Jamaat-e-Islami chief Matiur Rahman Nizami today said his party would go to international forums, including human rights organisations, to seek justice if they are politically repressed and deprived of human rights in the name of holding trial of war criminals.

Motiur Rahman Nizami

“Government is trying to use the trial as a political instrument to make us succumb. We’ll face it politically and legally. Since it also involves question of human rights, we’ll take the matter to international forums and human rights organizations to seek justice,” he said.

The Jamaat chief said the issue of war crimes was settled through general amnesty envisaged in the 1974 Delhi Declaration, which is known to the conscious world.

Asked about four specific offences -- killing, rape, loot and arson -- which were not covered by the general amnesty, Nizami said it is a different matter if anyone is accused of such offences, but he had repeatedly challenged in parliament and outside that none of them was involved in any such crimes.

He mentioned that in last 38 years even a general diary was not filed against them and not even by the post-independence Awami League government.

“I can say with confidence that none of us was involved in those crimes,” Nizami said.

Asked about the offences committed by Rajakar, Al-Badr and Al-Shams, he said those auxiliary forces were constituted by the orders of the then government and different people joined those auxiliary forces. Jamaat-e-Islami had no organizational responsibility for that.

Nizami said Rajakars were formed at the behest of Union Council chairmen at that time and most Union Council chairmen were from Muslim League and some from Awami League. Jamaat had no Union Council chairman at that time.

He said that after the independence, 37,000 people were arrested. Some were tried but most of them released, as there was no specific evidence against them. Prime Minister Sheikh Mujibur Rahman declared general amnesty in 1973 and later the Collaborators Act was repealed in 1975.

The Jamaat chief referred to a press release issued by the Bangladesh government on April 17, 1973 that says investigation into crimes committed by the Pakistani occupation forces and their auxiliaries are almost complete.

Upon the evidence, the release said it has been decided to try 195 persons of serious crimes, which include genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and breaches of article 3 of the Geneva conventions, murder, rape and arson.

All these 195 persons were senior army officers of Pakistan and there was no name of any civilian or Bangladeshi on this list, Nizami said.

He added that the 195 prisoners of war were released and sent to Pakistan following an agreement between India, Bangladesh and Pakistan on April 9, 1974. “Now, there is no plausible reason to reopen this issue.”

Nizami said that after 38 years if the government wants to stage the trial on false evidences and false witnesses it would simply be a political vendetta and would “go down in history as a despicable instance of injustice, falsehood and political oppression.”

Asked about the filing of a case against 36 persons including Ghulam Azam, Nizami, Mujahid and S Q Chowdhury and withdrawal of it last week, the Jamaat chief said the government itself is suffering from hesitation and indecision about what to do.

“I don’t know if all within the government holds unanimous view about it but it appears that some quarters outside the government is giving it ill advice,” he said.

Asked whether there is any pressure from outside or from the Muslim world on the government not to proceed with the trial, he said the government can say about it.

Claiming himself clean of war crime allegations, Nizami said campaign against him started after he had assumed the office of Jamaat Ameer in December 2000.

Sources:
News: UNB, Dhaka
Photo: Focus Bangla