Genocide Day
Following the Cabinet approval of the parliament's resolution to recognise March 25 as Genocide Day, today marks the first time following our Liberation War that we officially commemorate the brutal crimes against humanity that were perpetrated by Pakistani forces and their local collaborators in 1971. It is a much-welcome decision, especially given that steps are already underway to seek international recognition of the crimes against humanity as a genocide.
It is important to remember that genocide does not involve only those who were directly killed by the Pakistani forces, but also the deaths of those who had been displaced by the war.
The UN definition of a genocide states that it constitutes acts "committed with intent to destroy ... a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: killing members of the group; . . . [and] deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction". That the Hindu minority and the Bengali community of the then East Pakistani as a whole were systematically targeted for annihilation, sexual violence was used as an instrument of war, and that millions of refugees were displaced testify to the just demand for international recognition, and thereby justice.
We feel this is also the time when research work on 1971 including the documentation of the atrocities is crucial. To preserve history, to remind the world of the horrors of war, and also to submit before international bodies our justification for recognition, the state and academia need to act in cooperation. Thinking of all such in the world who are victims of crimes against humanity today, let us commemorate this day not in the spirit of vengeance, but to portray the dangers such acts against humanity constitute, and in hope that what was done to us is not repeated anywhere in the world again.
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