Occupy-Type Movement in Bangladesh Condemns War Crime
By Countercurrents.org
06 February, 2013
Countercurrents.org
From media reports it appears that an Occupy-type movement is being waged in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The movement is condemning war crimes, crimes against humanity, committed during Bangladesh liberation war.
An Online Report of Daily Star, English daily from Dhaka, said:
Outraged by the verdict of Jamaat leader Abdul Quader Mollah, people from all walks of life are continuing their sit-in at Shahbagh intersection, one of the central city centers, in the capital for the second consecutive day on February 6, 2013.
The report said:
On February 6, 2013, under the banner of 'Bloggers and Online Activist Network', around 5,000 people started the sit-in movement with the national anthem at around 9:00am demanding death penalty for all the war criminals including Mollah.
The demonstrators hanged effigies of war crime suspects including Mollah at Shahbagh with a vow to continue their program until their demand is met.
The report said within hours, Hasan Mahmud, the environment and forests minister, and other Awami League leaders reached Shahbagh and expressed solidarity with the demonstrators.
The daily said in its report:
Hundreds of outraged students, freedom fighters, activists and ordinary citizens blocked the intersection since February 5, 2013 afternoon after the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) -2 sentenced Mollah to life term imprisonment for his war crimes.
At least 20 Dhaka University teachers, the report said, also joined the program, where other organizations gathered to express their solidarity.
Siddique Nazmul Alam, one of the student leaders, said: People of all strata are staging protest. We also joined extending our solidarity.
According to the daily, the organizations and political parties joining the sit-in include Charu Shilpi Sangsad, Udichi Shilpi Goshthi and Sangskritik Union, Workers' Party of Bangladesh, Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB), Bangladesh Samajtantrik Dal (BSD), Shwechchhasebak League and Gono Sanghati Andolon.
The report said:
While addressing the program, Mujahidul Islam Selim, CPB president, termed the ICT verdict that sentenced Mollah to life term imprisonment as 'frustrating'.
He said Mollah was involved with brutal killings in Mirpur during the 1971 Liberation War. But he got a small punishment.
The CPB president claimed that Jamaat-Shibir appointed lobbyist at home and abroad in a bid to foil the war crime trial.
'Slogan 71', a pro-liberation organization formed by a section Dhaka University students, have been supplying pure water among the demonstrators to quench their thirst.
When the several thousands of people joined the Shahbagh demo, members of a pro-liberation organization 'Brittanto 71' were seen patrolling the city streets with a pick-up van to gain public support in favor of the death penalty for Mollah.
They were chanting slogans against the verdict using loud speakers. They also played songs of patriotic songs and also distributed leaflets among the mass people against the judgment.
Another report by bdnews24.com, the first online newspaper of Bangladesh, said:
The protestors have been demonstrating at the Shahbag intersection after the war crimes tribunal ordered life imprisonment for Molla for 'crimes against humanity' during the 1971 Liberation War.
Headlined ‘... and the people rise' the February 5, 2013 report by Suliman Niloy, Ashik Hossain and Sujon Mondol and Tanjir Rahman said: Most of the protestors are young people. Roads leading to Shahbag were blocked with no traffic passing through them.
According to the report thousands of people burst into the streets in protest against the verdict of Molla because they felt the punishment was too light. Hours after the verdict was read out at the tribunal, people from all walks of life assembled at the Shahbag intersection.
Bangladesh Chhatra League, the student organization politically close to the ruling party Awami League, had mobilized their supporters from the Dhaka University to swell the ranks of the protestors, said the report.
According to the report the sit-in protest grew into a huge gathering within a few hours as messages circulated through the social networking sites. The protestors were singing, reciting poems, raising slogans, screening films and making speeches. They promised not to budge until their demand for hanging Molla for the crimes in 1971 was materialized.
Several ministers, the report said, leaders of many political parties and organizations have also thrown their weight behind the demonstrations led by the young people.
The bdnews24.com report added: Hasanul Haq Inu, information minister and Jatiyatabadi Samajtantrik Dal president said, “I am a freedom fighter. Quader Molla was sentenced to death in the mock trials in the Jahanara Imam-led Gonoadalot (Court of the People), only 500 yards from here. Why did he get life imprisonment today? I reject this verdict. We do not accept this verdict. I reject this as a freedom fighter, even if I am a minister or whatever.”
The report said: the Jamaat assistant secretary general was found guilty in five among six charges of crimes. Freedom fighters, organizations and parties who have been demanding justice have expressed displeasure at the verdict.
The report said: At first, hours after the verdict was delivered, a human-chain protest was held in front of the National Museum at around 5pm demanding death for Molla. But a huge number of youths started heading towards Shahbagh from far and wide of the capital after the news of human chain was out on Facebook and other social networking websites. “We reject the tribunal’s verdict,” Mahmudul Haque Munsi, member of the Blogger and Online Activist Network which started the protest, told bdnews24.com. “We would not turn back from the streets until Quader Molla gets death sentence.” Munsi said the verdict had betrayed three million martyrs and 200,000 daughter and mothers of the land violated during the War of Independence. The demonstrator wondered why the Jamaat assistant secretary general was given life term instead of a death sentence as “it was proven that Molla had murdered hundreds”.
Another demonstrator, Imran H Sarker, said they would not return home until Molla is handed down the death sentence.
According to the report Slogan-71, an organization of Dhaka University, took out a torch procession on February 5 evening over the same demand. The procession joined the demonstration at Shahbag after marching down the DU campus streets. The air at Shahbagh was filled with chants while the legendary mass music ‘Bicharpoti tomar bichar korbe jara, aj jegeche sei janata’ ('O Justice, the people who will try you have risen now') was sung many times. Dhaka University Film Society (DUFS) also set up a big screen and showed several films based on the Liberation War. DUFS president Ariful Islam told bdnews24.com they would keep screening movies as long as the demonstration continued. Students of the Faculty of Fine Arts drew mock images of Razakars on long plain white cloths. Protestors were also seen collecting money among themselves to arrange for dinner.
The report said: Since evening, National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) chairman Mizanur Rahman, former CPB President Monjurul Ahsan Khan, Ganaforum leader Pankaj Bhattyacharya, first Bangladeshi conqueror of Mount Everest Musa Ibrahim, Bangladesh Chhatra League President Badiuzzaman Sohag and General Secretary Siddiqui Nazmul Alam and Student Union President SM Shuvo addressed the demonstrators, among others. A group of Dhaka University teachers also joined the demonstration. The NHRC Chairman said, “This verdict has failed to meet the people’s expectation. The people are disappointed.” He hoped Molla will get death sentence after the High Court was moved. Monjurul Ahsan Khan urged everyone to join the ‘new war of independence’ 41 years after the first one. Selim, the CPB president, said, “Everyone sees only two parties of this verdict. The prosecution and the defense. But there is another party on behalf of the 3,000,000 martyrs. Their souls are crying for justice. If justice cannot be ensured, the least achievement of the Liberation War will fizzle out.”
An earlier Daily Star online report headlined “Quader Mollah gets LIFE TERM, 5 out of 6 war crimes charges proved beyond doubt; defense to appeal against verdict” said:
Amid Jamaat's countrywide hartal and threats of anarchy, the ICT-2 sentenced top Jamaat-e-Islami leader Abdul Quader Mollah to life in prison for committing crimes against humanity during the Liberation War. He has been found guilty of five wartime criminal offences.
The report by Julfikar Ali Manik and Tuhin Shubhra Adhikary said:
In two of the five incidents, at least 350 Bangalees were killed and a girl was raped for each of which the three-member tribunal awarded him life sentence (30 years). Quader Mollah also got 15 years' imprisonment for his complicity in each of the three other criminal offences in which six people were killed. He also got 15 years' imprisonment for each of the three other criminal incidents in which six people were killed.
As soon as the tribunal finished the pronouncement, Mollah stood up from his chair and said as he showed a victory sign: "Allahu Akbar [Allah is great]. This is injustice."
In 1971, he was a leader of the Islami Chhatra Sangha, the then student wing of Jamaat.
Jamaat played an active role to foil the freedom struggle of Bangladesh and helped the Pakistani occupational forces to that end. During the nine-month war, the Pak army along with its collaborators killed about three million Bangalees and violated more than a quarter million women.
Soon after the pronouncement of the verdict, prosecution and people started expressing their frustrations, saying they were expecting death sentence for the Jamaat leader, a widely known war criminal.
The defense and Jamaat rejected the judgment and termed it perverse. Defense counsel Tajul Islam told The Daily Star that they would "certainly" appeal against the judgment.
Under the International Crimes (Tribunals) Act 1973, the defense has to do so within 30 days with the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court.
The report said:
"We have taken due notice of the intrinsic magnitude of the offence of murders as crimes against humanity being offences which are predominantly shocking to the conscience of mankind," said the judges in the verdict.
"We have carefully considered the mode of participation of the accused to the commission of crimes proved and the proportionate to the gravity of offences," they added.
"The principle of proportionality implies that sentences must reflect the predominant standard of proportionality between the gravity of the offence and the degree of responsibility of the offender.
"In assessing the gravity of the offence, we have taken the form and degree of the accused's [sic] participation in the crimes into account."
In one of the concluding remarks, the tribunal said: "No innocent person be convicted, let hundreds guilty be acquitted" -- the principle has been changed in the present time. In this regard it has been observed by the Indian Supreme Court that 'A judge does not preside over a criminal trial, merely to see that no innocent man is punished. A judge also presides to see that a guilty man does not escape. Both are public duties.'"
Tribunal-2 Chairman Justice Obaidul Hassan and members Justice Md Mozibur Rahman Miah and Judge M Shahinur Islam unanimously held Mollah guilty in five of the six charges brought against him.
The only charge that the prosecution failed to prove was the one for killing hundreds of people at Ghatar Char and Bhawal Khan Bari in Keraniganj.
"We are persuaded to note that the commission of the event of mass killing by launching attack directing the civilians as crimes against humanity on the date and time and in the manner causing deaths of numerous civilians has been proved. Besides, commission of crimes alleged is not disputed," said the verdict.
But the judges said, "We are not convinced to arrive at decision that the guilt of accused has been proved. Prosecution has failed to prove participation or complicity or act on part of the accused to the commission of the offence of crimes against humanity by adducing lawful and credible evidence," reads the verdict.
LIEF FOR TWO CHARGES
The tribunal awarded life term imprisonment in two charges against Mollah.
One was: on the early morning of April 24, 1971, members of Pakistan occupation forces and around 50 non-Bangalees led by Quader Mollah raided Alubdi village of Mirpur and suddenly launched attack on unarmed villagers, killing 344 people. Of the victims, names of 24 people were mentioned in the charge.
Other one was: At around 6:00pm of March 26, 1971, Quader Mollah being accompanied by some Biharis and Pakistani army went to the house of Hazrat Ali Laskar at Mirpur Section-12 and entering the house forcibly, his accomplices under his leadership and on his order killed Hazrat Ali by gunfire.
His wife Amina was gunned down and then slaughtered to death, their two minor daughters were also slaughtered to death, their two-year-old son Babu was also killed by dashing him to the ground violently. Twelve of his accomplices gang raped his 11-year-old daughter but one of his daughter escaped.
15 YEARS JAIL FOR THREE CHARGES
The tribunal awarded 15 years imprisonment for each of the three charges against Mollah.
One of the three charges was: On Quader Mollah's instruction, one of his aides named Akhter killed Pallab, a student of Bangla College and an organizer of the Liberation War, on April 5, 1971.
Pallab was buried by Kalapani Jheel along with several other bodies.
A group of anti-liberation people forcibly took Pallab to Quader Mollah at Mirpur-12. From there, on the Jamaat leader's order, they dragged the youth to Shah Ali Majar at Mirpur-1, according to the charges.
Pallab was then taken to an Eidgah field at Mirpur-12, where he was shot dead.
Another charge was: On March 27, 1971,
Quader Mollah and his aides murdered pro-liberation poet Meherun Nesa, her mother and two brothers at their house at Mirpur-6.
The third one was: Quader Mollah accompanied by other members of Al Badr, Razakar and non-Bangalees detained one Khandakar Abu Taleb from Mirpur-10 bus stand on March 29, 1971, and tied him up with a rope. He was brought to the Mirpur Jallad Khana Pump House and killed.
THE CHRAGE PROSECUTION FAILES TO PROVE
On November 25, 1971, Quader Mollah along with his 60 to 70 accomplices went to the village of Khanbari and Ghotan Char, now Shaheed Nagar of Keraniganj, and caught two unarmed freedom fighters from the house of Mozaffar Ahmed Khan.
Freedom fighters Osman Gani and Golam Mostafa were brutally murdered by charging bayonet in broad daylight.
A systematic attack and indiscriminate shooting by Quader Mollah and his gang killed hundreds of unarmed people of the two villages that day. Among them, 24 persons were named in the charge.
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