Bangladesh sets up tribunal to prosecute 1971 war crimes

Mar 25, 2010, 13:26 GMT

Dhaka - Bangladesh on Thursday established a tribunal to try war crimes committed during the country's war for independence from Pakistan nearly four decades ago, the government said.

The three-member tribunal, headed by Nizamul Haq, a High Court judge, is to conduct trials once an investigation agency lodges allegations of crimes against humanity, genocide, arson and other war crimes, said Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Shafique Ahmed.

The government also appointed seven members of the investigation agency, which is to be led by former bureaucrat Abdul Matin and investigate accused local collaborators of Pakistani forces who committed crimes during the 1971 war.

The minister said a 12-member panel of lawyers headed by Golam Arif Tipu would represent the prosecution in the trials.

The announcement came a day before the country would mark the 39th anniversary of its independence.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wazed's Awami League party had pledged in its 2008 election manifesto that it would try war criminals if voted into power, and Hasina's Awami League-led ruling coalition initiated the process for the prosecutions, adopting a resolution unanimously in parliament in early 2009.

According to historians, 3 million people were killed and many women raped during the 1971 conflict.

An initial effort to prosecute those accused of war crimes was halted with a change in government in 1975 after the assassination of Bangladesh's founding president, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

With the formation of the tribunal, the government beefed up security across Bangladesh and has been keeping an eye on a number of accused war criminals, who were politically rehabilitated in Bangladesh after the 1975 changeover.