Hasina makes a case for war crimes trial at UN

Addressing the 68th UN General Assembly on Friday in New York, she told the global leaders that the trial of suspected war criminals was indispensable to establish justice, human rights and the rule of law.

Hasina said successful completion of the ongoing trials would purge the nation of the stigma it had been carrying for 42 years.

She reminded her audience that the Pakistani troops and their collaborators in the then East Pakistan perpetrated genocide, rape, arson and crimes against humanity across the land and that over three million people sacrificed their lives and a quarter of a million women were dishonoured during the nine-month war.

Hasina said the Bangladeshis had for long demanded that the state brought the perpetrators to justice.

The high-profile gathering was told that the two war crimes tribunals that her government constituted were trying the suspected criminals maintaining the highest standards.

The Prime Minister then turned to the development efforts and said formulation of the post-2015 Development Agenda was a ‘daunting task’ for UN members.

For building a just, prosperous and sustainable world, she observed the world leaders needed to agree on a common set of the development agenda and promised that Bangladesh will lead these efforts from the front.

Getting back to domestic issues, Hasina told the General Assembly that the elements that had opposed the nation’s liberation from Pakistan were still trying to destroy the secular nature of Bangladesh. They had set about doing it by killing the man who had led the nation to independence, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, in 1975.

But secular forces in Bangladesh were able to thwart their attempts to push the country’s back to the dark days.

Hasina said Islmaist militants and anti-liberation forces joined forces and formed terrorist outfits during the 2001-6 period, when the BNP allied with the anti-liberation force, Jamaat-e-Islami.

These outfits, she alleged, attacked a rally on Aug 24, 2004 when the Awami League was in the opposition, leaving 24 people were killed and over 500 injured but such attacks only toughened her resolve to eliminate terrorism.

This year’s theme of the UNGA – “The post-2015 Agenda: Setting the Stage” – the Prime Minister hoped, would help evolve a pragmatic strategy for the post-2015 development goals.

Hasina was glad to be among world leaders adopting the Millennium Declaration in 2000, in the review of the MDGs in 2010, and now in the transition from MDGs to the post-2015 Development Agenda.

Bangladesh’s aim, according to her, was to become a middle-income country and realise its ‘Vision 2021’ by setting up goals matching with the MDGs. It had already met, or was on the track, to meet MDG-1, MDG-2, MDG-3, MDG-4, MDG-5 and MDG-6. Poverty had been reduced from 56.6 percent in 1991 to below 26 percent now, she said.

Over the last four and a half years, the average GDP growth remained around 6.4 percent, the Prime Minister said.

Export earnings rose from $10.53 billion in 2006 to $27.03 billion, remittances increased from $5 billion in 2006 to $14.5 billion, and foreign currency reserve rose to $16 billion from $3.49 billion in 2006, she said.

Power generation capacity also climbed to 9,059 MW from 3,200 MW in 2006.

It was Bangladesh’s achievements that earned it the MDG Award, South-South Award, Global Diversity Award, and FAO Food Award.

She outlined her vision to build a ‘Digital Bangladesh’, saying the people were now getting over 200 services from 4,582 digitalised Union Information and Service Centres. Rural women were getting health care services from digitally inter-connected 15,500 Community Health Clinics and Union Health Centres.

The government has prioritised education since development depends on women empowerment and their equal participation in the national sphere. She said the new education policy provided girls with free education up to higher secondary level.

Around 11.90 million students of poor families were receiving stipends and free textbooks were distributed among students up to the secondary level and government policies saw lives of women at the grassroots improved.

So far, 14,000 women have been elected to local government bodies and 70 to Parliament. Five women are serving as ministers and one as a whip, said the Prime Minister.

The posts of Prime Minister, the Speaker, the Leader of the Opposition, and the Deputy Leader in Parliament are occupied by women.

Drawing attention of the global leaders to impending challenges due to climate change, she said a fifth of Bangladesh would submerge if the temperature rose by one degree Celsius which would lead to a meter rise in the sea level. Around 30 million people will be displaced as a result.

Hasina reaffirmed her call for a legal regime to ensure social, cultural, and economic rehabilitation of the ‘climate migrants’ and a fast track funding mechanism for the Climate Change Fund for LDCs.

She urged the UN to declare 21st February as the “International Mother Language Day” as UNESCO did in 1999 and induct Bangla as one of its official languages thanking the UN for introducing Bangla website and a radio program and the UNDP for publishing its Asia Report in Bangla.

Hasina asked the development partners to keep their promises and contribute 0.7 percent of their GNP as ODA, and 0.2 percent of GNP as ODA to the LDCs.

She sought duty and quota-free access for products from the LDCs into the markets of the developed nations.

The US has recently revoked Bangladesh’s GSP facility in the wake of a factory fire at a garment factory and the collapse of a multi-storied building housing several ready-made garment units near Dhaka killing over 1,200 people.