The government has decided to set up the proposed tribunal for holding the war crimes trials in a government building on 14, Abdul Gani Road near the Bangladesh Secretariat, and says that it intends to begin prosecution in two months.

'The offices of the Administrative Appellate Tribunal and the Department of Registration in the building on Abdul Gani Road will be shifted to Janata Tower at Karwan Bazar, and an atmosphere congenial for holding the trial of war criminals will be created here by December,' said the state minister for law, Quamrul Islam, on Sunday after visiting the building. The Department of Public Works was asked to prepare the building so that the war crimes tribunal and the offices of an investigation agency and a prosecution cell could be accommodated there, he added.

Quamrul said the government would announce the names of the officials of the proposed investigation agency and the prosecution cell after ensuring the logistics and security for them. 'We are moving forward step by step for holding the war crimes trial, which is a difficult task. We have to keep many factors under consideration while going ahead with the move.' He said the authorities concerned had already started collecting information about the 'already-identified war criminals' and the trials would begin after completion of the trial of the assassins of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

Both Quamrul Islam and Abdul Mannan Khan, state minister for housing and public works, asked all concerned to be patient and try to understand the reasons for the delay in initiating the war crimes trial. They, however, assured everyone that the government was determined to hold the trial of war crimes committed during the 1971 War of Independence by the Pakistani occupational force's collaborators. In August the law ministry requested the housing and public works ministry to shift the offices of the inspector-general of registration and the administrative tribunal from Abdul Gani Road to somewhere else. On January 29 the Parliament approved unanimously, in the absence of the opposition lawmakers, a resolution seeking speedy prosecution of the 1971 war criminals. The government, later on, allocated a fund of Tk 10 crore for holding the trials.

-New Age