Ever since the 3rd U.N. General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide on December 9, 1948, international law has faced a paradox. The international community resolved to make the systematic annihilation of populations a universal jurisdiction crime with no statute of limitations. But by protecting some groups and excluding others such as political, gender and sexual identity groups from its protection, it created a legal instrument that has proved to be almost useless given that …

KARACHI, April 18: Secularism is not against religion; it is the message of humanity.
This was the gist of the speeches delivered by eminent speakers at the launch of the Pakistan chapter of the Forum of Secular Bangladesh and Trial of War Criminals of 1971 at the Karachi Press Club on Wednesday.
Prior to the launch, a documentary Portraits of Jihad directed by distinguished Bangladeshi filmmaker Shahriar Kabir was screened. The subject of the film was the spread of religious fundamentalism in Bangladesh. It gave a detailed …

THE dates are muddled and my memories of the place are at times vague and confused, but a lifetime ago, my family and I lived in East Pakistan. I went to school there, learned about life from wise teachers, made wonderful friends and wallowed in the languid beauty of a truly golden land.
It was a privileged existence. We were in Dhaka for about three to four years and I loved every minute of it. I delighted in the magic of the city, the mysterious …

[President Paul Kagame of Rwanda speaking at the anniversary commemoration of the 1994 genocide.(File Photo) (Photo Courtesy Government of Rwanda)]
Police in Brussels have arrested a Rwandan opposition politician, Boniface Rutayisire, who on Saturday April 7, tried to protest against the 1994 Genocide against Tutsis in the middle of a busy suburb of Brussels, Belgium.
Rutayisire was taken in on charges of disturbing public order, on the same day when more than 700 people took part in events organised by the Rwandan embassy in Brussels to commemorate the slaughter of Tutsis.
Reports say …

[Sarajevo]
Between them, the journalists gathering this week in the Bosnian capital for the 20th anniversary of the start of the siege have covered dozens of conflicts: Afghanistan. Beirut. Chechnya. Iraq.
But amid the drinks and chatter of a correspondents’ reunion at the city’s Holiday Inn — which served as the main base for foreign journalists covering the war — it soon becomes clear that there is only one Sarajevo. It’s a war that schooled an entire generation of reporters on the best and worst that humanity had to offer, the power …

Dana Rohrabacher, a Republican, represents California’s 46th District in the U.S. House.
There has been quite a stir since I introduced a resolution this year calling for recognition of the right to self-determination by the people of Baluchistan. I drafted the measure after a Feb. 8 hearing by the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on oversight and investigations that exposed horrific violations of human rights by Pakistan security forces in Baluchistan. The U.S. State Department, Amnesty International and other human rights groups have verified and denounced …

In December 2010, I participated in a conference in Paris entitled, “Cambodge, Le Génocide Effacé.” Cambodia, The Genocide Effaced. The metaphor here is powerful and operates on several levels, ones that take us from the act itself to the ways we think about genocide, including the origin of the term and the work of the man who coined it, Raphael Lemkin.
Upon a first glance, the conference title invokes the obvious violence of genocide as an attempt to “expunge,” “erase,” or “obliterate” a group …

Pakistanis specially journalists welcomed Bangladesh’s initiatives to try 1971 war criminals and urged their government to seek formal apology for their misdeeds.
Three Pakistani journalists and an NGO activist hold the same opinion in exclusive interviews with the news agency on the sidelines of an international conference held in Sri Lanka recently.
“We still feel sorry for the misdeeds of Pakistani forces in 1971,” said Saleem Saikh, a senior journalist of widely circulated newspaper Dawn.
He said a formal apology by the Pakistan government for misdeeds in 1971 could smoothen the way for …

The war of liberation of Bangladesh lasted less than nine months, but for those who were impacted by the devastation to lives and property, each month counted as a year. From its beginning in March 26 to December 16 when it ended each Month brought to the people of Bangladesh (then East Pakistan) sufferings of a differing kind. The first three months were spent by the Army in consolidating its hold over the country; the next three months were spent in spreading canards and lies about the mass killing and …

A supreme sacrifice writ in blood
Tonight we remember a night which came steeped in murder and mayhem forty one years ago in this land. On this night in March 1971, the Pakistan army launched Operation Searchlight to put an end to the democratic aspirations of the people of Bangladesh. Despite the rising demand for a transfer of power to the elected representatives of the people, despite the concerted civil disobedience movement launched by Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman at the beginning of the month in order for the state of Pakistan …

[The map above shows the number of intellectuals that were martyred in Bangladesh in 1971, most of them on two days: 25 March 1971 and 14 December 1971. Illustration by Zahidul Naim Zakaria. (Source: Victory Day Memento published by the Government of People's Republic of Bangladesh on 16 December 1972)]
It’s been four decades since the blackest of nights. Forty years have passed since the Pakistani occupying forces murdered 989 school and university teachers throughout Bangladesh in an attempt to cripple the country and dampen its spirit of …

ঢাকা: কাশিমপুর কারাগারে ফের অসদাচারণ করেছেন যুদ্ধাপরাধের অভিযোগে আটক বিএনপি নেতা সালাউদ্দিন কাদের চৌধুরী। জেলার ও ডেপুটি জেলারের ওপর চড়াও হয়েছেন তিনি। তাদের অকথ্য ভাষায় গালাগালি করেছেন বলেও বাংলানিউজকে জানিয়েছেন সিনিয়র জেল সুপারিন্টেন্ডেন্ট মো. ফরমান আলী।
তিনি বলেছেন, সাকা চৌধুরী তার আইনজীবী ও ছেলের সঙ্গে দুটি নথি বিনিময় করতে চাইলে জেল কর্তৃপক্ষ তা দেখতে চায়। এতেই চড়াও হন তিনি। আজেবাজে ভাষা ব্যবহার করেন।
ফরমান আলী ঘটনার বর্ণনা দিতে গিয়ে বাংলানিউজকে বলেন, ‘তাকে সব ধরনের সম্মান দেখানো হলেও জেল কর্তৃপক্ষের সঙ্গে তিনি মোটেই স্বাভাবিক ব্যবহার করেন না, সহযোগিতা করেন না। শনিবারেও ঠিক একই …