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HAF Praises Bangladesh for War-Crimes Tribunal
Washington, D.C. (August 19, 2010) - The Hindu American Foundation (HAF) commended the Awami League-led Bangladesh government for setting up an International Crimes Tribunal in an attempt to bring justice to the nearly three million people killed, the majority of them Hindu, during Bangladesh’s struggle for independence in 1971. The tribunal, set up in March this year, has indicted four members of the country's main Islamist party, the Jamaat-e-Islami, on suspicion of committing mass atrocities in one of the bloodiest, but almost ignored, twentieth century purges and genocides. Of the four indicted, authorities last week arrested Party president Maulana Motiur Rahman Nizami and his deputy Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid, who have been remanded into custody.
Hindus constituted nearly 30% of Bangladesh’s population in 1947, but by 1991, it was evident that nearly 20 million Hindus were “missing” from Bangladesh, according to the Foundation’s Hindu human rights report, Hindus in South Asia and the Diaspora: A Survey of Human Rights. Currently, Hindus comprise less than 10% of the population, and they continue to face a litany of human rights violations on a daily basis.
“Atrocities against Hindus have historically been ignored or downplayed, and the genocide in 1971 has almost been forgotten by the world community. To this day Hindus are targets for abuse -- rape, murder, and abduction -- by radical Islamists in Bangladesh,” said Prof. Ramesh Rao, HAF’s Human Rights Coordinator. “The UN tribunal is a critical first step in bringing justice for the families who suffered in the genocide, and will serve as a clarion call to the Government of Bangladesh to improve its human rights record overall ensuring that the mass atrocities we saw as recently as three years ago will never recur.”
HAF’s 2009 report indicated sixty-seven acts of murder, rape, kidnappings, temple destruction and land grabs targeting Hindus in that year alone.
“HAF urges the central government to bring about political and social harmony in Bangladesh by recognizing these atrocities and punishing the responsible parties,” said Prof. Rao.