The government has snubbed US official Stephen Rapp’s suggestion to focus on individuals in the ongoing war crimes trials, saying political parties will be tried if the people of Bangladesh want.
On his latest Dhaka visit, Rapp, the US Ambassador-at-Large on Global Criminal Justice, on Tuesday said individuals and not parties were responsible for committing crimes against humanity.
Law and Justice Minister Anisul Huq on Thursday said it was Rapp’s personal view to spare Jamaat-e-Islami.
“However, as far as Bangladesh is concerned, we’ll do what is necessary considering the people’s wishes,” he said responding to a media query.
Rapp, former prosecutor for courts trying crimes against humanity, came to Bangladesh on Monday on his fifth visit since the special tribunals were set up.
At the press conference, he had argued that people made individual decisions to do what they did and organised others to commit those crimes during the 1971 Liberation War.
“So, what’s so important about this trial is to try individuals, not groups,” he contended.
Jamaat, several of whose top leaders have been convicted of war crimes, has been dubbed as a “criminal party” by the International Crimes Tribunal in verdicts.
The ‘Ganajagaran Mancha’, a secular platform pressing for maximum penalty for convicted war criminals, alleges that Rapp is a Jamaat lobbyist.
Its spokesperson Imran H Sarker demanded a travel bar on the US official in Bangladesh until he withdrew his remarks.
Minister Huq had argued that the law needed to be amended to try the Jamaat on war crimes charges.
When asked about its progress on Thursday, he said the amendment draft was at its final stages and will soon be presented in the Cabinet.
Reporters asked him about the government’s plans with the tribunals.
The civil society has been demanding increasing the tribunals amid rumours that the government is planning to reduce the number of tribunals as the number of cases had dropped.
“We want to take practical decisions,” the minister said. “The number of tribunals will be changed if necessary.”
Source: Bd news24