Bangladesh compiles war crimes evidence

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32880, 1 April 1972, Page 17

Bangladesh compiles war crimes evidence

(By

DAVID BARBER.

N.Z.P.A. staff correspondent)

DACCA, March 31. Bangladesh is preparing to hold a series of war crimes trials, involving up to 1500 accused, that could go down in the tragic history of mankind with the same fearful impact as that written at Nuremberg and in the Eichmann hearing. The accused are members of the Pakistani Army, who will face charges of systematic murder, mass rape, ♦orture and arson between March 25 last year until the end of the India-Pakistan war which produced the separate State of Bangladesh in December. Included in the evidence, the Law Minister (Dr Amal

Hossain) told me in an interview, would be a startling film showing Pakistani soldiers shooting down professors, their wives and children, and students, in a rampage at Dacca University. The film was taken from a high window by a professor who escaped the troops, he said. ‘Torture chambers’ There would also be evidence of “Nazi-style” torture chambers, of open-air interrogation centres where adults were forced to watch children being beaten to death, of camps where women and girls were raped systematically night after night. “The horrors of it all are coming back as we collect the evidence,” said Dr Hossain, who was himself arrested on April 4 and taken to Pakistan where he was kept in solitary confinement until released with the Prime Minister (Sheikh Mujib) on December 28.

Bangladesh and India, which holds about 90,000 Pakistani prisoners of war including most of those accused of atrocities, are striving to drum up international support for a war crimes tribunal. They have a problem because Bangladesh was still part of Pakistan at the time and international law regards the alleged crimes as the result of an “internal conflict.” But Dr Hossain made it clear that a tribunal would be, established and the trials would begin within a few months. “We have a responsibility to mankind,” he said. “These were offences against humanity and the world must not be allowed to forget. “There are other examples of oppressive military regimes itching to do the same,” he added, without naming any country. “Anyone else who is tempted should know that he will not be allowed to get away with it.” The Government says that Bangladesh was a separate State by virtue of its declaration of independence on March 26 last year and that the Geneva Convention applies. It is considering a break with precedent by in-

viting international jurists to sit on the tribunal, though Dr Hossain pledged that the trials would be “fair and open.” The Bangladesh Govemmnet claims that three million of its 75 million people were killed during the nine months before the end of the war. Although this figure is questioned by some impartial observers, it is clear that mass murders were carried out on a huge scale. The Government claims that 200,000 women and girls were raped, many on innumerable occasions after being locked up in army camps. Their plight is hideous, for they are now outcasts in their own tradi-tion-bound society and unwanted by Bengali men. ‘War heroines’ There is no indication of the success of Government appeals to have them reaccepted as “war heroines.” Officials throughout the country have collected formal complaints of atrocities

against 1500 Pakistanis, including former President Yahya Khan and the East Pakistan Governor, General Tikka Khan, who was dubbed “the butcher of Bengal.” The complaints were now being checked to establish prima facie cases as a matter of “high priority,” said Dr Hossain. India has agreed to hand back wanted P.O.W.S for trial. “There is evidence that there was a pre-conceived plan,” said the Minister. “It was cold-blooded and systematic. These were not individual acts.” He said that there were mass murders of Bengali youths in an obvious policy of genocide. “There is not a family that has not lost a teen-age boy,” he said, blaming Yahya Khan for the over-all direction by virtue of his presence in Dacca on the night before it all began. Collaborators too Dr Hossain also said that trials of Bengalis who collaborated with the Pakistan forces would begin shortly. Local reports say there are 9500 in Dacca gaol alone, and 73 special tribunals have been set up to try them. “They will get a fair trial. The law has saved them from a lynching,” said Dr Hossain, but another Government Minister has pledged: “We will not spare a single collaborator or agent of Pakistan.” , J J Dr Hossain concluded: “We do not have a vindictive attitude, but we have been left with a legacy. “These crimes were offences against all humanity, and we have a responsibility to see that they do not go unpunished.”