Int'l Crimes (Tribunal) Act only mode to try 'Razakars, Al Badrs'

---

Leading jurists said Tuesday International Crimes (Tribunal) Act 1973 was the only mode to expose to justice the "Razakars and Al Badrs" for their 1971 crimes against humanity as auxiliary forces of the Pakistani occupation army, reports BSS.
"The law devised ways particularly to expose the auxiliary forces of the Pakistani troops to justice for crimes against humanity and peace following the examples of the Nuremburg and other trial methods," senior Supreme Court lawyer Dr M Zahir told the news agency.
He added that those who framed the law after the independence had designed it to try the Bangla-speaking perpetrators of the crimes like massacre, rape and arson as members of the "auxiliary forces" though it did not mention directly the names of Razakar, Al Badr or Al Shams.
"There is no scope of contradiction regarding the trial mode," Zahir said.
His comments came as main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) questioned the mode of trial saying government should hold the trial under the existing laws of the land like Penal Code and Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC).
BNP secretary general Khondkar Delwar Hossain recently told a press briefing: "There is no need for constituting special court or tribunal or any investigation team for this. . . . These will not be acceptable in the eyes of law."
Legal expert Dr Shahdin Malik echoed Zahir saying Khondkar Delwar's comments were the outcome of "sheer confusion" as the International Crimes (Tribunal) Act 1973 designed to stage the trial of perpetrators of crimes by "organised forces" and the law was also protected by the constitution, meaning it could not be challenged in the Supreme Court either.
"If someone believes the crimes like large scale and indiscriminate killings were ordinary crimes he may think the offenders can be tried under the ordinary law . . . but these were carried out with a political reason and by organised forces," Malik said.
These factors, he said, required the trial to be staged under the special law as it was "very difficult" to hold it under the ordinary law as it demanded finer evidence like autopsy reports, doctors comments and other such things which were irrelevant to cases like massacres.
"Everywhere in the world, the trial of the war criminals or perpetrators of such crimes against humanity are held under the special laws like International Crimes Tribunal Act," he said.
Malik ruled out possibilities that the law and the trial would frustrate the "spirit of justice" saying in normal cases, the accused were tried in a lower court and get one chance to file an appeal against his conviction while under the International Crimes Tribunal Act, High Court level judges would try the suspects while the convicts could go to the apex Appellate Division against the judgments.
Malik, however, said against the backdrop of the existing reality, it might appear to be a little difficult to try a large number of suspects under the law for their crimes they had committed nearly 40 years ago "for want of necessary evidence".
Asked how far he was hopeful about the effectiveness of the trial process, Dr Zahir said, "I don't want to speculate, but the expected outcome will definitely depend on the efficiency of the investigators and the prosecutors."
The United Nations (UN) last week offered technical assistance to stage a planned trial of "crimes against humanity" as the process was underway to expose the Bangla-speaking perpetrators of war crimes as Law Minister Shafique Ahmed had said measures were taken to make the trial "transparent and internationally acceptable".