09/07/2021 OP-ED: Getting away with genocide | Dhaka Tribune

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OP-ED: Getting away with genocide

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Saleem Samad
 Published at
04:33 am March 23rd, 2021

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Photo: Anwar Hossain

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How the 195 Pakistani officers escaped prosecution for their

war crimes

Many believed that another Nuremberg trial would commence once

Bangladesh accused 195 Pakistan military officers of war crimes and other
related crimes.

Pakistan’s chief justice, fearing for the officers, filed a petition, “Trial of
Pakistani Prisoners of War” (Pakistan versus India) on May 11, 1973,
seeking the intervention of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), in the
Hague, Netherlands.

Pakistan instituted proceedings against India concerning the 195 POWs;

according to Pakistan, India proposed to hand over to Bangladesh, who was
suspected of acts of genocide and war crimes.

Pakistan’s application was filed in ICJ, instituting proceedings against India

in respect of a “dispute concerning charges of genocide against 195
Pakistani nationals, prisoners of war, or civilian internees in Indian custody.”

India stated that there was no legal basis for the court’s jurisdiction in the
matter and that Pakistan’s application was without legal effect. Pakistan
hurriedly informed the court that negotiations had taken place, and
requested to discontinue the application in July 1973. Accordingly, the case
was removed from the list in December 1973.

On July 2, 1972 -- eight months after the POWs issue, Pakistan’s President
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi signed the
historic Simla Agreement. The crucial negotiation was held following the
brutal birth of Bangladesh in 1971 and nearly 93,000 Pakistani forces and
civilians were taken as POWs. The deal enabled India to agree to release all
the POWs.

Earlier on Sheikh Mujib’s requests in March 1972 and for their safety and
well-being, the POWs were transported to India. India treated the war
prisoners in accordance with the Geneva Convention, 1925, but used this
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09/07/2021 OP-ED: Getting away with genocide | Dhaka Tribune

issue as a tool to coerce Pakistan into recognizing the sovereignty of

Bangladesh after three countries reached a compromise in 1974.

Bangladesh was processing formalities to bring charges against the 195

prisoners for war crimes in their special courts established in Dhaka. To

punish the 195 war criminals, Bangladesh

International Crimes
enacted the

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(Tribunals) Act (ICT Act 1973), to authorize the investigation and
prosecution of the persons responsible

for genocide,
crimes against

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and other crimes evernote

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in 1971.

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Once Mujib announced that Bangladesh would put the war crimes suspects
on the docks, the military hawks
in Rawalpindi interned
almost all the

Bangla-speaking
officers
linkedinand soldiers
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the army, navy, air
force,
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guards, police, and civil bureaucrats as POWs.

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Bhutto also announced that several officers and civil bureaucrats would be
tried for sedition and other crimes
according to the Pakistan

Army Act of

1952. This news

alarmed
reddit Mujib who immediately

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sought help renrenfriendly

from
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countries to exert diplomatic pressure on Pakistan.

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Thus, both Bangladesh and India succumbed to the political blackmail of
Pakistan. The three countries signed

a historic “Bangladesh-India-Pakistan:

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Agreement of Prisoners of War and Civilian Internees” on April 9, 1974.
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Dr Kamal Hossain, then Foreign Minister of Bangladesh, stated in the

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agreement: “The excesses and manifold crimes committed by those
prisoners of war constituted, according to the relevant provisions of the UN
General Assembly resolutions and international law, war crimes, crimes
against humanity, and genocide, and that there was universal consensus
that the persons charged with such crimes as the 195 Pakistani prisoners
of war should be held to account and subjected to the due process of law.”

The negotiators of the Tripartite Agreement failed to have included a

guarantee clause of the military trial of the war crimes suspects. Therefore,
the 195 returned safely to Pakistan without being produced in any tribunal
in Bangladesh nor were they charged under the Pakistan Military Act.

Saleem Samad is an independent journalist, media rights defender, and

recipient of Ashoka Fellowship and Hellman-Hammett Award. He can be
reached at saleemsamad@hotmail.com; Twitter @saleemsamad.

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