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First Conference on Genocide, Truth & Justice: Summary
AS the Second International Conference on Genocide, Truth and Justice closely follows the First Conference held last year, it may not be out of place to take a stock of the proceedings of the First Conference. The basic objective of the First Conference was to revive public memory, both at home and abroad, of the all but forgotten Genocide tn Bangladesh in 1971, documenting and archiving that Genocide, creating public awareness about genocides and to prevent the recurrence of genocides anywhere by enforcing the existing International laws against genocide. The Conference was attended by prominent academicians, civil rights activists etc. from Japan, Cambodia. Germany. USA, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
The opening ceremony dealt with the basics, informing the participants about the global political exigencies that led to the Bangladesh Genocide being utterly downplayed over the last four decades as well as informing the participants about the objectives behind holding the Conference now. During this session, Asish Nandy, an eminent sociologist from India brought to the surface two startling insights into the nature of genocides in which 225 million people are supposed to have died in the twentieth century alone. First, that secular regimes cannot be considered as safeguards against genocides and secondly, genocides in the past century' have occurred within societies which were closely related, like in the case of the partition of India and the Rwanda Genocide. Justice Habibur Rahman narrated his personal experience with a WW II bomber who had taken part in the Dresden bombings and which had left a deep scar in his mind. He felt that it was not desirable that we view the trial of the perpetrators as something emanating out of personal
hatred but it should be considered as a means towards the establishment of peace and justice in the society.
The First Plenary session dealt -with mapping genocide and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Dr. Mizanur Rahman narrated how the two declarations of Human Rights and The Convention on the Prevention of Genocide, adopted in 1948, established Human Rights as an inalienable concept. He however pointed out that the idea of genocide was not given due importance in the UDHR document, and secondly, although the Genocide Convention failed to provide clear provisions as to the responsibility of the state, it did mention that this responsibility was inherently trans-boundary' in nature. Dr. Shahdin Malik pointed out that the Tribunal of 1973 deviated slightly from the above and simplified the provisions which would otherwise be required by the Evidence Act etc. Mr. Zulfiquar Halepoto from Pakistan was of the opinion that any steps taken to destroy the essential foundations of a society, like impositions on culture, language, religion and national feelings should be also treated as genocide. Dr. Rehman Sobhan voiced the belief that it was the duty of the next elected govern ment to complete the unfinished task of holding the trial of the War Criminals.
In the Second Plenary Session, Farina So from Cambodia described how her organization, the DC-CAM was helping potential witnesses from all over the country to file complaints at the court and was collecting documentary evidence. Prof. Massaki Ohashi discussed about the censorships in the history textbooks of schools in Japan, relating particularly to the forced mass suicides in Okinawa on the urging of the government just prior to the US occupation. 1 he theme of the 3rd Plenary Session was Trauma and Tribulations of the Victims. Dr M. A. Hasan recounted from his experiences as the next of kin of a victim that the restoration to a normal life was impossible and the process of reconcilliation was possible only if the perpetrators are remorseful of their guilt. Dr. Sonia Amin reconstructed the struggle of the poet, Selina Parveen and her torture and murder by the Pakistni Army and their collaborators. At the end of the at-times-heated discussion that ensued, the speakers concluded that although justice should not have a retributional face, the convicted persons of Bangladesh
Genocide must be punished instead of extending too far the theory of the psychological trauma of the perpetrator himself.
In the 4th Plenary Session, Mr. Helmut Scholz observed that society must learn to tolerate and respect the dignity of others, whether it was in terms of religion, cast or gender. He also spoke about the holocaust in Germany and how the young people in Europe have begun to take interest in the misdeeds committed during the Nazi genocide. He also felt that to prevent genocides from recurring, intervention from the international community, such as the formation of tribunals must be made
mandatory and binding. Dr Shah Alam voiced the opinion that the government should form a special Investigation Commission to elicit complaints from the victims and collect evidence so as to be adequately prepared for conducting the prosecution. In his concluding remarks, Prof. Kabir Chowdhury said that reconcilliation was not possible unless the victims themselves forgave the criminals and reconcilliation without the consent of the victims would be a great injustice to them. He also mentioned that special laws under a tribunal will be required to try the criminals.
The last Plenary Session was devoted to the building of Alliances for Preventing Genocide. International discourse and debates should be initiated through the u ademia and International human rights organizations. Diplomatic efforts should be made so that Pakistan puts its own officials under trial, which was a clear recommendation of the Hamoodur -
Rahman Commission.
At the closing session, the Conference Declaration, which clearly recognised that the Bangladesh Genocide had not received the exposure and public scrutiny that it had deserved, was adopted. Highlights of the Declaration:
1. The Conference will promote research on genocide, particularly the Bangladesh Genocide. It will encourage both local and international Universities to undertake academic research on the various issues relating to genocide and encourage genocide studies to be included into different academic curricula and encourage the opening of new centres for genocide studies.
2. It will also attempt to develop linkages, alliances and networks with various international and regional centres of genocide studies.
3. The Conference considers that the trials of the perpetrators of the Bangladesh Genocide is still an unfulfilled but mandatory task of the Bengali nation.
4. The Conference called upon the younger generation to take up the cause of justice because a nation where justice has been denied cannot move forward either politically, intellectually or economically. The struggle for peace and tolerance can only be taken forward if truth is upheld and justice is ensured in all societies.