You saw Bangladesh at birth. How did it make you feel to see a country start from scratch? Also, you had the opportunity to meet Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. How was that experience?
I knew the Muktibahini well enough to know that it would be a Muslim majority country, but Muslim matching with democracy. This I understood very soon. At that time there was not yet the problem of radical Islam, jihad and so on. But I understood it would be very different from Pakistan, which, even then, had this idea of being the pure Islamic country.
In Bangladesh it was quite a different situation. I met so many people who were vibrant worshippers of Islam yet they welcomed me even though they knew that I was French and Jew. So when East Pakistan became independent, I thought it could be a sort of model for the Islamic world.
I met Mujib several times. He was a wise man, a democrat, and incredibly open-minded. A new state whose leader was such a man -- for me it was a great adventure. It was a blessing for the world. I saw the birth of Bangladesh as a blessing for the area, as a blessing for the Muslim world, and as a blessing for the whole world.
What do you think about Bangladesh now?
You see the Muslim world boiling with bad tendencies: fundamentalism, jihad, radicalism, and so on. And you see Bangladesh as a place of resistance against that. Bangladesh is practicing and pleading for and offering the example of another Islam: open, moderate, democratic.
What aspects of Bangladesh’s Liberation War did you find to be most significant?
Everyone thinks that the Indian army did the job and saved Bangladesh, which is partly true. The Indians were great and their intervention stopped the war. But the Muktibahini did a big part of the job themselves.
I remember some cities of what was then called East Pakistan when Pakistani soldiers (from Islamabad) remained in their barracks. It was because they were afraid of the Muktibahini.
The Muktibahini were very strong. There was very precise remembrance of cities and villages before the intervention of Indian army when the Muktibahini had to control on the ground.
And the Pakistanis were already showing a difference in attitude. This is why the final push by the Indians worked so quickly and the act of rendition of the Pakistanis happened easily.
As you know, in Dhaka, there were ten times more Pakistanis than Indians. Pakistanis were stronger. Then why did they surrender when they were stronger?
They did so because they knew they had already lost, because they knew they could not prevail against the Muktibahini.
The ratio of Indians to Pakistanis was one to ten -- for one Indian there were 10 Pakistanis. So there was a huge imbalance. But they knew they had lost on the ground since probably November.
What role did writers like Andre Malraux play to create a context in the early 1970s France in which young activists like you travelled to faraway parts of the world to ensure justice for a people?
The one who has to be given credit for attracting attention of the whole world about Bangladesh was Malraux. He made a statement on French radio and it was like a thunderstorm.
Before that I knew something tragic was happening in Bangladesh but not so well. I knew about Biafra in Nigeria but Bangladesh was no big news. Malraux transformed it into a big world issue. Malraux put the finger on the fact that crimes against humanity were committed here and that all humanity should feel concerned.
In your long career, whenever crimes against humanity were committed in a country or region, you rushed over there and tried to bring it to the attention of the international community. I believe you’ve heard of the Rohingya who have been subjected to torture and brutal repression. Have you had anything in mind about them yet?
No, but I took the decision to go there. I go day after tomorrow. I’ll spend two or three days there, to understand the situation, and to try to evaluate what can be done. You know I never have the solution before I see things with my own eyes. So I’ll be there with my friends who are great professionals of French TV.
