Ravi Shankar, Concert For Bangladesh, Madison Square, 1971
*Justice Nizamul Haq was the presiding judge of the International Crime Tribunal(ICT) that was trying the war crime perpetrators of 1971 until recently in Bangladesh!Obtaining some hacked mails and Skype conversation of Justice Nizamul with a Brussels based international law expert, British based magazine 'The Economist' shouted foul that he was unfair to the defendants!To preserve both his personal dignity and seemingly not to get ICT into a long drawn debate Justice Nizamul resigned like the fallen CIA chief General Petraus!
*Ironically The Economist affair was more of 'views' instead of 'news' and a persuasion to impose that 'view'!While imposing these views The Economist also overlooked the rights of the victims and their relatives to seek justice!While highlighting which media has said what about the ICT, this blog post would look into the contradictory mindset and double standard of the British press in general!
*The Washington Post reported on 9th December, ''A Bangladesh war crimes tribunal has accused the British magazine The Economist of hacking the computer of its presiding judge.....The magazine did not directly address the charges''!On 15th December 'The Economist'' published an editorial, saying ''..It was very late to begin the search for justice, for the accused as well as for victims. But war crimes are subject to no statute of limitation.'' To cover its back now The Economist is shrewdly avoiding the fact that the allies of the 2nd World War and Israel are still hunting down war criminals and trying them!
''Stop Genocide'' A documentary on the 1971 genocide by Zahir Rayhan..Zahir was abducted and murdered with hundreds of Bengali intellectuals in December, 1971.
*The Economist is essentially a British establishment magazine championing the global corporate initiatives and quite often in sharp conflict of interest with left or centre-left governments of developed world as much as of the 3rd world!Birth of Bangladesh in 1971 disturbed the British 1947 status quo, which saw the bloody division of India and absurdly put two parts of the so-called Pakistan in two corners of India!The design was to destabilise the region for long term and it paid off!
*The aim of 1947 status quo was to create something like 'troubled middle east' in South Asia particularly around and near Chinese border!Both the Bengali Hindus and Muslims were played as spendable pawns!Bangladesh has never been forgiven for rejecting that status quo.The BBC, British Council, The Economist type media outlets are again and again echoing the revengeful frustration of that reversed status quo by whichever means it could justify its vested end!
*If one observes the recent political, social developments in UK one can clearly see that this country only pays lip service to Geneva Conventions Human Right Charter!Britain hasn't signed a lot of EEC human right clause!When Spanish magistrate Balthazar Garcon got General Pinochet arrested in London for crimes against humanity with an international indictment in late nineties, Margaret Thatcher came in support for Pinochet and the labour government created such a legal limbo that the Spanish magistrate couldn't have him extradited.
*One has to remember that Bangladesh ICT has demanded the extradition of UK citizen Chowdhury Moinuddin for war crime in Bangladesh. Britain refused to extradite him on the ground that if found guilty capital punishment could be handed down to him!
On 16th April, 2012 Andrew Gilligan reported in 'The Telegraph' on the findings of ICT, ''Hundreds of thousands of civilians were massacred by Pakistani troops.Mr Moinuddin, then(1971) a journalist on the Purbodesh newspaper in Dhaka, was a member of a fundamentalist party, Jamaat-e-Islami, which supported Pakistan in the war. In the closing days, as it became clear that Pakistan had lost, he is accused of being part of a collaborationist Bangla militia, the Al-Badr Brigade, which rounded up, tortured and killed prominent citizens to deprive the new state of its intellectual and cultural elite.The sister-in-law of one such victim, Dolly Chaudhury, claims to have identified Mr Moinuddin as one of three men who abducted her husband, Mufazzal Haider Chaudhury, a prominent scholar of Bengali literature, on the night of 14 December 1971.
"I was able to identify one [of the abductors], Mueen-Uddin," she said in video testimony, seen by The Sunday Telegraph, which will form part of the prosecution case.''
Moinuddin is a special editor of the London-based weekly Dawat and a leader of the London-based Jamaat organisation Dawatul Islam.He was even photographed with prince Charles!
*The sympathy British establishment extended to General Pinochet or Chowdhury Moinuddin types is not extended to Wikileak founder Julian Assange!The Economist has titled one after another of its articles aimed against Justice Nizamul as ''Discrepancies In Bangladesh'' while keeping a blind eye to the 'Discrepancies In Uk''!''.. ''lives(the defendants) are at stake'' is The Economist's core justification of questioning the impartiality of ICT!In that context The Economists next cover story should essentially be about Julian Assange!
*The ICT is a visible judiciary process backed by constitution that has the people's mandate!Where as RAB(Rapid Action Battalion) is an extra judicial process in Bangladesh which has gained enough notoriety both at home and abroad through its 'Crossfire'' practise!By going after the ICT and not paying least attention to RAB 'The Economist' has given the perceived signal that secretive policing is preferred to visible-judiciary!It's also been alleged that RAB is equipped by UK firms and its officers are trained in UK while USA and other EEC countries refused to do so!
*One needs to also remember that recently media giant Rupert Murdoch and his family were investigated by the British parliament and police on phone hacking charge!Even ex-premier Gordon Brown testified that he was bugged by Murdoch's newspapers!Eventually Murdoch was forced to close down one of his major money maker ''News Of The World''!The same investigation also revealed that Murdoch's journalists, members of police, politicians are exchanging treats on a regular basis!
*What led 'The Economist'' to take an one sided view of the ICT?Other than digging into the complicated conspiracy theories one can reflect who or which parties would benefit from delaying or the complete failure of Bangladesh ICT.Benefited parties would be Jamat-e Islami of different brands, their Saudi sponsors and the Pakistani establishment which has yet to officially apologise for 1971 atrocities!Again for the benefit of doubt if we accept that The Economist didn't get it from the Pakistani intelligence; it can be said from The Economist's operative routines that a labyrinth of middle eastern clientele would feel well served if an Islamist political entity is not proven as collaborator of genocide by all these economic word manipulation that is handed down as journalism!
*Not to forget that Bangladesh judiciary and ICT particularly needed to create its own PR mechanism to outsmart the right wing press!One sure hit will be to serve the findings to the press in day-to-day basis!More money, more manpower needed!May be that could be asked from British Council as it would make Pound Sterling's from the branching out of the Hay Festival in Bangladesh and finding it a lucrative ground to manipulate by the likes of ''The Economist''!
*Finally justice Nizamul Haq or for that the ICT is never alone!Ravi Shankars and George Harrisons are always there in the corner with their Sitars and Guitars to sing 'Bangladesh'!
Choyon KH
15/12/12
Brittany/France
