Speakers in an international conference held on Monday demanded the international recognition of the genocide that took place during the liberation war in 1971 in Bangladesh.
The International Conference on Bangladesh Genocide Recognition (ICBGR) was held at Professor Abdul Matin Chowdhury Virtual Classroom on the Dhaka University (DU) campus at 11:00am under the auspices of Amra Ekattor (AE), European-Bangladesh Forum (EBF) and Projonmo 71.
With the aim to draw attention of the international community, the conference was attended by several local and foreign genocide specialists, academicians and politicians.
An international team of genocide specialists comprising of Harry van Bommel, former Member of Parliament of Netherlands, Dr Anthonie Holslag of Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Chris Blackburn, Communications Director of the Swiss Inter Strategy Group, and representatives of EBF from the United Kingdom participated in the programme.
DU Vice-Chancellor Prof Md Akhtaruzzaman addressed the conference as Chief Guest while Helal Foyeji, Shahriar Kabir, Chairperson of the Amra Ekattor Mahbub Jaman and a few freedom fighters were present in the event.
Harun Habib, General Secretary of Sector Commanders Forum, said, "During the war Pakistani military committed crimes like mass killing, genocide, ethnic cleansing and raping Bangladeshi women.
These crimes must be addressed and globally recognised as genocide. It is not a political claim or movement. It is a matter of human rights."
Ansar Ahmed said, "Today we came here to consolidate with the movement of achieving global recognition of the mass killing in 1971 as a genocide which was committed by Pakistani military."
"To have global recognition, we need to make our profile clear about our movement. To clarify our profile, we have to produce more research based publication about the 1971 war. Already some institutes like Center for Genocide Studies (CGS) have started working in this field," he added.
Prof Hafizur Rahman Carzon, Director of the centre, said, "Millions of people were massacred by the Pak army during the liberation war in 1971."
"The international community did not pay much care about this incident as a result we do not have any international recognition although 52 years have elapsed of the war. But we are working to have the recognition.
Our young researches are working and doing great jobs. They are bringing incredible information to light which will help us to gain global recognition," he added.
