Thursday, October 16, 2008

SOAS - the Bangladesh war crimes of 1971

At SOAS this evening there was the premiere of Shahriar Kabir's film on the Bangladesh war crimes of 1971, after which there was a panel discussion and questions by the audience. Kabir has recorded a large number of testimonies on the atrocities by the Pakistan army and their collaborators, but there still needs to be a systematic collection of the witness statements in a form that could be presented as evidence in a court of law. The revival of war crimes prosecutions, initiated by Sheikh Mujib ur Rahman after independence, but terminated abruptly at the point of the military coup in 1975, is likely to be debated in the General Election campaign in Bangladesh, and it would be useful if the diaspora could also express their views.

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