Atrocities against humanity during the liberation war in Bangladesh: A case of genocide

Akmam, Wardatul

doi:10.1080/146235022000000463

Cited by 20 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 5 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…It was condemned by the international community as a purely internal war, though the killings and the flights of refugees to neighboring India were unfortunate (Onkar, 1979). By its end, however, it was undoubtedly international because India invaded on 3 December 1971 (Akmam, 2002) by a full-fledged military attack against the Pakistani Army in the lands of the then East Pakistan. So, the outcome of the war suddenly changed, and Bangladesh became independent by 16 December.…”

Section: Legal Nature Of Bangladesh Liberation Warmentioning

confidence: 99%

Non-retroactivity in Prosecuting Crimes against Humanity and International Crimes Tribunal Bangladesh

Billah¹

2020

JPL

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The International Crimes Tribunal Bangladesh (ICTB) was set up by Bangladesh through the adaptation of the International Crimes Tribunal Act 1973, as an internal mechanism trying to prosecute and punish Bangladeshi perpetrators who committed international crimes in Bangladesh liberation war in 1971. After a long disappearance from the public eye, the Tribunal was reemerged in 2010. The recent cases decided by the Tribunal have revealed that the international crimes; namely, crimes against humanity, were allegedly committed in 1971, while the relevant Statute was enacted in 1973, and was implemented in 2010. Recently, the ICTB is prosecuting crimes against humanity retroactively, which might have violated the prohibition of penalizing certain conducts committed by the perpetrators before the enforcement of such conduct as a law banning such demeanor as an offense. Therefore, this study firstly analyzes the rule against retroactivity in international criminal law. Secondly, it investigates the justification of the retroactive criminalization of crimes against humanity at the first International Military Tribunal, Nuremberg, and its crystallization into the regional and international legal instruments. Thirdly, the study examines the characteristics of crimes against humanity as an international crime, to scrutinize whether the ICTB needs to fulfill such requirements either in 1971 or 2010. Then, it illustrates various judgments of the ICTB, demonstrating that it does not comply with the rule prescribed by international laws either in 1971 or 2010, in prosecuting crimes against humanity retroactively. Lastly, the study concludes by forwarding ways necessary to the ICTB in retroactive prosecution of international offenses.

show abstract

Section: Legal Nature Of Bangladesh Liberation Warmentioning

confidence: 99%

Non-retroactivity in Prosecuting Crimes against Humanity and International Crimes Tribunal Bangladesh

Billah¹

2020

JPL

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The state of Pakistan was a product of a bloody division, the partition of India in 1947, displacing 12.5 million people and leaving one million dead. The partition was a result of the twonation theory propagated by Muhammad Ali Jinnah, leader of Muslim League and the founder of the state of Pakistan, stating that Muslims and Hindus are two different nations as they follow two distinct social orders and they cannot coexist in a single state (Akmam 2002). As a result, Islam has been the essential element of Pakistan"s national identity and "the Pakistani state has increasingly sought to sponsor Islamization both for ideological purposes and purposes of legitimization" (Talbot, 2012).…”

Section: Different Nations: Ethnic Distinctions Fuelling Nationalismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Denying the Denial: Reappraisal of ‘Genocide’ in East Pakistan

Iqbal

2017

ajs

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The conflict in erstwhile East Pakistan, especially during 1970-1, was one of the bloodiest and most contested in the post-WWII era. While Bangladesh has always called it genocide, Pakistan has always denied both the intent and the scale of killings. This paper argues that the struggle of East Pakistanis to form their own country was reduced to a civic-political demand and not an ethnic-based claim to distinct nationalism. Revisiting Bangladesh‟s claims of genocide based on primary and archival material, this paper posits that the violence unleashed in former East Pakistan amounted to the systematic wiping out of the ethnic distinctiveness of its people through ideological, economic, political and military means. This paper contends that the recognition of the massacre in former East Pakistan during its Liberation Struggle as genocide is not only ethically demanded, but this recognition also demands a qualitative widening of the existing legal understanding of genocide.

show abstract

“…The loss experienced by the many people who suddenly became refugees was amplified by the failure of these narratives of loss to secure a place in history. While the partition of 1947 is an integral part of Indian nationalist sentiment, the genocide and displacement that occurred in the wake of the Bangladesh remains largely marginal (Akmam, 2002; Saikia, 2004).…”

Section: Home and Its Lossmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Long Way Home

Dutta

2014

Qualitative Inquiry

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The salience of home often comes into being in the wake of its loss. The loss of home for me was engendered by a physical departure from the place of my birth as well as the uncertainty of return posed by escalation of ethnic violence in the region. That loss became the impetus for my ethnographic journey engaging with issues of identity, belonging, conflict, and resistance in my home community—the Garo Hills region of Northeast India. In this article, I draw from my autoethnographic journeys to offer a more nuanced and discursively complex understanding of ethnic antagonisms in Northeast India. Challenging dominant security-driven perspectives, my article is foregrounded in the everyday experiences of ordinary citizens in the Northeastern borderlands. Dissolving strict boundaries between ethnography, oral history, testimonials, and storytelling, I open up discursive spaces to explore alternative framing of home and belonging for people located in Northeastern India.

show abstract

Atrocities against humanity during the liberation war in Bangladesh: A case of genocide

Cited by 20 publications

References 5 publications

Non-retroactivity in Prosecuting Crimes against Humanity and International Crimes Tribunal Bangladesh

Non-retroactivity in Prosecuting Crimes against Humanity and International Crimes Tribunal Bangladesh

Denying the Denial: Reappraisal of ‘Genocide’ in East Pakistan

The Long Way Home

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About