Final face of BNP on war crimes trial?

ON December 4, the BNP came up with its latest position on the government initiative to hold the trial of war criminals. Over the last many months different BNP leaders came up with different positions vis-à-vis the proposed trials. On April 2, 2010, BNP said: "The government has stepped away from the trials of war criminals and now they are holding the trials for crimes against humanity, deviating from the election manifesto." On October 5, 2010, the BNP chairperson called the trial "a conspiracy to throw the nation into chaos in the name of war crimes trial four decades after the general amnesty to the collaborators."
To make its final (so far) position clear BNP called a press conference, incidental or pre-preplanned is better known to them, in the month of December itself, when pains of our wounds and joys of our victory are revisited with solemn pledge to fulfill the dreams of martyrs and living heroes of our great liberation war.
At the press conference, a BNP standing committee member made no bones about BNP's position vis-à-vis the ongoing trial process, the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) Act and the composition of the tribunal, and demanded that the government immediately stop the proceedings of the war crimes tribunal. The party also called on the international community "to put pressure on the government to fulfill the commitments Bangladesh had made through signing international covenants on crimes against humanity." It concluded: "The BNP has no confidence in this tribunal. It believes that in the existing legal structure, the tribunal is nothing but a servile, rubber-stamp organisation."
BNP's statements are simply intolerable for anyone who has the slightest respect and gratitude for those who have laid down their lives for freedom. BNP used lies, distortion and deception, the party's forte, and quoted someone (Stephen Rapp) whose nation is not the best role model for upholding human rights in trying war criminals to make its case.
In my limited research I have not come across any war crimes tribunal whose proceedings are so transparent and where the defendants are given VIP treatment. Does the BNP leader know how a 17-year old by the name of Omar Khadr, a Canadian citizen, has been tried in Guantanamo bay for his alleged killing of a US soldier in the battlefield (war crime!) in Afghanistan? The US military used bone-chilling torture techniques.
He was not even allowed to hire a Canadian lawyer. Which judicial tribunal killed Bin Laden and Anwar al-Awlaki (a US citizen), both of them unarmed civilians? Telecasting of a court proceeding is solely a matter for the concerned court to decide. Does the US telecast any of the proceedings of the so-called war crimes tribunal of Guantanamo bay? Yet, the BNP leader found it appropriate to quote Stephen Rapp whose country's president signed a law that allows the president to "identify and arrest members of al-Qaeda, 'associated forces' and those who 'substantially supported' them to hold them indefinitely without charge or trial."
The BNP leader's attempt to find flaws with the ICT while terming its proceedings as "farcical activities," either reflects his self-purported ignorance of the law or is an ill-motivated attempt to mislead the public. In fact, to maintain international standard and to meet the pre-requisite of being a signatory to the Rome Statute, the Bangladesh cabinet, upon recommendation of the Law Commission, approved the International Crimes Tribunal (Amendment) 2009 on July 6, 2009, aiming to try those involved in acts against humanity during the 1971 liberation war.
It is a matter of great pride for Bangladesh that, according to a press release from the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague on March 24, 2010, "Bangladesh has become the first South Asian country to ratify the pact that established the ICC and gave it a mandate for trying people accused of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes."
The justices those who are presiding over the trials were justices of the highest court of the land. So far, their rulings have not corroborated BNP's allegation that they are partisan.
In spite of the propaganda campaign initiated by BNP-Jamaat duo to sway international opinion in their favour, very few organisations that are genuine human rights watchdogs found any flaws in the ICT and its proceedings. The Amnesty International (AI), reading through a few of my pieces on this issue in The Daily Star, wrote to me (October 20, 2010): "Amnesty International (AI) has for years been calling for an investigation of the human rights violations committed during the 1971 Bangladesh war of independence, and for those responsible to be brought to justice." AI asked for a few clarifications and documents, which I gave to circumvent BNP's falsehood that "Bangabandhu declared general amnesty to all collaborators."
By demanding the abolishing of the trial process BNP has lost its moral right to pay homage at the victory mausoleum and the monument for the martyred intellectuals. To make the mockery even more wounding, BNP arranged a reception for freedom fighters. It was surprising to see a few non-BNP freedom fighters attending the so-called reception, without questioning the BNP's stance on war crimes trials declared only two weeks ago. These are the personalities who befittingly joined the freedom movement, not because of any circumstances, even though they never believed in AL politics. Likewise, this time around as well, maybe they are distraught by AL's governance and politics.
The trial of war criminals is an issue not only for AL but, just like the freedom struggle, is also dear to the heart of the whole nation. At this crossroad, it is imperative that the force of law, and the force of the masses join together to thwart any conspiracy against the nation's resolve to finish the unfinished task of erasing, once for all, the perfidious mark from our history.
The writer is the Convenor of the Canadian Committee for Human Rights and Democracy in Bangladesh