Monday | 13 January 2025 | Reg No- 06
বাংলা
   
Monday | 13 January 2025 | Epaper

Recognize the genocide of 1971

Published : Tuesday, 3 October, 2023 at 12:00 AM  Count : 695
Alaul Alam
The birth history of Bangladesh reveals a long episode of genocide--from March to December 1971. Pakistan military committed indiscriminate killings of the Bengalis. The death of more than three million people, thousands of raping and the displacement of some ten million people revealed one of the worst genocides in the world history. In the name of the most infamous term 'Operation Searchlight' Pakistani forces started a ruthless and brutal armed operation on the mid night of 25 March 1971 upon the innocent Bengalis, which continued for nine monthsshowing a black episode over the history of mankind.

The brutal attack by Pakistani forces is considered as one of the bloodiest slaughters in modern times. The Bengali people endured an unprecedented brutalism which clearly stated a genocide under the terms of the UN Convention on the Convention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (CPPCG) of 1948.The UN Genocide Convention listed the acts which confirm genocide are killing members of a group, causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group, and deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.

According to the Convention, genocide is a crime to humanity which may occur both in war time and in time of peace. The Article two of the Convention states genocide as crime committed with the intent to destroy a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, in whole or in part. All the aspects that are understood to mark the genocide are clearly unearthed in the horrible acts that occurred in 1971.In many cases the intensity of ruthlessness reached the parameter of the acts defining genocide.

The most brutal forms of torture, murder and sexual violence committed by the Pakistani Army stillexpose a painful reality for the people who witnessed during the genocide in 1971. But things get frustrating as the recognition of the genocide in 1971 is yet to be established. Despite frequent urges to gain the recognition of the genocide over the years Bangladesh has constantly been facing a politics of denial.

It is evident that those days the International Commission of Jurists from the international platform discussed the possibility of genocide and highlighted the atrocities committed by Pakistani military and paramilitary. Though the Commission agreed with the claim thatpartially corresponded to the genocide in Bangladesh but it could not reach a conclusive judgement. The secretary general of the Commission stated, "there would be great difficulty in establishing the intent to destroy the Bengali peopleto fit the UN definition of genocide".

Due to international pressure the post war Pakistan government established the Hamoodur Rahman Commission which found the atrocities committed by Pakistani military and paramilitary. It mentioned many instances of atrocities that happened across the East Pakistan now in Bangladesh. However, it was unfortunate that strangely the Commission neither acknowledged nor denied the claim of genocide.

During the atrocities by Pakistani armed forces the world media covered the news of brutal killings of the Bengali people. A detailed report titled'Genocide' covered by Anthony Mascarenhas, a Pakistani journalist was published in the UK's Sunday Times on June 13, 1971. The other reverend journalists such as Simon Dring and Mark Tully reported extensively on Pakistani brutalities that made the world inform of the genocide in Bangladesh.

However,due to lack of willingness of the international community genocidal recognition is still undecided for Bangladesh. Political analysts state that geopolitical conflicts which emerged during the atrocities has made Bangladesh ill-fortunate and deprived of international justice. During the liberation war criminal responsibility was not exposed much as Pakistan, India and their allies-- the US, China, the USSR, and the Muslim world were highly involved in geopolitical interests and shares.

In the liberation war due to the politics of interests US supported Pakistan with supplying arms and to save the Pakistani occupation forces from the defeat in Bangladesh they did all the preparations to send its mighty seven fleet. On the other hand, the USSR stood with India and Bangladesh and imposed successive vetoes to end the war between Pakistan and the joint forces of India and Bangladesh.Obviously, the geopolitical diplomacy prevented the super power from recognizing the genocide in 1971. Again, we see that the international community and the UN were too preoccupied with the diplomacy of ending the war rather than the genocidal killings in Bangladesh.

It is good to see that to highlight genocide occurred against the Bengalis as well as end it once and for all in the world Bangladesh government declared 25 March as "Genocide Remembrance Day" in 2017. For international recognition of the genocide in 1971 different government and non-government organizations have been taking the initiatives such as collecting evidence, carrying out research, and campaigning, etc. over the years. Researchers have conductedstudies to highlight the atrocities committed by the Pakistani military against the Bengalis in 1971. Major findings of different studies conclude that the ideological, political, cultural and economic issues of the international community have deprived Bangladesh of getting genocidal recognition.

However, you may be worried when the question comes that how far young stars are well- informed of the genocide occurred against their forefathers? A recent study has revealed that students have not heard much about the genocide in 1971. Consequently, they lack information of the genocidal acts resulting in their poor realization of the 1971 genocide. The youths lack patriotic zeal and hardly ponder over the genocide.

Many students even at the tertiary level can hardly realize their responsibilities to the country and countrymen. It seems that genocide in 1971 is a forgotten term for the youths. The findings also prioritize making the young generation better aware of the worst genocide and mobilizing collective strength to prevent such heinous crime.

To this end, concerted efforts are needed to urge the global community to recognize the genocide in Bangladesh. In this connection UN must play an obligatory role that will not only ensure the genocidal recognition for Bangladesh but also help eliminate such hatred episode that continuously affects humanity in some places of the world. The UN should compel Pakistan to offer its unconditional apology who wanted to eliminate a race through the brutal atrocities. We hope to see an obvious role of the UN and ICJin establishing the recognition and justice for the genocide in 1971.

The writer teaches at Prime University. He is also a Research Scholar at the IBS



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