Confiscate properties of war criminals

An anti-war crimes platform yesterday called for confiscation of all properties of the convicted war criminals and distribution of the wealth among the families of insolvent freedom fighters and rape victims of the 1971 Liberation War.

Ekatturer Ghatak Dalal Nirmul Committee said that for this, the government had to enact a law like the "War Victims Compensation Act of Zimbabwe".

Addressing a press briefing at Dhaka Reporters Unity, the committee leaders said the government should try political parties and forces involved in war crimes and confiscate their properties, too.

"It is a shame for the nation that those who committed war crimes amassed wealth at home and abroad, while the children of freedom fighters did not get due education," said Shyamoli Nasrin Chowdhury, widow of martyred intellectual Dr Alim Chowdhury.

Acting president of the committee, Shahriar Kabir, said the properties of Jamaat-e-Islami including its business firms, factories, NGOs, and educational and social institutions should come under the government's control.

"These institutions have to give compensation as well," he said in a written statement.

Condemning Pakistan for expressing concern at the execution of war criminals, he said the government should launch diplomatic procedure to get due compensation from Pakistan.

Former justice Syed Amirul Islam, an adviser of the committee, said it was possible to confiscate the properties of the convicts through legal procedure. He said so far people only demanded the capital punishment for war criminals but "it never came to our mind that demanding compensation could be another issue. But better late than never."

Prof Muntasir Mamun, vice-president of the committee, said human rights organisations often talked about the basic rights of individuals, not about the rights of the martyrs and tortured. They have the rights as well, and it is the state's duty to compensate them, he said. "Our demands come from that point of view."

Sculptor Ferdousi Priyabhashini, Canada-based attorney William Sloan, and former Supreme Court judge AHM Shamsuddin Choudhury Manik also spoke.