Honourable senators,
The US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations resolution S.Res.318 that was introduced to the senate on December 18 has drawn Bangladeshi citizens’ attention. We observed that key concerns of the committee are: Political violence, the arrest of opposition leaders and human rights activists, the standard of the International Crime Tribunal (ICT), democratic processes, and the impact of the current political crisis on regional and international security.
Since February, Bangladesh has been experiencing an unprecedented level of violence in the name of demanding reinstallation of the caretaker government and release of criminals who committed crimes against humanity during our liberation war.
During the week of December 8, UN Assistant Secretary General Oscar Fernandez-Taranco visited Bangladesh and brought two major political parties, the Awami League (AL) and the BNP, to a discussion table.
In the discussion, the opposition’s main demand for the reinstallation of the caretaker government system was not in the agenda. Meaning, both the parties accepted that a free and fair election was possible under a political government.
The violence is being committed mainly by an anti-liberation force, Jamaat-e Islami, who are a radical Islamist political party banned in Bangladesh from doing politics. A few months back, Jamaat was declared a terrorist political organisation by the ICT, and banned from taking part in elections by the Supreme Court.
Some 895 opposition political leaders were arrested against specific charges relating to massive violence that took 120 lives, injured 385 people and 293 police, torched 479 and vandalised 392 vehicles and blasted 1,617 crude bombs between November 25 and December 18.
International media, human rights organisations, and the resolution S.Res.318 all are saying that the ICT is falling short of international standards, but nobody says what those international standards are. The ICT allows appeals against its verdict to the regular Supreme Court.
If you compare the ICT process with that of the famous Nuremburg Trial, you will find that the ICT is more humane. Stephen Rapp, US ambassador-at-large, visited the ICT in May and expressed satisfaction over the trial of the four war crimes criminals.
Jamaat has been orchestrating violence to destabilise the government and the country’s democratic process, and foil the trials. Jamaat is depicting the trial as a process for eliminating opposition by the government. This version has gained some acceptance from both local supporters and international communities. We cannot perceive how the international community can believe their propaganda.
In the veil of protesting the ICT and its verdicts, Jamaat is organising local and international Islamist terrorist groups to convert Bangladesh into an Islamic republic. They named their cherished country “Banglastan” and showed their dream flag on March 26 in an Independence Day rally. Possible usage of international terrorist groups (that have already showed their support in Bangladesh) will not only ruin the country, but will also destabilise regional and international security mechanisms.
We, common Bangladeshi liberal and progressive citizens, perceive that the international media, human rights organisations, and some foreign governments are echoing Jamaat, which wants to impose a totalitarian form of Islam on everyone.
In one article published in American Thinker, the author said Jamaat had employed US lobbying firm Cassidy & Associates, and has been conducting a publicity campaign in Europe and the US to get one of the accused war criminals facing trials released from jail. Earlier, our law minister told the public that Jamaat engaged a Washington-based lobbying firm for the campaign for $30m.
Progressive Bangladeshis are seeing the impact of millions of dollars worth international campaigns favouring criminals who committed heinous war crimes in collaboration with the Pakistani occupation army in 1971. This week, Pakistan Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said there was no doubt that Abdul Quader Molla was hanged in Bangladesh because of his loyalty and solidarity with Pakistan in 1971.
The trials of war criminals is a long pending issue that burns in the hearts of family members of countless martyrs, rape victims and the nation as a whole since 1971. The ruling party AL included the demand for the trial in its election manifesto of 2008. People responded with enthusiasm.
AL was voted in to power with more than three fourth majorities, and installed the ICT. The world saw millions of people gathering at Shahbagh, demanding the trial of war criminals. We believe that the completion of the trials and the uprooting of terrorists from Bangladesh will bring stable democracy and sustainable secularism that most Bangladeshi people are pursuing. Bangladesh possesses thousands of years of secular heritage, and does not belong to extremists.
We expect that the US Senate would understand Bangladeshi politics from a liberal and progressive perspective, and take decisions accordingly.