NOW, with the attention of the Bangladeshi public riveted on the formation of a war crimes tribunal to prosecute those who allegedly committed crimes against humanity during the 1971 war, the fate of over 200,000 women who were raped during this conflict must not be pushed off to the side of the proceedings nor instrumentalised for political purposes.

Rape has long been used as an instrument of war. However, rape today is no longer viewed as inevitable collateral damage of war, but as a grave human rights violation. Thus, although the issue is complex and contentious, the question of justice for Bangladeshi women subjected to sexualised violence in 1971 cannot be avoided.

The brutalities of the 1971 war were no secret: the national and international press reported extensively on the unspeakable violence to which the Bangladeshi population was subjected, and on the rape of hundreds of thousands of Bangladeshi women, including many who had been held for months in rape camps.

Thousands of women become pregnant and then sought abortions. Many carried an unwanted child to term, gave it up for adoption, or abandoned it. Very, very few families were willing to accept the child and many families did not take the "disgraced" woman back, either. Many women committed suicide. Others fled to Pakistan with their Pakistani captors rather than face what awaited them in Bangladeshi society.

Nilima Ibrahim, Professor of Bangla at the University of Dhaka, worked with rape survivors in 1972 and later edited a book detailing their experiences. One of these women explained to Ibrahim why she and others left with the soldiers:

"We went with them voluntarily because when we were being pulled out from the bunkers by the Indian soldiers, some of us half-clad, others half-dead, the hatred and deceit I saw in the eyes of our countrymen standing by, I could not raise my eyes a second time. They were throwing various dirty words at us... I did not imagine that we would be subjected to so much hatred from our countrymen. Rather, I imagined if the freedom fighters ever find us, they will accept us as their mothers and sisters. Because we did not come into this of our own choice."

For the full version of this article please read this month's Forum, available free with The Daily Star on June 7.

Dr. Marianne Scholte is a freelance journalist who writes on issues of social and economic development