1.
The International Crimes Tribunals (ICT) of Bangladesh have proceeded a long way. The people of Bangladesh are wholeheartedly waiting for the fair and just trial of the perpetrators of crimes against the humanity, committed during the nine months long liberation war. The perpetrators allegedly did heinous crimes like committing mass massacre, raping of women, and burning down houses with fire, in the name of Islam and Pakistan. In order to reflect the true sentiment of the liberation war, religion-based political organizations were banned according to the constitution of Bangladesh, adopted in 1972. However, they were reinstated by the army-led government after the killing of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the father of the nation. The existence of the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, the major religion-based political party, which led the collaboration with the Pakistani army in perpetrating genocide and other severe crimes, is again at stake. Like a dying beast Jamaat is now trying to deliver a final, lethal counter. This has been made obvious by Numan Azmi, a son of a leading war criminal Ghulam Azam, when he tried to spread propaganda against the ICT using media platforms of Malaysia and some countries of the middle-east. Another attempt was observed when Toby Cadman, an international lawyer and consultant of Jamaat, came to Bangladesh and tried to interfere in the activities of the ICT. Toby was also involved in a press conference in the UK, which aimed at airing wrong information to the world about the ICT. Apart from those individual efforts, the government of Pakistan has also expressed their negative stance concerning the trial of the perpetrators even before the trialstarted . The anti-liberation front including Jamaat has tried to spread the rumor that Saudi Arabia is also not in favor of the trial.All these observations lead our focus to the obvious fact – this is the battle of survival for Jamaat and they are quite desperate in it.
As a survival strategy, Jamaat is in need of some intellectual supports. In Bangladesh the task is performed with devotion by Dr. Asif Nazrul among others. This intellectual wing has been spread in abroad, too. Dr. Ali Alghamdi from Saudi Arabia seems to be one of such intellectuals working for the international propaganda mission of Jamaat.
On may 18, 2012, the Saudi Gazette, a newspaper from Jeddah, has published an open letter written by Dr. Ali Alghamdi addressing Sheikh Hasina, The Prime Minister of Bangladesh. The text of the letter will do nothing but spreading wrong information about the history and creating misconceptions about the trial of war criminals in Bangladesh.
Dr. Alghamdi dedicates the first half of the letter in order to introduce himself and explain his apparently fake love and respect for Bangladesh, Sheikh Mujibur rahman, and Sheikh Hasina. From this part of the letter we come to know that he was in Bangladesh twice as a Saudi diplomat : once in the 1960s being dispatched by the Saudi government to Chittagong in order to issue Hajj visas to Bangladeshi pilgrims, and then again in the 1980s he returned to Bangladesh as a plenipotentiary at the Saudi Embassy in Dhaka. According to the Saudi Gazette, he is a specialist in Southeast Asian affairs. The letter also says that he was the general secretary of the Saudi-Bangladesh Friendship Association.Interestingly, we have found nothing about the activities of such an organization, neither from the web nor from some other sources knowledgeable with Saudi Arabia.After reading the whole letter, if anyone has the notion that this organization has a secret mission of supporting Jamaat, he or she can not be blamed.
This part of the letter also describes Dr. Alghamdi’s evaluation of the activities of Sheikh Hasina during the Ershad regime, and Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding father of Bangladesh. The recurrent use of the word ‘muslim’ is a significant feature of the letter. Besides, Dr. Alghamdi portrays Sheikh hasina as a pious ‘muslim’ woman [1] :
“I still vividly remember the day when opposition leaders were arrested and when policemen approached you to arrest you. You said: “Do not touch me, I’m a Muslim woman.” This incident depicted the fact that you are a God-fearing Muslim woman. Besides, you were always keen to perform Umrah whenever you had a chance.”
This gives us a clear indication of the target audience of the letter and the sentiment Dr.Alghamdi is trying to convince.
The second half of the letter is a set of requests, compiled in five paragraphs, and directed to Sheikh hasina. All these requests also contain a set of lies as their backgrounds, as it will be clarified in details in this article. The pattern of those lies is similar to the typical Jamaat-led propaganda technique in Bangladesh; e.g. pretending to be very polite and confident in their presentation. Since this confident lying combines with the image of Dr. Alghamdi, there remains an acute possibility of spreading wrong information and misconceptions among the reader community of the Saudi Gazette about the ICT and the trial of the perpetrators of one of the worst genocide in the century committed in 1971.
a) In the first ‘request’,Dr. Alghamdi injects some lies about the history under the camouflage of praising Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. He admires Sheikh Mujib for ‘forgiving’ the 195 top Pakistani war criminals [1],
“He issued several laws including the war crimes law by which 195 Pakistani military officers were convicted. The law did not include any Bangladeshi civilian or politician. Besides, the 195 officers were later pardoned, thus your father won the praise and admiration of the entire Muslim world. At the time, he made his famous statement: “I want the world to know that Bangladeshis can forgive and forget.”
However, the fact is that Sheikh Mujib did not forgive the actual criminals. After the surrender of the Pakistani army, a huge number of Bangali collaborators were tried under the Collaborators Act of 1972, a significant number of trials were even finished before Sheikh Mujib was assassinated. According to a speech of the then state minister of Bangladesh Abdul Malek Ukil [2],
“According to the Collaborator Act number of total convicted persons is 37 thousand 4 hundred and 71.Among these people, cases against 2,848 persons have been settled till October of the current year.Among them 752 persons have been convicted and 2096 have been released”
The trial of the 195 Pakistani war criminals was regarded as a matter of top priority for the Bangladesh government. Due to serious diplomatic clash among Bangladesh, Pakistan and India concerning those Pakistani prisoners of war, a tripatriate agreement was signed by those three countries. According to this agreement, the government of Pakistan took the responsibility of arranging the trial of the 195 war criminals . Let us have a look at section 13 of the agreement,
“The question of 195 Pakistani prisoners of war was discussed by the three Ministers in the context of the earnest desire of the Governments for reconciliation, peace and friendship in the sub-continent. The Foreign Minister of Bangladesh stated that the excesses and manifold crimes committed by those prisoners of war constituted, according to the relevant provisions of the UN General Assembly resolutions and international law, war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, and that there was universal consensus that persons charged with such crimes as 195 Pakistani prisoners of war should be held to account and subjected to the due process of law. The Minister of State for Defense and Foreign Affairs of the Government of Pakistan said that his Government condemned and deeply regretted any crimes that may have been committed.“
Please note the underlined part of the agreement, which clearly says that those prisoners are subjected to the due process of law.
Here, Dr. Alghamdi firstly mentions about ‘several laws’,in the next sentence which becomes singular ’law’ . Which law is he talking about that includes no Bangali collaborator? The truth is that both the Collaborators Act of 1972 and the International Crimes Tribunal Act of 1973 are equally applicable for the Pakistani and the Bangali war criminals. It is to be noted that there is no demarcation phrase between Bangali and Pakistani war criminals in the International Crimes Tribunal Act of 1973 [4] .
“A Tribunal shall have the power to try and punish any individual or group of individuals, or any member of any armed, defence or auxiliary forces, irrespective of his nationality, who commits or has committed, in the territory of Bangladesh, whether before or after the commencement of this Act, any of the crimes mentioned in sub-section.”
No one can ignore such obvious and serious mistakes by a self-proclaimed specialist in Southeast Asian affairs.
b) In the second ‘request’ there are two major lies. Dr. Alghamdi says that during Sheikh Mujib’s reign no political leader was arrested for the charge of collaboration. Another lie is about the amnesty of the arrested collaborators [1].
“At the time of your father’s tenure, the government passed a law incriminating those who collaborated with the Pakistani army. Although over 100,000 individuals were arrested, none of them were politicians. Your father decided to pardon and release them. Throughout his tenure, he never leveled charges against any politician. When you became the Prime Minister following the 1996 elections, you did the same. You did not accuse nor did you arrest anyone for war crimes or collaboration with the Pakistani military. You did not do that because your father was decisive about this matter and he pardoned all the individuals involved.”
Actually all kind of collaborators were being brought to trials. Since Dr. Alghamdi talks about political leaders , let us have a look at some news headlines of The Dainik Bangla (translated from Bangla in English) about the trials of political leaders:
“Sabur Khan arrested” (February 24, 1972)
“Speaker Asghar Hossain arrested” (February 29, 1972)
“Charge sheet against Fazlul Qader Chowdhury” (July 7, 1972)
“Trial of Muhammad Fayez Bakhsh, President of the Dhaka City Convention Muslim League” (July 12, 1972)
“Trial of governor Malik and his ministers begins” (September 27, 1972)
“Trial of A. K. M. Yousuf, Jammat-e-Islami leader and minister of the Malik Cabinet” (October 5, 1972)
The trial of Governor Malik
Dr. Alghamdi speaks of the general amnesty for the collaborators. Let us check who were eligible for the amnesty [5],
“PERSONS NOT COVERED
The clemency granted under para 1 shall not extend to persons,who under the aforesaid order are convicted for or charged with or alleged to have committed any offense under section 302(murder),section 304(culpable homicide not amounting to murder),section 376(rape),section 435(mischief by fire or explosive),section 436(mischief by fire of explosive substance with intent to destroy house),and section 438(mischief by fire of explosive substance to any vessel), of the penal code.”
Here, the eligibility of amnesty is clearly specified . The war criminals whose trials are going on are all charged with the offences described here. It is obvious that Dr. Alghamdi’s claim of no charge against politicians and pardoning ‘all’ the individuals is a blatant lie.
The procedures to be considered for the amnesty was also specified in a press note issued by The Government of Bangladesh on November 30, 1973 [6],
“According to this act all warrants, summons or any notice served against him to crock his assets will be withdrawn. In that case the persons have to be free from other cases. If any proceedings are completed in absence of the persons and if he remains still absent, he will be freed from jail only when he surrenders and beg mercy and declares his loyalty, only then this general mercy will be eligible for him.“
The war criminals who are currently being tried by ICTs did not care for these procedures . Rather Ghulam Azam and some other collaborators fled as we see from the news of The Dainik Bangla on 10 February, 1973.
After the declaration of the general amnesty , about nine thousand collaborators were in custody . The trials continued till the assassination of Sheikh Mujib on August 15, 1975.Some news headlines from The Dainik Ittefaq will prove this :
“Two Al-badars sentenced to life” (December 5, 1973),
“14 collaborator sentenced to death in Barisal” (Aprli 2, 1974),
” 2 collaborator sentenced to life” (April 20, 1975)
Dr. Alghamdi lies as he says that the collaborators were released. More than 20 collaborators were sentenced to death, many were sentenced to imprisonment for different durations. Dr. Alghamdi speaks of political leaders; in the following we present a number of news headlines regarding their trials and imprisonments:
“PDP leader Nurul Amin sentenced for collaboration” (Bangla, July 5, 1972)
“Jasimuddin, minister of aggressor’s reign, sentenced to life” (Ittefaq,November 26, 1972)
“Jamaat-e-Islami leader Maolana Yousuf sentenced to life” (Ittefaq,December 5, 1972)
“Solayman sentenced to life in Khulna” (ttefaq,December 23, 1972)
c) In the third ‘request’ Dr. Alghamdi expresses his dissatisfaction at Sheikh Hasina’s attempt to reject her father’s wise decision. He is not happy that Sheikh Hasina has brought the issue of the war criminals in light agains [1] ,
“Everyone was surprised when the wise decisions taken by your father were annulled and the issue of war crimes surfaced again. Some consider the revocation of these decisions as disrespect to your father, which is an unacceptable matter. Among those who opposed such revocation was the opposition party and your former government.”
The discussion we’ve made so far in relation to his fisrt and second request is enough to prove that the on-trial war criminals were not eligible for the amnesty declared by the Sheikh Mujib government. The current Bangladesh government, led by the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is not trying those that were released according to the amnesty, it can rather be viewed as a continuation of the trial started then. Dr. Alghamdi should have accepted and respected the matter as it truly is than making wrong claims.
d) In the fourth request Dr. Alghamdi becomes quite aggressive, takes a clearly negative stance concerning the trial of war criminals and shows the audacity of threatening Sheikh Hasina by reminding her that this will not be good for Bangladesh [1] ,
“Nothing can justify the unjust decision to arrest Muslim leaders who were not arrested during your father’s tenure and yours as well. This decision does not bring any good to the country; on the contrary, it divides people and stirs up trouble, a matter which has direct detrimental consequences to you as the leader of the world’s third largest Muslim country. As someone who loves Bangladesh and its people, I would like to say that many Muslim leaders all over the Muslim world are upset about the arrest of Muslim groups and leaders such as Professor Ghulam Azam who was accused of charges that no one would believe. He was charged with things that were done 40 years ago. He was not charged with them at the time.”
Dr. Alghamdi must not forget that there are plenty of evidences against the on-trial war criminals. Two tribunals, following all international norms standard, are doing their job. After the whole process is finished the tribunals will decide whether they are guilty or not. Dr. Alghamdi does not possess any authority to term the decision of the tribunals as ‘unjust’? This is nothing but an attack to the judicial system of a sovereign country. He claims that these so called Muslim leaders were not arrested during the reign of Sheikh Mujib. But he hides the fact that alleged war criminals like Ghulam Azam fled the country to avoid such arrests. He also claims that no one will ‘believe’ the charges against Ghulam Azam. This sounds like he has carried a survey all over the world and got the opinion of seven billion people! It is not a matter of believing or disbelieving, it is a matter of checking things against the facts. He expresses his so called love for Bangladesh and its people; but it was always absent, his voice was always silent when 3 million of Bangladeshis were massacred. His mighty pen did not write a single word when the media of his country was spreading propagandas against the liberation war of Bangladesh. He kept his complete silence when his government agreed with 21 other nations to support and help Pakistan for continuing genocide in Bangladesh. And now that the Bangladesh government is trying to ensure the justice, he has raised his voice for the alleged war criminals.
Dr. Alghamdi should be aware that people of Bangladesh do not fear such threats. 41 years ago Bangladesh became independent fighting against all the odds. People like him were supporting the enemies of Bangladesh then and after 41 years we don’t expect better from them. And if he says that 41 years is too late, he should remember that crimes against the humanity, war crimes and crimes of genocide never get time barred. The main concern is to ensure the justice, it does not matter how many years have been passed after the crime was committed.
e) In the fifth ‘request’ Dr. Alghamdi asks Sheikh Hasina to reconsider the decision of arresting the war criminals. He ends the letter with a direct request to release them [1],
“I hope that you will reconsider the decision of arresting those Muslim groups and leaders without justification for such arrests. For the sake of your father who did not arrest anyone on similar charges at the time, please order the release of those arrested as such a decision will win you people’s appreciation and will be a way of showing your deep love for your late father.”
It becomes completely absurd when he tells Sheikh Hasina that releasing those war criminals will help her winning people’s appreciation. Dr. Alghamdi again makes some severe mistakes. Firstly releasing the war criminals will not increase Sheikh Hasina’s popularity, rather it will doom her political career, because this has been the demand of Bangladeshi people. They have elected Awami League to the power on the basis of their promise of trying the war criminals (according to their election manifesto). If Sheikh Hasina takes such illogical actions like releasing the alleged war criminals, people will teach her a good lesson in the next election.
Secondly, who are those so called ‘muslim’ leaders? Is Dr. Alghamdi talking about the Jamaat leaders? For his kind information, not all on trial war criminals are Jamaat leaders. Among the arrested criminals on-trial there are people who are not involved in religion-based politics. For example, there are BNP leaders like Salahuddin Qader Chowdhury and Abdul Aleem. These people are arrested because of the allegation of war crimes; not because of their involvements in some particular groups and leaderships.
Thirdly, in a modern, civilized world the crime of genocide, war crimes and crimes against the humanity are not confined to any boundary of time or place. Every nation has the responsibility to bring the perpetrators of such crimes tojustice. Bangladesh is just doing that, nothing more. In the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide [7] it is clearly stated that,
“Persons committing genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in Article 3 shall be punished, whether they are constitutionally responsible rulers, public officials or private individuals.”
The crimes we are talking about are considered to be a severe threat to the mankind. And therefore, every nation is bound to protect its people from such threats. Ending impunity for those crimes is a mandatory responsibility for each nation of the world.In this context,we can recall the Rome Statute which clearly declares [8] that it is the duty of every State to exercise its criminal jurisdiction over those responsible for international crimes.Since Bangladesh has ratified the Rome Statute,there could be no second choice.
We must not forget what the United Nations says about the prosecution of the perpetrators of such crimes [9],
“Put an end to impunity, prosecute those responsible for genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes, and exclude, where feasible, these crimes from amnesty provisions and amnesty mechanisms are established, serious abuses involving children are addressed and that appropriate child-sensitive procedures are provided .”
Therefore, it is obvious that for sustainable peace and a world free of violence, Bangladesh has the important responsibility to bring the perpetrators of genocide and crimes against the humanity to justice. Dr. Alghamdi’s requests are not worthy to be honored.
Fourthly, Sheikh Hasina is not the authority to try the war criminals, she is not arresting them. All these are done under the invigilation of the ICT . Therefore, such interference of Dr. Alghamdi does not make any sense.
4.
It is not trustworthy that a person like Dr. Ali Alghamdi who has been in Bangladesh for a long time does not know the history of war crimes committed in Bangladesh. Moreover, he has specialized in the Southeast Asian affairs. Such amateur lies from him are no mystery. There may be only one reason behind all these – Dr. Alghamdi is lying in a pre-planned way, he has the secret mission of spreading propaganda and creating misconceptions about the trial of war criminals in Bangladesh. However, we are concerned with the combination of the image of Dr. Alghamdi and the role of the media platform he is using. The Saudi Gazette is one of the leading newspapers in Saudi Arabia. Before Dr. Alghamdi, this newspaper published another editorial demanding the release of war criminals. Therefore, there is a possibility that this type of lying will create negative notions about Bangladesh among the people of Saudi Arabia; and this world-wide propaganda will harm the swift advancement of the international Crimes Tribunal. Thus, all these write-ups will only be used in favor of the war criminals. All these incidents tell us how strongly and desperately the war criminals are operating their propaganda mission.
The government of Bangladesh must be more careful to resist such propagandas. Otherwise the perpetrators of one of the worst genocides of the history will remain unpunished.
References :
1. Letter to Sheikh Hasina – Dr. Ali Alghamdi,Saudi Gazette,May 18,2012.
2. Dainik Ittefaq, December 3, 1973.
3. Para 13,Bangladesh-Pakistan-India Tri-patriate Agreement,April 9,1974 .
4. Section 3(1),International Crimes Tribunal Act,1973.
5. The Act of Clemency, issued on November 30,1973.
6. Dainik Bangla,December 1,1973.
7. Article 6,Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide,signed on December 9,1948.
8. Preamble,Rome Statute,adopted on 17 July 1998.
9. Para 23, ‘A world fit for children ‘, adopted as a resolution by United Nations at the 6th plenary meeting on May 10,2002.
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Here is an abridged copy of an email sent to this liar, propagandist, supporter of rape, terrorism and war crimes. Can as many people email this disgusting little individual and also politely request the Saudi government, which is an official ally of Bangladesh and has helped us in many ways, to remove this character from any official position whereby he can lie to Saudi policy-makers and harm Bangladesh.
Can people also write emails of complaint to the Saudi Gazette which regularly publishes this propagandists lies and his virtual war against Bangladesh:
Abridged email:
1. You are a supporter of terrorism and war crimes.
2. You are an enemy of Muslims and Bangladesh.
3. Your regime harasses Muslims of Bangladeshi origin in the Hejaz and Najd, so-called
“Saudi Arabia” as soft pressure on the government of Bangladesh whenever there is an Awami
League government in power.
This is despite the fact that this same government will issue statements of support when Iranian-backed Houthi attack your regime.
This is clear bullying of Bangladesh when even the Awami League government presents no
threat or problems to your regime. Nor does even the Awami League enact the kind of secularism that we see in your ally, Turkey.
– Bangladesh has Quranic-based inheritance laws.
– Bangladesh has Quranic-based family laws.
– Islam is the official state religion
– Muslim women can freely wear Hijab (unlike Saudi ally Turkey)
This is bullying of a country merely because the incumbent political party which it votes in is not to the liking of a particular regime, i.e. your regime.
….
5. You are a bully, a thug, a supporter of war criminals and a supporter of terrorists who raped Muslim women, murdered Muslim women and children in Bengal in 1971.
However Allah will teach you and your beloved Pakistan and Jamat e Islami a lesson.
Do not – and I repeat do not – ever involve yourself in the internal politics of our country again, and do not ever incite Saudi rulers to harass Bangladesh or Bangladeshi workers ever again. There will be severe consequences on you if you ever do this again.
I personally am making strong du’a against a terrorist supporter, war criminal supporter, bully and thug like you to stop your personal war against Bangladesh.
THERE IS NO DIETY EXCEPT ALLAH AND MUHAMMAD (SOLLALAHU ‘ALAIHI WA SALLAM) IS THE MESSENGER OF ALLAH
Please email: algham@hotmail.com
That is the war crimes supporter’s email.
Please email the Saudi foreign office with polite emails detailing his misinformation, lies and how supporting Jamaati war criminals will harm Saudi-BD ties:
http://www.mofa.gov.sa/sites/mofaen/MAINCONTACTUS/Pages/ContactGeneral.aspx
Thank you.
Ali-Al Ghamdi will not win in his war against Bangladesh.
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