The Bangladesh government recently executed two influential opposition leaders who were convicted of committing war crimes during the country's 1971 independence war against Pakistan. In carrying out the execution of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) leader Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury and Jamaat-e-Islami Secretary General Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid, the government ignored international pleas not to settle political scores against opponents on the basis of politically motivated trials. There has been vehement criticism of the Awami League government, headed by Sheikh Hasina, and its allies for executing political opponents after trials conducted by a local tribunal, called the International Crimes Tribunal, which does not possess any international standards or criteria. Several prominent political figures were earlier executed by the government on the basis of the tribunal's verdict against them. They included Abdul Quader Molla and Mohammad Qamaruzzama, leaders of Jamaat-e-Islami, who were also denied a fair trial. The United Nations Human Rights Council was in the forefront of international rights bodies as well as several eminent local and international lawyers in strongly criticizing the tribunal for delivering death sentences after politically motivated trials. The recent executions were carried out against the backdrop of scandals involving the tribunal judges and prosecutors. The British magazine The Economist brought to light the Skype conversations between Presiding Judge Mohammed Nizamul Huq and Ahmed Ziauddin, a war crimes expert of Bangladeshi origin living in Brussels, Belgium, and this scandal subsequently resulted in the resignation of the judge. As for Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury, he hailed from a well-known political family in Bangladesh. His father was the speaker of the Pakistan National Assembly (parliament) before the creation of Bangladesh. Chowdhury was elected to parliament seven times in a row. He was implicated in the war crimes case under dubious circumstances. Perhaps, he was targeted with cheap propaganda by the concerned government agencies. The tribunal also refused to allow some individuals to testify as defense witnesses in the case. These included some prominent Pakistani figures who testified that Chowdhury had been in Pakistan during the time when the alleged war crimes took place. The court's rejection of the plea was on the grounds of some procedural discrepancies. Moreover, the tribunal permitted only five witnesses to testify for Chowdhury while it allowed the prosecution to present more than 40 witnesses. As for the evidence presented against Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid, secretary general of the Jamaat-e-Islami and former minister, it was based on rumors, hypotheses and the words of some children who testified that they had seen the accused talking with Pakistan army officials. The tribunal judges considered this evidence sufficient to deliver the death penalty to Mujahid as the mastermind who allegedly planned to kill intellectuals during the civil war. In short, all the evidence and testimony that the tribunal took into consideration while sentencing these two prominent political leaders to death was clear proof of a story of political vendetta. It was a well-known fact that the first government of Bangladesh, headed by the Father of the Nation Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, issued a law to try war crimes, and accordingly a list of defendants was prepared. The list contained 195 Pakistani military officials and there were no Bengali civilians among those accused of war crimes or crimes against humanity. The government also issued another law to try Bangladeshis who collaborated with the Pakistan army. Under the law, large numbers of Bangladeshis were arrested but they were later released, taking advantage of a general amnesty announced by Sheikh Mujbur Rahman. India released large number of Pakistani prisoners of war and these prisoners included many who were accused of war crimes. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who took over as prime minister of Pakistan after the creation of Bangladesh, managed to secure the release of the Pakistani soldiers on the basis of the Shimla Agreement that was signed with Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Later, there was a tripartite meeting between India, Pakistan and Bangladesh at the foreign ministers' level in New Delhi. The meeting called for reconciliation and reached an agreement to forget about the past and concentrate on building future cooperation among the three states in the subcontinent. There was a reference in the agreement to a request by the Pakistan prime minister to the Bangladesh people to forget and forgive whatever happened in 1971 and a call by the Bangladesh prime minister for a general amnesty with his famous saying "Let the world know how Bengalis can forgive." There is no doubt that Sheikh Mujbur Rahman realized that it was time for the people of the subcontinent to forget about the past and focus on building a prosperous future. It was also clear to him that the militias of his Awami League party had also committed war crimes with regard to Biharis and it was not possible to prosecute those from one side only and hence he embarked on the path of amnesty with the principle of "forget and forgive". I have the full conviction that inciting the issue of war crimes once again after a gap of four decades is being done to target opposition political leaders and eliminate them. There have been no charges framed against those who have been convicted now or who were tried either during the period of Sheikh Mujbur Rahman or during the first tenure of his daughter Sheikh Hasina as prime minister from 1996 to 2001. The judicial process of the tribunal also lacks the basic principles of a fair trial and is in flagrant violation of the fundamentals of international law. — Dr. Ali Al-Ghamdi is a former Saudi diplomat who specializes in Southeast Asian affairs. He can be reached at [email protected]
