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War crime trial process gets final shape

Appointment of investigating agency in 3 days, prosecutors in 2 weeks, decides govt

Staff Correspondent
The government will assign an investigation agency within three days and prosecutors in 10 to 15 days to probe the genocide committed by the collaborators of the Pakistani occupation forces during the 1971 Liberation War, said Law Minister Shafique Ahmed yesterday.
"A tribunal will also be formed later to try the war criminals in compliance with the International Crimes (Tribunal) Act, 1973," he said after an inter-ministerial meeting at the home ministry..
Some three million civilians were killed by the Pakistani occupation forces and their collaborators in 1971, while about 200,000 women were violated, and thousands of houses were torched and plundered.
Briefing journalists at the law ministry later, he said they were yet to decide on who would be appointed as the investigation officer.
"We have just started the process," Shafique said.
The law minister said the trial of war criminals would be fair and transparent so that no innocent person is victimised.
"We want to bring the real culprits to justice," he added.
State ministers Tanjim Ahmed Sohel Taj, M Kamrul Islam, and ABM Tajul Islam, Attorney General Mahbubey Alam, and Inspector General of Police (IGP) Nur Mohammad, among others, attended the meeting.
State Minister for Home Affairs Sohel Taj told The Daily Star that the home ministry will appoint the attorney while the law ministry will make the appointments of the prosecutors and form the tribunal.
'This is the first time we are going to try war criminals. The 1973 act is designed to try war criminals under special tribunal within the shortest possible time," he said.
Asked about the cases filed by individuals in connection with war crimes across the country, he said those would not be considered
The United Nations has already offered Bangladesh assistance in trying war criminals. The local office of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has also named four international experts with experience in war crime trials. Their profiles have been submitted to the law ministry.
The government has taken initiatives to seek war-related documents and evidence from Pakistan and the United States, which backed Pakistan during the 1971 Liberation War, for holding the trial. The requests will be made under the International Crimes (Tribunal) Act. 1973.
Pakistan in particular will be requested to give information about Razakras, who collaborated with the erstwhile Pakistani occupation forces.