Bangladesh bars war crimes suspects from travelling abroad

Mar 22, 2009, 14:30 GMT

Dhaka - Bangladesh has imposed a ban on travelling abroad for war crimes suspects as part of its process to bring 1971 war criminals to justice, a senior minister said Sunday.

'The trials of the war criminals are in the process, and that's why the government has ordered some people not to leave the country,' Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Shafique Ahmed said.

The minister mentioned neither the names nor the number of suspects affected.

The move follows an election pledge by the Awami League of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wazed. Parliament on January 29 approved a motion seeking speedy prosecution of 1971 war crime suspects.

The issue was later overshadowed by last month's troop mutiny against their commanders at the headquarters of Bangladesh Rifles border guards that left more than 70 army officers killed.

Sheikh Hasina contacted a panel of international experts on war crimes tribunals to establish how other countries dealt with the issue of war criminals.

During Bangladesh's war of independence in 1971, an estimated three million people were killed, 200,000 women were raped and tens of thousands of homes were torched by Pakistani forces and their local collaborators.

An early initiative to prosecute war crimes was called off after the 1975 political changeover with the assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, architect of Bangladeshi independence.

Bangladesh Sector Commander Forum, a platform of 1971 war veterans, revealed last year that 11,000 indicted war criminals were released from jail a few months after Mujib's assassination in 1975.