Punishment of War Crimes and its effects in International Relationship

The concept of ‘war crime’ and ‘war criminals’ are very complicated. These are highly
sensitive political issues. So, whatever seems right and justified from one point of view,
may seem false and unjustified from the other side. This means when someone is
considered war criminal in a particular country or to a certain fraction of people (who
might be identified by their race, colour, religion and tribe) of that country, others may
consider that person as a hero and idolize him/her irrespective of the fact that s/he has
committed genocide in the name of justice and nepotism.

I do hereby present a formal definition of War crime: War crimes are "violations of the
laws or customs of war", including but not limited to "murder, the ill-treatment or
deportation of civilian residents of an occupied territory to slave labor camps", "the
murder or ill-treatment of prisoners of war", the killing of hostages, "the wanton
destruction of cities, towns and villages, and any devastation not justified by military
necessity" [1]. War crimes include acts like mistreatment of war prisoners or civilians and
genocide.

Now let us consider the consequence of punishment of war crimes in a country’s

international relationship. In any country’s political history, its decision regarding how to
deal with the ‘war criminals’ has become a matter of enormous debate. A sovereign
nation has every right to punish people who never supported its existence in the first
place. If that is accompanied by activities which clearly show that that person/group of
persons were actively involved in conspiracies and disruptive actions which clearly defy
and question the sovereignty of the current state, it should be penalized at all costs. But
while punishing, everyone (whether it is a State or a certain branch of the state’s
government) needs to abide by the rules of fair justice and should ensure basic human
rights to all the convicts. A resolution/consensus can be reached in a transparent way.
Besides, both justice and human rights should be maintained in a standard procedure.
There are numerous international organizations that are constantly trying to reduce the
war crimes by ensuring exemplary punishment of war criminals.

Let us now consider how the war crime punishment actions taken by states affect their
International Relationship. Radovan Karadzic, the wartime leader of the Bosnian Serbs,
has recently been arrested in Serbia [2]. He was accused by the United Nations’ Yugoslav
war crimes tribunal in The Hague 13 years ago for his alleged crimes during the Bosnian
war. This incident is likely to cause huge political impact in the Balkan region. This
certainly will be the end of Serbia's troubled relations with the European Union. In fact it
is also apparent that Serbia is going to be included in the EU [2] . This shows how
countries are trying to improve relationship with the International organizations by taking
actions against the war criminals. This way they create a better image in the International
scene which is very essential for the economy and security of the country.

Having seen the example of the Serbs, let us now concentrate in the war crimes
committed in Bangladesh by the Pakistan Army during our liberation war. The Pakistani
armed forces conducted genocide against the Bangladeshi civilians with the help of the
local political and religious militias – Razakar, Al-badr and Al-Shams. The war crimes
committed here were the worst of its kind with 3 million people dying in the 9 month
war. Almost 200,000 women were raped and the intellectual population was their target
once they came to understand that they can’t win the war. The war saw 10 million people
leaving their homes and seeking refuge to India. One alarming fact is that almost 60% of
the war victims were the people from the minority Hindu community. The barbaric act of
the Pakistan army is thus comparable with the torture of the Jews by the Nazis. The
minority community was worst effected by the war. The Pakistan Army was successful in
killing huge population within a short time span. They specifically killed the Minorities
and the intellectuals and this was possible because of their local associates – the Razakars
and Al-Badrs. Since the beginning of the war, these groups were working along with the
Pak army by providing vital information regarding the natives as well as killing the
locals. This helped the Pak army with their specific killing. In the end of the war, 93,000
Pak troops surrendered and left the land but the local associates remained unaffected.

At the end of the war, Bangladeshi Prime Minister Tajuddin Ahmed admitted that the trial
of the alleged Pakistani military personnel may not be possible because of pressures from
the US [3]. Moreover Sheikh Mujib after his return declared “Shadharon Khoma” in 1972
which in itself was confusing. The govt. decided to punish those who were against our
liberation war. So they categorized them in as major and minor offenders. “Shadharon
Khoma” was declared for the minor category. Those involved in mass killing, looting of
properties, rape and burn out homes were considered the major offenders. Then a law was
passed to judge the major offenders and the case was placed in the court, everything was
going smoothly to treat these traitors against homeland. But after the assassination of
Sheikh Mujib the Zia Govt. banned the law and the convicts managed to escape the
tribunal.

Since then, the war criminals of 1971 largely remain untouched and the fact is that these
people have grown stronger after the liberation war and now have constituted a political
party of their own which was a part of the coalition govt. that won the last election. In
recent times also they were unharmed when all the other political parties saw their leaders
imprisoned. They present interim Govt. took measures in all issues except that of
punishing the war criminals. Time and again the war criminals in Bangladesh have
remained unquestioned and now they have grown strong enough to question the
sovereignty of the nation. This in no way is acceptable. The War criminals should be
punished irrespective of when they did it otherwise we might see another 1971. I believe
it is never late to start something good before it gets too late. One generation of the war
crime victims are still alive. So we can have a fair trial of the accused. The inhuman
activities must be punished as per law of the land. The trials must have international
acceptance. Otherwise we might have the same fate as of Pakistan sooner or later.

Reference:
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_crime
[2] http://www.economist.com/displayStory.cfm?story_id=11778164
[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1971_Bangladesh_atrocities