Posted by
KsReaganite on Friday, December 15, 2006 11:07:42 AM
In April of 1971, the
Sunday Times of London called it the ‘ugliest genocide in history’ save but the Holoucast itself. Eight months later on December 16, 1971 it was finally over and Pakistan’s occupation troops laid down their weapons as a new republic was born soaked in the blood of millions. Once again that republic, now in its thirties, is in the news as one of her most prominent sons received the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize. And yet, thirty five years later, many in Bangladesh await the day that the perpetrators of the genocide that midwifed the birth of their republic will be brought to justice. Not one of the 153 Pakistani officers indicted for atrocities against Bangladeshis were ever brought to trial for actively overseeing a saga that saw at least a million perish, two hundred thousand rapes, and the wholesale destruction of educational and cultural institutions. Under pressure from the Russians, the United Nations, and our own Nixon administration, the indicted officers were let go by the new Bangladeshi government with the promise that someone, someday soon will hold the murderers and rapists responsible. In that long wait for that justice, some of these officers met their natural ends while living in comfortable retirement in Pakistan while others went on to become generals, cabinet members, diplomats, and senior
jihadi cheerleaders assiduously sheltered by successive governments of Pakistan from ever facing a judge and jury.
And to this day, as General Musharraf goes around touting his moderate credentials, the people of Bangladesh still await justice for a genocide that was visited upon them as punishment for demanding freedom.