Distortion of History Is a Crime

 

Genocide specialist Jerry Costello has said, “Genocide is the most potent of all crimes against humanity because it is an effort to systematically wipe out a people and a culture as well as individual lives.” It is emboldening that almost after 46 years of our independence in 2017, Bangladesh’s parliament passed a proposal for a new law to punish those who distort the history of genocide and Liberation War of Bangladesh. It is also staggeringly goodness to get a line that the Law Ministry already drafted a bill titled 'Bangladesher Muktijuddher Itihas Bikritikoron Oporadh Ain' to check distortion of the history of the 1971 Liberation War.

Some countries, including Cyprus have adopted laws that punish genocide denial. In October 2006, the French National Assembly approved the Armenian Genocide denial a crime. On December 22, 2011, the lower house of the French legislature approved a bill making it a crime punishable by a year in prison to publicly deny as genocide the killing of Armenians by troops of Turkey's former Ottoman Empire. On January 23, 2012, the French Senate adopted the law criminalizing genocide denial. In 2016 the French Parliament completely adopted the new bill criminalizing the Armenian Genocide denial. Besides that, many more countries in the world do have Holocaust denial law.

Bangladesh government has declared March 25 Genocide Day. What we need now is a law for punishing manipulators of genocide and Liberation War history. From the Law Minister’s statement, it is understood that a draft law is designed to punish the guilty of defaming and distorting the history of genocide and the Bangladesh’s Liberation War of 1971. We wish to echo the words of Jon Corzine, “Never again is the rallying cry for all who believe that mankind must speak out against genocide and who distort the history of genocide.”

The systematic mass killings in Bangladesh in 1971 can be classified as genocide. The genocide started with Operation Searchlight, a planned military pacification carried out by the West Pakistani Army on 25 March 1971 to curb the Bengali nationalist movement by taking control of the major cities and then eliminating all opposition, political or military. Major human right abuses and killings were a sad reality of the crisis; those killed included all segments of people. The international media and English reference books have published casualty figures to the tune of 3 million, in addition to those who fled the country totaling more than 10 million as a result of Pakistani government brutality. This act of genocide is officially termed “human rights abuses” by the Bangladesh authorities.

The original purpose of the 1948 “UN Convention on the Prevention of the Crime of Genocide” was to prevent recurrences of some of the most grievous acts committed by mankind against his fellow man. The armed forces of Pakistan have been condemned for committing genocide against our people during the 1971 war. The collective shame of this period due to the extensive acts of sexual genocide still permeates the memory. Notorious places such as the Killing Fields must be turned into memorials to commemorate the suffering of Bangladesh’s people. What is particularly notable is that the civilian death toll is one of the highest since World War Two.

The Bangladesh massacre is, to this day, seen as one of the greatest failures of the United Nations to recognise. But “Freedom is the open window through which pours the sunlight of the human spirit and human dignity” has been correctly spelt out by Herbert Hoover.

The practice of carrying out summary executions has been routinely compounded using torture by those hyenas. Torture was used to extract information, but it was also employed as a punishment and as a deterrent to others. Such killings are only one element in the pattern of direct and indiscriminate attacks against the civilian population in which all sides have regularly engaged. The result of these attacks, which have been little reported even in the press, has been hundreds of thousands of internally displaced people both in areas controlled by the guerrillas and areas controlled by the Pakistani soldiers and the paramilitaries.

This toll of internally displaced may be the most catastrophic human effect of all the Bangladesh 1971 war with the PakistaniMilitary Junta. Even less noted has been the environmental disaster the fighting has caused. The triumph of a murderous criminality, has led to a fundamental undercutting of the very bases of humanitarian law.

Genocide is intentional action to destroy a people (usually defined as an ethnic, national, racial, or religious group) in whole or in part. The word "genocide" is a combination of the Greek word génos ("race, people") and the Latin suffix -cide ("act of killing"). The United Nations Genocide Convention, which was established in 1948, defines genocide as "acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group". The first part of the word 'Holo' means whole, and the second part of the word 'causton' means burnt, so the word 'Holocaust' means 'totally burnt'.

Charging genocide is thus claiming great victimization that confers amoral authority on the victims to be heard and to demand change. Also, it is a powerful indictment of a group that it is committing, or standing by in the face of, mass violence. In the area of law making at least two basic policy changes are called for. These changes are aimed at curbing the escalation of the war on crime in general and to lawfully punish those criminals who dare to deny the 1971 mass killing and similar other grievous crimes.

In the area of law enforcement at least three policy-related changes are called for. These changes are aimed at curbing aggressive policing and strengthening the rule of law. These policies are also supportive of enhanced police-community involvement, especially in-marginalized people. The types of policies that are needed include de-escalation, reaffirmation, and enrichment. The Holocaust was a specific event in 20th century history: the intentional systematic annihilation of 3 million Bangladesh’s people by the Pakistanis and their collaborators.

The 1971 Holocaust in Bangladesh is an extreme form of genocide. Genocide is the planned attempt to physically kill every single member of the targeted ethnic, national or racial group. In history, we call those who do wrong or commit a crime, perpetrators. So, in this case, the Pakistanis and some Bangla-speaking Pakistanis were the perpetrators, and we were their victims. Former Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said, "We have learned important lessons. We know more keenly than ever that genocide is not a single event but a process that evolves over time, and requires planning and resources to carry out. As chilling as that sounds, it also means that with adequate information, mobilization, courage and political will, genocide can be prevented."

The need to prevent genocide and punish those responsible has been of concern to the Bangladesh community since the end of the 1971 War. Genocide is not something that happens overnight or without warning. Genocide requires organisation and constitutes in fact a deliberate strategy and one that has been mostly carried out by governments or groups controlling the state apparatus.

Understanding the way genocide occurs and learning to recognise signs that could lead to genocide are important in making sure that such horrors do not happen again. To deter people from committing crimes of genocide, those responsible for such crimes need to be brought to justice. Fighting impunity and establishing a credible expectation that the perpetrators of genocide and related crimes will be held accountable can effectively contribute to prevention. Like Kevyn Aucoin, we must say, “Today I choose life. Every morning when I wake up, I can choose joy, happiness, negativity, pain... To feel the freedom that comes from being able to continue to make mistakes and choices - today I choose to feel life, not to deny my humanity but embrace it.”

Hans Christian Andersen reminds us, “Just living is not enough... one must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower.” But many unarmed people were more languished in Pakistani Junta’s massive gulag. The local collaborators became their butcher of our people and they were the worst mass murderers in history. The Bangladesh people deeply love independence, freedom and peace. But in the face of Pakistan’s brutal aggression we rose up, united man.  Because we believed in the words of Thomas Campbell, “The patriot's blood is the seed of Freedom's tree.”

‘There are many other attempts to distort history, including the number of people killed in the genocide carried out by the Pakistani army. Those who try to distort this history are Pakistani puppets, or they have not seen Bangladesh painted red during 1971 with the blood of Bengalis. I have seen, and I will never forget. Let this law take effect quickly with harsh punishments for those resorting to distortion.’


Anwar A. Khan is a freedom
fighter who writes on politics
and international issues.