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| Bangladesh |
| Bangla: Legal action against war criminals this week |
| 2007-11-11 |
| Sector Commanders' Forum, a platform of sector commanders of the Liberation War, will go for legal actions against the war criminals of 1971 within this week, Convener of the Forum Lt Gen (retd) Harun-ur Rashid said yesterday. “National Law Committee [law wing of the forum] is making preparations for this. They are taking time so that the war criminals cannot escape through the loopholes in law,” the former army chief said at a press conference at the Jatiya Press Club in the capital. He also urged the caretaker government to initiate legal actions against the war criminals and said their trial is as important as the ongoing crackdown on corruption. “We demand punishment of war criminals, who committed crimes against humanity [during the Liberation War], because if these criminals go unpunished there would be recurrence of such crimes in the country,” Gen Harun said. This is high time to try the war criminals, he said. “If we fail to try them this time, we would never be able to bring them to book. The freedom fighters, who are witnesses to their war crimes, are now above 60, and we may not find them among us for long.” Condemning the recent statement of Jamaat leader Abdul Kader Mollah, Harun recalled that during the Liberation War, Pakistani regime and newspapers there termed the freedom fighters the nation's betratyers. Echoing their views, local collaborators of that regime have once again raised their heads 37 years after independence, and are calling the valiant war heroes 'traitors to the nation', he said. These people belong to that force against whom the Liberation War heroes also fought in 1971 while fighting the Pakistani army, Gen Harun noted. “After the Liberation War, we [freedom fighters] ourselves could punish the war criminals but we wanted to get it done through legal process. But this was thwarted due to a move of the then government.” At the press conference, Justice Syed Amirul Islam demanded observance of a 'Freedom Fighters Day' or 'Bir Shreshtha Day' each year in honour of the freedom fighters and martyred war heroes. |
| Posted by:Fred |