The big question is what would have been the response of the Shahbagh demonstrators had Sayedee not received the death sentence. It is clear that the Tribunal Judges were under such pressure to respond to the public calls for blood that, had they not responded as such, it is not inconceivable that it could have been their own blood spilt on Shahbagh. It has become a question of damned if you do damned if you don’t.