On Friday, March 26, 2010 at 12:12:12 PM UTC+12, nkdat...@bigmailbox.net wrote:

http://www.newagebd.com/2010/mar/26/front.html#2

New Age, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Friday, March 26, 2010

War crimes tribunal formed

The government on Thursday formed a tribunal and an investigation
agency and appointed 12 prosecutors initiating the process for the
trial of war crimes committed during the war for national independence
in 1971.

Three gazette notifications were issued to this effect on Thursday.

Justice Md Nizamul Huq, a High Court judge, was appointed chairman
of the three-judge tribunal, formed under Section 6 of the
International Crimes (Tribunals) Act 1973.

The two other judges of the tribunal are Justice ATM Fazle Kabir, a
High Court judge, and AKM Zahir Ahmed, a former district judge.

The government appointed senior lawyer Golam Arif Tipu as chief prosecutor. Lawyers Syed Rezaur Rahman, Golam Hasnayen, Rana Das
Gupta, Zahirul Hoque, Nurul Islam Sujan, Syed Haider Ali, Khandakar
Abdul Mannan, Mosharraf Hossain Kajol, Ziad Al-Malum, Sanjida Khanam
and Sultan Mahmud Semon were appointed prosecutors.

Making the announcement at a briefing at the home ministry, the law minister, Shafique Ahmed, said more lawyers might be appointed
prosecutors, if required.

The planning minister, AK Khandker, home affairs minister Sahara
Khatun, her deputy Shamsul Haque Tuku and state minister for law
Quamrul Islam, among others, attended the briefing.

The seven-member investigation agency was instated with former
additional secretary to the law ministry Abdul Matin, also a former
district judge, as its chief.

The six other investigators are former additional inspector general
of police Md Abdur Rahim, former deputy inspector general Kutubur
Rahman, former army major ASM Shamsul Arefin, additional deputy
inspector general of the Criminal Investigation Department Mir
Shahidul Islam and CID inspectors Md Nurul Islam and Md Abdur Razzak
Khan.

The government earlier set up a courtroom, chambers of the judges
and offices of the prosecutors and investigators at the old High Court building on the Supreme Court premises.

Making the announcement of the formation the tribunal and
appointment of the prosecutors and investigators, the law minister
said the tribunal and the investigation agency came into operation as
soon as the gazette notifications to the effect were issued on the
day.

‘The agency will investigate allegations of committing any crimes against humanity, genocide, war crimes, arson attacks, looting, raping
and forcing people to leave the country during the 1971 independence
war based on documents, newspaper reports at home and abroad and other evidences available,’ he said.

The agency would also investigate allegations of committing such
crimes, as defined in the 1973 law, against anybody raised by any
individual on the basis evidence, documents or both, he said.

The tribunal will begin the proceedings in the trial of any
individual or any group of individuals, against whom the investigation
agency will press charges under the 1973 act, after the submission of
the charge sheet, the law minister said.

He said the government would need to frame a set of rules for the operation of the tribunal as it was a high-powered special tribunal.

Shafique, however, said the international community but Pakistan
had supported the government’s move for the trial. Pakistan reportedly initiated some propaganda against the initiative.

Asked how much time the agency would take to complete the
investigation, he said the law did not stipulate any time limit for
the task.

He, however, said the trial would be concluded much before the
tenure of the Awami League-led government.

‘The trial process has begun after 39 years… It will take time to complete the investigation as the evidences of crimes committed in
1971 are lying scattered across the country. We want an acceptable
trial free of any weakness.’

The law enforcers can arrest anybody in connection with the crimes
during the investigation, he said in reply to a question.

How many people would face the trial would depend on the findings
of the investigation agency, he said.

Section 3 of the act empowers a tribunal to try and punish any
individual or any group of individuals, or any member of any armed,
defence or auxiliary forces, irrespective of his nationality, who
commits or has committed, in the territory of Bangladesh, whether
before or after the commencement of the act, any of the crimes
mentioned in the act.

According to the act, war crimes include violation of laws or
customs of war which include but are not limited to murder, ill
treatment or deportation to slave labour or for any other purpose of
civilian population in the territory of Bangladesh, murder or ill
treatment of prisoners of war or persons on the seas, killing of
hostages and detainees, plunder of public or private property, wanton destruction of cities, towns or villages, or devastation not justified
by military necessity.

Crimes against humanity, including murder, extermination,
enslavement, deportation, imprisonment, abduction, confinement,
torture, rape or other inhumane acts committed against any civilian population or persecutions on political, racial, ethnic or religious
grounds, whether or not in violation of the domestic law, will also
come under the tribunal jurisdiction.

The tribunal will have the powers to try any crimes against peace including planning, preparation, and initiation or waging of a war of aggression or a war in violation of international treaties, agreements
or assurances.

Genocide, including killing members of the group, causing serious
bodily or mental harm to members of the group, deliberately inflicting
on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part, imposing measures intended to prevent
births within the group, forcibly transferring children of the group
to another group, will also come under the jurisdiction of the
tribunal.

The jurisdiction of the tribunal also includes violation of any humanitarian rules applicable to armed conflicts defined in the Geneva Conventions of 1949, any other crimes under international law,
attempt, abetment or conspiracy to commit any such crimes, and
complicity in or failure to prevent commission of any such crimes.

According to Section 4 of the act, if any crime is committed by
several persons, each of such people is liable for that crime in the
same manner as if it were done by him alone.

Section 20 of the act stipulates, ‘Upon conviction of an accused
person, the tribunal shall award sentence of death or such other
punishment proportionate to the gravity of the crime as appears to the tribunal to be just and proper.’

According to Section 21 of the act, a convict of any crime under
the act will have the right of appeal against the conviction but the
appeal must be filed directly with the Appellate Division of the
Supreme Court in 60 days after the judgement.

Section 24 stipulates that no order, judgement or sentence of a
tribunal will be called into question in any manner whatsoever in or
before any court or other authority in any legal proceedings excepting
an appeal against the final verdict of the tribunal.

In its first session, the present parliament on January 29, 2009 unanimously resolved to hold war crimes trial, which was a major
election pledge of the ruling Awami League.

After the independence, the Bangladesh Collaborators (Special
Tribunals) Order 1972, widely known as the Collaborators Order, was promulgated on January 24, 1972.

The government of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman set up 73 special
tribunals, including 11 in Dhaka, to try Razakar, Al-Badr and Al-Shams members, defined as collaborators in the order.

The families of many, killed in the war, filed cases under the
order. As of March 28, 1972, forty-two cases were filed, according to
an announcement of the police at the time.

The number kept rising till November 1973. Several thousand cases
were filed under the order, said Khandker Mahbub Hossain, chief
prosecutor of the cases under the Collaborators Order and Abdur
Rezaque Khan, then special public prosecutor.

No specific information on the fate of the cases could be found as
the old files and police records could not be traced.

Only six cases have so far been disposed of and five persons were convicted, according to what could be gathered from the families of
the martyred freedom fighters and intellectuals, the lawyers of the
cases and the newspapers of the days.

The process of the trial of collaborators was, however, impeded by
a general amnesty for the collaborators, declared by the then prime
minister Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on November 30, 1973.

The Collaborators Order was revoked on December 31, 1975 and almost
all the collaborators convicted were released in the early days of the
regime of Ziaur Rahman, burying the process of the trial of the collaborators.

The government of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman enacted the International
Crimes (Tribunals) Act 1973 on July 19, 1973 for the trial of war
criminals. Four days earlier, on July 15, 1973, the constitution was
amended for the first time providing a constitutional coverage for the
act so that it could not be deemed unconstitutional because of its inconsistency with the constitution.

The government had also appointed Supreme Court lawyers Sabita
Ranjan Pal and Sirajul Haque chief prosecutors, and Aminul Huq and
Mahmudul Islam, both of whom later became attorneys general, Ismail
Uddin Sarkar, later a judge of the Appellate Division of the Supreme
Court, and Abdul Wadud Bhuiyan, who was later made an additional
attorney general, special prosecutors.

Nurul Islam, then deputy inspector general of police, was made the
chief investigator of the cases under the act. The appointments were
made in April 1972 when the act was in the process of being enacted.

No tribunal, however, was formed nor any case filed under the act.
No investigation was launched.

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