Balkan Tragedy: A Re-enactment of the 1971 Genocide in Bangladesh
Jamal Hasan April 7, 1999
#250 Posted by khokan on April 30, 1999 8:03:52 pm
OMAR1974 wrote (reply # 234):
``Therefore I say Bangladeshis were not victims, but PARTISANS in a conflict. PARTISANS who wish to impose a Victor`s peace want history to record their judgement against a defeated foe. The Nuremberg trials are a classic example. I think its safe to say that THE GERMAN PEOPLE SUPPORTED THE WAR. And, it is equally safe to say that in EAST PAKISTAN IN 1971 by their valient army against who intended to divvy the nation, place themselves atop the new hierarchy of power and enjoy the spoils. The Pak army represented THE WILL OF THE NATION. Pakistanis and Germans viewpoints today``
RESPONSE: No, the Pakistan army did not represent the ordinary citizens of Pakistan. Mr. O Mirza is being unfair to his disinherited compatriots by echoing the claims of the ruling elite by claiming, ``THE PAKISTANI PEOPLE SUPPORTED ALL ACTIONS TAKEN TO SUPPRESS THE INSURRECTION or that the Pak army represented ``THE WILL OF THE NATION.`` The nation had been hijacked by the self-serving army officers for too long. ``Field Marshall`` Ayub Khan had to quit within months after oficially celebrating his ``decade of prosperity.`` The Pakistanis of both wings were unimpressed by the ``Field Marshall`s`` claim. They had seen how the nation was being looted. Captain Gohar Ayub Khan had managed to become a billionaire. Only a select coterie was privy to the prosperity that the ``Field Marshall`` was boasting of. All important positions in the government were going to military people. Reclaimed lands in Sindh were being allotted to officers from ``martial races.`` People were sick of the army`s thievery. That is why Ayub Khan had to quit in 1969. It was the people`s wrath that forced his hand.
Ayub Khan, even as he ``retired,`` did his best to maintain the status quo for his fellow officers. The army was like a guild and Ayub Khan wasn`t about to compromise its interests. Yahya Khan became the martial law administrator. He arranged for the election in the fond hope that the politically fragmented politicains would fail to run the administration without the support and approval of the military. Yahya Khan had been assured by ``pundits`` that no party will win enough seats to pose a threat to the establishment.
The election results came as a shock. The Awami League was able to win a majority in the National Assembly on its own. And with an understanding with parties like NAP, Awami League was in a position to draw up the constitution in accordance with its election pledges. Mr. O Mirza is wrong, there was no possibility of a ``hung Parliament.`` And the army generals were only too aware of it. They didn`t want the rise to power of a party that would refuse to hand over a blank check for the army.
It was at this point that the generals came to an understanding with Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto whose party, the PPP, had won about a quarter of the seats in the National Assembly, mostly from Punjab. Bhutto declared that ``Punjab is the bastion of power,`` a very sinister thing to say for a civilian leader who should be aspiring to power through elections. Bhutto went on to threaten to break the leg of any memeber of the National Assembly from West Pakistan who would dare to attend its session without his approval. He was intimidating elected members from parties like NAP from cooperating with the Awami League. Then, as if on cue, Yahya Khan postponed the convening of the National Assembly.
Mr. O Mirza is dishonest in saying that the army represented the will of the people. It represented only its officers. It roped in Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto by appealing to his fear of playing the second fiddle to Mujibur Rahman. It intimidated the elected representatives of NWFP and Baluchistan (Wali Khan, for example)from cooperating with Awami League. It did everything it could to recoup from the ``disaster`` that had seen Awami League holding a majority of the seats in the National Assembly.
It is symptotic of the situation that Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto suppressed the publication Hamoodur Rehman Commission report. The report would have compromised the army generals and the PPP chairman by holding them culpable for the 1971 tragedy. To this day, the Hamoodur Rehman Commission Report hasn`t seen the light of day. The ruling elite has closed ranks to protect its members.
Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto succeeded in becoming the ``leader`` of a truncated Pakistan with the army`s backing. He had ridden the tiger in his ascent to power. Needless to say, he soon found out that he who rides a tiger....... He would come to curse the day he was enlisted by the army generals to thwart the election results of 1970. But that would come seven years later when the army chief used a Supreme Court packed with his own nominees to send the hapless Bhutto to the gallows.
The ordinary people of Pakistan are not the fools that Mr. O Mizrza is taking them to be. They have stoically suffered through the kleptocracies of Ayub Khan, Yahya Khan and Ziaul Haq. They know where the real power lies. Mr. O Mirza insults the ordinary citizens of Pakistan when he claims, ``THE PAKISTANI PEOPLE SUPPORTED ALL ACTIONS TAKEN TO SUPPRESS THE INSURRECTION.`` He insults them again when he claims, ``The Pak army represented THE WILL OF THE NATION.``
Mr. Omar Mirza was born in 1974, two to three years after the tragedy. Ms. Muneezae Alam Khan was a two year old baby during the 1971 genocide. They could have easily made a clean break with the mindset that was responsible for the genocide. But I am surprised that they have chosen to inherit the racist ideology of Pakistan`s ruling elite that was responsible for the 1971 tragedy in the first place.
Those that teach their daughters and nephews that ``Bengalis are descendants of Mir Jafar,`` ``No Bengali is to be trusted,`` and that ``Bengalis are ghaddars`` are not reliable sources of history.
The nephews and daughters of officers from the martial races of Pakistan need to make a break from the past. They are doing their nation no good by designating the interests of the army officers to be the same as that of the country. The daughters and the nephews will do better if they try to find out how the common citizens of Pakistan have been abused and bled to enrich the successive kleptocracies of their hapless country.
``Therefore I say Bangladeshis were not victims, but PARTISANS in a conflict. PARTISANS who wish to impose a Victor`s peace want history to record their judgement against a defeated foe. The Nuremberg trials are a classic example. I think its safe to say that THE GERMAN PEOPLE SUPPORTED THE WAR. And, it is equally safe to say that in EAST PAKISTAN IN 1971 by their valient army against who intended to divvy the nation, place themselves atop the new hierarchy of power and enjoy the spoils. The Pak army represented THE WILL OF THE NATION. Pakistanis and Germans viewpoints today``
RESPONSE: No, the Pakistan army did not represent the ordinary citizens of Pakistan. Mr. O Mirza is being unfair to his disinherited compatriots by echoing the claims of the ruling elite by claiming, ``THE PAKISTANI PEOPLE SUPPORTED ALL ACTIONS TAKEN TO SUPPRESS THE INSURRECTION or that the Pak army represented ``THE WILL OF THE NATION.`` The nation had been hijacked by the self-serving army officers for too long. ``Field Marshall`` Ayub Khan had to quit within months after oficially celebrating his ``decade of prosperity.`` The Pakistanis of both wings were unimpressed by the ``Field Marshall`s`` claim. They had seen how the nation was being looted. Captain Gohar Ayub Khan had managed to become a billionaire. Only a select coterie was privy to the prosperity that the ``Field Marshall`` was boasting of. All important positions in the government were going to military people. Reclaimed lands in Sindh were being allotted to officers from ``martial races.`` People were sick of the army`s thievery. That is why Ayub Khan had to quit in 1969. It was the people`s wrath that forced his hand.
Ayub Khan, even as he ``retired,`` did his best to maintain the status quo for his fellow officers. The army was like a guild and Ayub Khan wasn`t about to compromise its interests. Yahya Khan became the martial law administrator. He arranged for the election in the fond hope that the politically fragmented politicains would fail to run the administration without the support and approval of the military. Yahya Khan had been assured by ``pundits`` that no party will win enough seats to pose a threat to the establishment.
The election results came as a shock. The Awami League was able to win a majority in the National Assembly on its own. And with an understanding with parties like NAP, Awami League was in a position to draw up the constitution in accordance with its election pledges. Mr. O Mirza is wrong, there was no possibility of a ``hung Parliament.`` And the army generals were only too aware of it. They didn`t want the rise to power of a party that would refuse to hand over a blank check for the army.
It was at this point that the generals came to an understanding with Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto whose party, the PPP, had won about a quarter of the seats in the National Assembly, mostly from Punjab. Bhutto declared that ``Punjab is the bastion of power,`` a very sinister thing to say for a civilian leader who should be aspiring to power through elections. Bhutto went on to threaten to break the leg of any memeber of the National Assembly from West Pakistan who would dare to attend its session without his approval. He was intimidating elected members from parties like NAP from cooperating with the Awami League. Then, as if on cue, Yahya Khan postponed the convening of the National Assembly.
Mr. O Mirza is dishonest in saying that the army represented the will of the people. It represented only its officers. It roped in Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto by appealing to his fear of playing the second fiddle to Mujibur Rahman. It intimidated the elected representatives of NWFP and Baluchistan (Wali Khan, for example)from cooperating with Awami League. It did everything it could to recoup from the ``disaster`` that had seen Awami League holding a majority of the seats in the National Assembly.
It is symptotic of the situation that Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto suppressed the publication Hamoodur Rehman Commission report. The report would have compromised the army generals and the PPP chairman by holding them culpable for the 1971 tragedy. To this day, the Hamoodur Rehman Commission Report hasn`t seen the light of day. The ruling elite has closed ranks to protect its members.
Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto succeeded in becoming the ``leader`` of a truncated Pakistan with the army`s backing. He had ridden the tiger in his ascent to power. Needless to say, he soon found out that he who rides a tiger....... He would come to curse the day he was enlisted by the army generals to thwart the election results of 1970. But that would come seven years later when the army chief used a Supreme Court packed with his own nominees to send the hapless Bhutto to the gallows.
The ordinary people of Pakistan are not the fools that Mr. O Mizrza is taking them to be. They have stoically suffered through the kleptocracies of Ayub Khan, Yahya Khan and Ziaul Haq. They know where the real power lies. Mr. O Mirza insults the ordinary citizens of Pakistan when he claims, ``THE PAKISTANI PEOPLE SUPPORTED ALL ACTIONS TAKEN TO SUPPRESS THE INSURRECTION.`` He insults them again when he claims, ``The Pak army represented THE WILL OF THE NATION.``
Mr. Omar Mirza was born in 1974, two to three years after the tragedy. Ms. Muneezae Alam Khan was a two year old baby during the 1971 genocide. They could have easily made a clean break with the mindset that was responsible for the genocide. But I am surprised that they have chosen to inherit the racist ideology of Pakistan`s ruling elite that was responsible for the 1971 tragedy in the first place.
Those that teach their daughters and nephews that ``Bengalis are descendants of Mir Jafar,`` ``No Bengali is to be trusted,`` and that ``Bengalis are ghaddars`` are not reliable sources of history.
The nephews and daughters of officers from the martial races of Pakistan need to make a break from the past. They are doing their nation no good by designating the interests of the army officers to be the same as that of the country. The daughters and the nephews will do better if they try to find out how the common citizens of Pakistan have been abused and bled to enrich the successive kleptocracies of their hapless country.
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#249 Posted by OMAR1974 on April 30, 1999 8:03:52 pm
The Pakistan army’s presence in East Pakistan can only be compared if there is a parallel to be made at all, between Kosovo and East Pakistan 1970-71, to a NATO ‘occupying force’s’ proposed presence in Kosovo. The Bengalis were willing to resist this by early 1971 just as the Serbs resist a U.N force to bring order to terror striken Kosovo. The only real difference is that the Bengali majority Vs. the Serbs minority perpetrated `ethnic cleansing.` Pakistanis have indeed lost interest in the historical details of the conflict so much that the real parallels of history have been obfuscated by ‘INTELLECTUAL PARTIZANS’ determined to impose a ‘guilt complex’ on the Pakistani nation. The fact is that genocide was indeed committed; by the Bengali race on all non-Bengalis and non or lukewarm supporters of the Awami League. It was carried out methodically under the central directions of Mujib ur Rehman, who is comparable to Milosevic. His version of ‘ethnic cleansing’ of East Pakistan was effected by the Bengali majority and 176,000 Bengalis in Uniform present in East Pakistan. A small, determined, professional army of West Pakistani soldiers defeated this plan (despite massive treason in the ranks) which Mujib put into action on or about March 1, and eventually overcame lawlessness, disorder and the ethnic cleansing of East Pakistan by Bengalis. The tales of widespread ‘massacres’ are actually in fact tales of PARTIZANS in the conflict, who were in many cases well armed to perpetrate/or had perpetrated genocide. They miscalculated by underestimating the Pakistani army’s professionalism, and ability to defeat their amateur, ill led, ambitious forces greedy for plunder, that were, while well equipped by India and from the Pakistan Army’s own stockpiles, and looting of arms, in East Pakistan, in the end unable to hold ground against thorough professionals like Lt.Col. Z.A Khan . Naturally, these bitter defeats and the fear of the full exposure of their bloody deeds internationally caused the Bengalis to spread their own propaganda, which many found more palatable than any other version of truth. Mujib did not leave Dhaka not because he was ‘fearless,’ but because he was overconfident of the success of his plans. There were a few good men in East Pakistan in 1971, they were the Pakistani soldiers loyal to the motherland who were confronted by atrocity after atrocity, all of which are also well documented. Further, Mujib had earlier laid plans and gained plentiful access to Indian supplies prior to any action by the Pakistan army to stem the rot of treason. For this, Mujib will be remembered by History as a traitor, even if we accept Bengalis claim to ‘independence’ on March 26, 1971, which was incidently on the eve of an armed conspiracy which the Pakistan army pre-empted by hours or a day at most. Neither will I nor my countrymen, nor our forefathers, offer a single apology to those bent on rewriting history from their own twisted perspective. The best that the Bengalis can ever claim is that they were beaten by a superior army. They may indeed take various incidents and narrate them in grotesque detail, but even if, the entire validity of these incidents sure to come forth is accepted unquestioningly, a neutral observer can only concede moral equivalence, and that too with severe prejudice to the honest efforts of West Pakistanis to accommodate East Pakistanis demands to participate in the formulation of joint constitution and keep Pakistan United. It is quite clear that Mujib never wanted a United Pakistan, in view of which even the convening of the National Assembly would have been nothing more than a sham under which East Pakistanis who had VOTED for AUTONOMY AND A UNITED PAKISTAN were to dragged through a process leading to the breakup of the country. Even on the question of moral equivalence, one must ignore historical evidence of Mujib’s actions and assume his character and intention to be the most benign
possible towards United Pakistan if (moral equivalence) is to be accepted between West Pakistan and East Pakistan represented by the duplicitous mendacity of the Awami League and Mujib Ur Rehman.
The Bengali view of their history as a linear progressive Colonial exploitation will undoubtedly be put forth by show us various pie-charts demonstrating investment trends etc in the 2 Wings since 1947, as they attempt to prove their colonial status and oppression leading eventually to their ‘liberation’ struggle. I have news for them, countries are not held together by brute force alone over a period of 25 years. Nor do people who love their country operate under the influence of self serving pie-charts. These are intellectual justifications written AFTER the fact. Bengalis participated in all aspects of the national life of United Pakistan. As a student of history, a future (full) lawyer, a loyal citizen at heart of Pakistan, and a student of Political Science, I can no longer stand by and watch this one sided spectacle of Bengali propaganda. The craven silence of the Pakistan nation has ended! We will no longer quietly concede the moral high ground in this national tragedy to the Bengalis! Pakistan Zindabad!
possible towards United Pakistan if (moral equivalence) is to be accepted between West Pakistan and East Pakistan represented by the duplicitous mendacity of the Awami League and Mujib Ur Rehman.
The Bengali view of their history as a linear progressive Colonial exploitation will undoubtedly be put forth by show us various pie-charts demonstrating investment trends etc in the 2 Wings since 1947, as they attempt to prove their colonial status and oppression leading eventually to their ‘liberation’ struggle. I have news for them, countries are not held together by brute force alone over a period of 25 years. Nor do people who love their country operate under the influence of self serving pie-charts. These are intellectual justifications written AFTER the fact. Bengalis participated in all aspects of the national life of United Pakistan. As a student of history, a future (full) lawyer, a loyal citizen at heart of Pakistan, and a student of Political Science, I can no longer stand by and watch this one sided spectacle of Bengali propaganda. The craven silence of the Pakistan nation has ended! We will no longer quietly concede the moral high ground in this national tragedy to the Bengalis! Pakistan Zindabad!
#248 Posted by ferozk on April 30, 1999 3:57:22 pm
Re: OMAR1974 # 235
You wrote: ``I strongly feel that mere unsubstantiated accounts and information posted anonymously on the internet does NOT constitute grounds for calling someone a `war criminal```
Let me be absolutely clear about this issue and hopefully my reasons, for stating what I did, will appeal to you as an attorney. You are absolutely right in stating that such unsubtantiated evidence on any forum does not consitute war crimes. At the present these statements are at best mere allegations confirming the existence of a said crime. Given that fact, there is enough prima facie evidence, circumtancial at best, to suggest a commission of a crime. That is the extant of what has been established, through these InterActs and nothing more.
Now as a future attorney you should be aware of the distictions in alleging a crime and proving that a crime has occured. There is enough prima facie evidence to suggest a crime and if these allegations can be confirmed, by a netural third party, there will exist a reasonable assumption to issue an indictment. This is where the process gets rather opaque. First of all, you have to identify the person(s) to be charged with the indictment of a specfic crime and not on the basis of a generalized conception of what was the crime. Furthermore, indicting someone and charging them with war crimes does not consitute an automatic conviction for those said crimes. To find someone guilty of a war crime, you have to secure their conviction and you, as prosecutor, do not indict a charge of war crimes unless you can make that indictment result in a conviction.
To get that conviction, you have to establish that the person, charged, was responsible for committing those crimes. In the case of the Germans at Nurnberg, it was relatively easy, because the Germans had documented what they were doing. It is highly doubtful that the Pakistani Army kept a ``paper trial`` of what it was doing and hence, it is difficult if not impossible to secure convictions against them. You can issue an indictment against the Pakistani army personnel, but as Rishi has stated, you have to meet the burden of proof and show that specfic persons were responsible; you have to establish a direct link between them and the commission of the crime.
So far, there is enough prima facie evidence which alleges that a crime was committed. It is circumtancial enough to issue an indictment, but there is no concrete prove or evidence so far presented, which could result in the conviction of those said persons. You can issue all the indictments you want against the Pakistani Army officers, but it does not matter a whit if you can not secure a conviction! Indicting a person is meaningless unless you can turn that indictment into a conviction proving that they were quilty.
Re: Khokan #229
It was never my intention to compare, directly or indirectly, the events which happened in Bangladesh with those occuring in Kosovo. I do not need to compare genocides to be abhored by the levels of their beastiality and sheer barbarity of the evil which they portray. Neither did I ever suggest that the author was diminishing Kosovar sufferings.
As to my ``acknowledging`` the existence of the Shoah and the crimes of Hitler, I was rather amused to read that sentence. Second World War is a hobby of mine and has consumed most of my life. I personally know soldiers who liberated the concentration camps during the Second World War and I know persons who survived the Shoah. My friend, that is the reason why I responded with such dismay to your post. I take it as a personal offence when people suggest that I am denying or that I am incapable of understanding the crime of Shoah!
You wrote: ``I strongly feel that mere unsubstantiated accounts and information posted anonymously on the internet does NOT constitute grounds for calling someone a `war criminal```
Let me be absolutely clear about this issue and hopefully my reasons, for stating what I did, will appeal to you as an attorney. You are absolutely right in stating that such unsubtantiated evidence on any forum does not consitute war crimes. At the present these statements are at best mere allegations confirming the existence of a said crime. Given that fact, there is enough prima facie evidence, circumtancial at best, to suggest a commission of a crime. That is the extant of what has been established, through these InterActs and nothing more.
Now as a future attorney you should be aware of the distictions in alleging a crime and proving that a crime has occured. There is enough prima facie evidence to suggest a crime and if these allegations can be confirmed, by a netural third party, there will exist a reasonable assumption to issue an indictment. This is where the process gets rather opaque. First of all, you have to identify the person(s) to be charged with the indictment of a specfic crime and not on the basis of a generalized conception of what was the crime. Furthermore, indicting someone and charging them with war crimes does not consitute an automatic conviction for those said crimes. To find someone guilty of a war crime, you have to secure their conviction and you, as prosecutor, do not indict a charge of war crimes unless you can make that indictment result in a conviction.
To get that conviction, you have to establish that the person, charged, was responsible for committing those crimes. In the case of the Germans at Nurnberg, it was relatively easy, because the Germans had documented what they were doing. It is highly doubtful that the Pakistani Army kept a ``paper trial`` of what it was doing and hence, it is difficult if not impossible to secure convictions against them. You can issue an indictment against the Pakistani army personnel, but as Rishi has stated, you have to meet the burden of proof and show that specfic persons were responsible; you have to establish a direct link between them and the commission of the crime.
So far, there is enough prima facie evidence which alleges that a crime was committed. It is circumtancial enough to issue an indictment, but there is no concrete prove or evidence so far presented, which could result in the conviction of those said persons. You can issue all the indictments you want against the Pakistani Army officers, but it does not matter a whit if you can not secure a conviction! Indicting a person is meaningless unless you can turn that indictment into a conviction proving that they were quilty.
Re: Khokan #229
It was never my intention to compare, directly or indirectly, the events which happened in Bangladesh with those occuring in Kosovo. I do not need to compare genocides to be abhored by the levels of their beastiality and sheer barbarity of the evil which they portray. Neither did I ever suggest that the author was diminishing Kosovar sufferings.
As to my ``acknowledging`` the existence of the Shoah and the crimes of Hitler, I was rather amused to read that sentence. Second World War is a hobby of mine and has consumed most of my life. I personally know soldiers who liberated the concentration camps during the Second World War and I know persons who survived the Shoah. My friend, that is the reason why I responded with such dismay to your post. I take it as a personal offence when people suggest that I am denying or that I am incapable of understanding the crime of Shoah!
#247 Posted by OMAR1974 on April 30, 1999 3:56:46 pm
Although I do not claim to be a philosopher I do have an observation to make:
TRUTH, like many other things in life, is in the EYE OF THE BEHOLDER.
Everyone wants to play the victim, as i have stated repeatedly, personal tragedies are just that, personal tragedies, including my own family`s. If you are innundated by too many acounts of them you begin to develop simplistic, wider, all encompasing theories of a conflict between good and evil men. Many parties have a vested interest in presenting their personal tragedies in the best possible light, see for example the personal, heart rending account written by a Bengali professor (posted by some one earlier in this discussion) about the events of March 25/26. Now examine carefully the deeply emotional, rhetorical language used to sway the reader into completely ignoring the events preceeding, the ommissions about these peaceable students being armed to the teeth, and the readers into be left believing that Bengalis were nothing more than innocent victims of genocide. I challenge all such narrow, biased accounts of a human tragedy if they are to be used as a tool of an all encompassing theory which requires far more careful scrutiny. They are one-sided to say the least. And this has been going on for nearly 3 decades. Just because Pakistanis and the world have been deluged by such a barrage of these accounts, told and retold by the vested interests of one side of PARTISANS, and repeated by a variety of humanitarianly inclined foreign reporters who viewed the conflict in strict moral terms as one between `the freedom loving people of Bangla Desh` Vs. the `Colonial dictatorship` of West Pakistan, when these tales, an admixture of outright lies, ommissions and half truths were repeated to them (were recorded and spread), in a bitter civil war does not mean that they should be allowed to go unchallenged entirely in shaping our view of ALL the events of 1970-71 by any means.
OMAR MIRZA
TRUTH, like many other things in life, is in the EYE OF THE BEHOLDER.
Everyone wants to play the victim, as i have stated repeatedly, personal tragedies are just that, personal tragedies, including my own family`s. If you are innundated by too many acounts of them you begin to develop simplistic, wider, all encompasing theories of a conflict between good and evil men. Many parties have a vested interest in presenting their personal tragedies in the best possible light, see for example the personal, heart rending account written by a Bengali professor (posted by some one earlier in this discussion) about the events of March 25/26. Now examine carefully the deeply emotional, rhetorical language used to sway the reader into completely ignoring the events preceeding, the ommissions about these peaceable students being armed to the teeth, and the readers into be left believing that Bengalis were nothing more than innocent victims of genocide. I challenge all such narrow, biased accounts of a human tragedy if they are to be used as a tool of an all encompassing theory which requires far more careful scrutiny. They are one-sided to say the least. And this has been going on for nearly 3 decades. Just because Pakistanis and the world have been deluged by such a barrage of these accounts, told and retold by the vested interests of one side of PARTISANS, and repeated by a variety of humanitarianly inclined foreign reporters who viewed the conflict in strict moral terms as one between `the freedom loving people of Bangla Desh` Vs. the `Colonial dictatorship` of West Pakistan, when these tales, an admixture of outright lies, ommissions and half truths were repeated to them (were recorded and spread), in a bitter civil war does not mean that they should be allowed to go unchallenged entirely in shaping our view of ALL the events of 1970-71 by any means.
OMAR MIRZA
#246 Posted by khokan on April 30, 1999 3:56:46 pm
To FerozK (Reply # 248):
The Pakistani army did leave a paper trail. Furthermore, even today, some 27 years after the genocide, there are enough eye witnesses left.
A good example is the wholesale and systematic murder of the Bengali intellectuals. General Rao Farman Ali had personally drawn up the list of intellectuals earmarked for ``elimination``. The list was recovered and would have been part of the evidence in a war crime trial if it had taken place.
I don`t know whether FeorzK is aware that specific charges were drawn up against 195 military officers who were among the 90,000 that surrendered on 16th December, 1992. But the war crime trial could never take place. Here are the two main reasons for it:
(1) Geopolitical compulsions had allied Communist China and Democratic America firmly on the side of Yahya Khan`s military regime. It is a wonder that Bangladesh could be liberated in spite of the Pindi-Peking-Washington axis. Even after 16th December, administrations in China, America and most of the Muslim majority nations remained solidly against Bangladesh - none of them would brook of war crime trials that would see the prosecution of anyone who had committed crimes for the Yahya Khan regime.
(2) Taking into account the geopolitical compulsions of China and America, Bhutto played his cards very skillfully:
(2a) Bhutto had the Hamoodur Rehman Commission report suppressed to protect the military leaders and himself from any charge of wrongdoing. To this day, this report has not been released to the Pakistani public. The ruling elite in Pakistan has closed its ranks to keep the report suppressed for ever.
(2b) Bhutto resorted to sheer blackmail to scuttle the war crimes trials. He threatened that Bengalis stranded in West Pakistani, especially those in the military and in the civil service, will be put on trial for treason if Bangladesh goes ahead with the war crime trials of the 195 officers. He also declared that the stranded Bengalis will not be allowed to return to their homeland unless everyone of the the 90,000 POWs are returned to Pakistan.
Reason 2b was probably the principal reason why the Bangladesh government had to capitulate. There wasn`t an official in the Bangladesh government who didn`t have a relative or friend stranded in West Pakistan. They couldn`t push for justice without endangering their near and dear ones. Bangladeshi officials also realized, to their dismay, that China and America, in gratitude for Yahya Khan`s role in Pindi-Washington rapproachment, will do their best to punish Bangladesh for daring to go ahead with the war crime trials.
Kissinger was particularly cynical. It is indeed astonishing how a survivor of the holocaust in Germany could be so cynical. Leaked out transcripts from first week of December, 1971 show how he was determined to tilt toward Pakistan at any cost. At one point, he tells his aides that once the Pakistan army surrenders, there`s bound to be reprisals. He ordered that he be informed immediately of any act of reprisal so that he can immediately lodge a protest. And this from the man who had decided to turn a blind eye to the murder of 3 million civilians for the last 9 months!
It is indeed ironic that while Bangladesh had to agree to abandon the war crime trials (at least for the time being) to enable the Bengalis stranded in Pakistan to return to their homeland, Pakistan`s ruling elite cared only for its members. It was happy to bring back the 90,000 POWs but, to this day, it doesn`t care a damn that a quarter million ``Biharis`` have had their lives on hold for the last 27 years in UN-run refugee camps. Pakistan feigns lack of funds to do the needful. It has enough money to run proxy wars in Afghanistan and in Kashmir, but it has not a penny to spare for the repatriation of the ``Biharis.``
Pakistan`s ruling elite had used the ``Biharis`` as its cat`s paw to do its dirty work. But the ``Biharis`` were of no use to the ruling elite after the surrender of Pakistan`s army on 16th December, 1971. The ``Biharis`` were quickly abanodned to their fate like the rind of a squeezed lemon.
The Pakistani army did leave a paper trail. Furthermore, even today, some 27 years after the genocide, there are enough eye witnesses left.
A good example is the wholesale and systematic murder of the Bengali intellectuals. General Rao Farman Ali had personally drawn up the list of intellectuals earmarked for ``elimination``. The list was recovered and would have been part of the evidence in a war crime trial if it had taken place.
I don`t know whether FeorzK is aware that specific charges were drawn up against 195 military officers who were among the 90,000 that surrendered on 16th December, 1992. But the war crime trial could never take place. Here are the two main reasons for it:
(1) Geopolitical compulsions had allied Communist China and Democratic America firmly on the side of Yahya Khan`s military regime. It is a wonder that Bangladesh could be liberated in spite of the Pindi-Peking-Washington axis. Even after 16th December, administrations in China, America and most of the Muslim majority nations remained solidly against Bangladesh - none of them would brook of war crime trials that would see the prosecution of anyone who had committed crimes for the Yahya Khan regime.
(2) Taking into account the geopolitical compulsions of China and America, Bhutto played his cards very skillfully:
(2a) Bhutto had the Hamoodur Rehman Commission report suppressed to protect the military leaders and himself from any charge of wrongdoing. To this day, this report has not been released to the Pakistani public. The ruling elite in Pakistan has closed its ranks to keep the report suppressed for ever.
(2b) Bhutto resorted to sheer blackmail to scuttle the war crimes trials. He threatened that Bengalis stranded in West Pakistani, especially those in the military and in the civil service, will be put on trial for treason if Bangladesh goes ahead with the war crime trials of the 195 officers. He also declared that the stranded Bengalis will not be allowed to return to their homeland unless everyone of the the 90,000 POWs are returned to Pakistan.
Reason 2b was probably the principal reason why the Bangladesh government had to capitulate. There wasn`t an official in the Bangladesh government who didn`t have a relative or friend stranded in West Pakistan. They couldn`t push for justice without endangering their near and dear ones. Bangladeshi officials also realized, to their dismay, that China and America, in gratitude for Yahya Khan`s role in Pindi-Washington rapproachment, will do their best to punish Bangladesh for daring to go ahead with the war crime trials.
Kissinger was particularly cynical. It is indeed astonishing how a survivor of the holocaust in Germany could be so cynical. Leaked out transcripts from first week of December, 1971 show how he was determined to tilt toward Pakistan at any cost. At one point, he tells his aides that once the Pakistan army surrenders, there`s bound to be reprisals. He ordered that he be informed immediately of any act of reprisal so that he can immediately lodge a protest. And this from the man who had decided to turn a blind eye to the murder of 3 million civilians for the last 9 months!
It is indeed ironic that while Bangladesh had to agree to abandon the war crime trials (at least for the time being) to enable the Bengalis stranded in Pakistan to return to their homeland, Pakistan`s ruling elite cared only for its members. It was happy to bring back the 90,000 POWs but, to this day, it doesn`t care a damn that a quarter million ``Biharis`` have had their lives on hold for the last 27 years in UN-run refugee camps. Pakistan feigns lack of funds to do the needful. It has enough money to run proxy wars in Afghanistan and in Kashmir, but it has not a penny to spare for the repatriation of the ``Biharis.``
Pakistan`s ruling elite had used the ``Biharis`` as its cat`s paw to do its dirty work. But the ``Biharis`` were of no use to the ruling elite after the surrender of Pakistan`s army on 16th December, 1971. The ``Biharis`` were quickly abanodned to their fate like the rind of a squeezed lemon.
#245 Posted by OMAR1974 on April 30, 1999 3:56:46 pm
Mr.Nawaz Khan,
Do not flatter yourself with believing that this is in any way about Z.A Khan’s actions anymore. This is about exposing the utter Moral Bankruptcy and duplicity of the ahistorical ‘truth’ propagated by Bengali nationalists. The world has swallowed the myths and tall tales propagated by Bengalis long enough, while as I indicated at laborious length earlier, it has been conveniently forgotten that the Bengalis were in fact responsible for starting a genocidal nightmare. The time line is very critical. Who were the looting mobs who rampaged from March 1 onwards? Were the residents of Jagannath Hall really ‘unarmed civilians’ etc? I think Bengalis have long propagated a self serving version of truth that as I have stated in my thesis in Chowk through numerous post prior to L.Rushbrook Williams Excerpts being posted, is a creation of Bengali national myth-identity and mass hysteria, as well as justificatory VERSIONs of history as narrated by a PARTISAN side in the conflict which has every interest in seeing it half wit version propagated and giving false testimony to visiting foreign journalists to bolster its standing. This has gone on for too long.
As for your comments about prof. Rushbrook, being a ‘paid agent’ of Pakistan, well sort of criticism was entirely forseeable move by you, therefore like a good lawyer I had also posted Rushbrook’s impressive academic credentials. They speak for themselves.
I also note that you actually justify the indiscriminate burning down of both public and private property in early March by bloodthirsty lawless Bengali mobs in the face of the utmost restraint shown by Pakistan’s army. Quite frankly I am amazed after your bloodthirsty, and biased remarks (couched in `liberation` rhetoric) that Bengalis have the absolute GALL to ask for Apologies and WAR CRIMES TRIALS! Just like my family’s personal story of tragedy in 1947, which itself read alone is not indicative of Muslim outrages against largely innocent Hindus in Lahore etc, your accounts are also equally one sided read alone. Considering the carnage Bengalis wrought in 1971, it is highly hypocritical for them to assume a self serving version of events and omissions in which they are portrayed solely as victims, ‘freedom lovers’ (I say murderous freedom lovers) and demand trials of those, who restored some semblance of order. But I note, they are quick to call for ‘justice’, being winners as far as being on the ‘right side’ of history, counting on liberal Western sympathies for their nationalist movement fighting against an ‘ obviously oppressive dictatorial regime’. The real story is not so clear, the generals were willing to hand over power, but not at the price of the break up of the country, which is what Mujib wanted from the start, and made clear in those fateful days in March. Mujib wanted to impose his absolute will without any desire for flexible political compromise. He even clearly stated that the ‘6 point plan’ was no longer a subject for negotiation or any flexibility. Let us not forget he demanded Pakistan become a ‘Confederation’, which implies the right of succession. As for the West Pakistan political parties participation in drawing up a constitution, they could go hang themselves. It is because President of United Pakistan Yahya Khan (a tragic figure indeed) did not want a hung assembly and a divided parliament that the convening of the National Assembly was postponed initially till March 3rd. Bengali riots had started by March 1st. Their lack of good faith is obvious. The planning for the takeover of East Pakistan in conjunction with Indian support had been going on long before March 25/26th. This story should be read by those Pakistanis who have any ‘guilt-complex’ whatsoever about ‘what the Pakistan army may have done’ in 1971 in East Pakistan.
OMAR MIRZA
(Scourge of those [any] who assume a holier than thou, simple minded attitude about complex political-historical events).
Do not flatter yourself with believing that this is in any way about Z.A Khan’s actions anymore. This is about exposing the utter Moral Bankruptcy and duplicity of the ahistorical ‘truth’ propagated by Bengali nationalists. The world has swallowed the myths and tall tales propagated by Bengalis long enough, while as I indicated at laborious length earlier, it has been conveniently forgotten that the Bengalis were in fact responsible for starting a genocidal nightmare. The time line is very critical. Who were the looting mobs who rampaged from March 1 onwards? Were the residents of Jagannath Hall really ‘unarmed civilians’ etc? I think Bengalis have long propagated a self serving version of truth that as I have stated in my thesis in Chowk through numerous post prior to L.Rushbrook Williams Excerpts being posted, is a creation of Bengali national myth-identity and mass hysteria, as well as justificatory VERSIONs of history as narrated by a PARTISAN side in the conflict which has every interest in seeing it half wit version propagated and giving false testimony to visiting foreign journalists to bolster its standing. This has gone on for too long.
As for your comments about prof. Rushbrook, being a ‘paid agent’ of Pakistan, well sort of criticism was entirely forseeable move by you, therefore like a good lawyer I had also posted Rushbrook’s impressive academic credentials. They speak for themselves.
I also note that you actually justify the indiscriminate burning down of both public and private property in early March by bloodthirsty lawless Bengali mobs in the face of the utmost restraint shown by Pakistan’s army. Quite frankly I am amazed after your bloodthirsty, and biased remarks (couched in `liberation` rhetoric) that Bengalis have the absolute GALL to ask for Apologies and WAR CRIMES TRIALS! Just like my family’s personal story of tragedy in 1947, which itself read alone is not indicative of Muslim outrages against largely innocent Hindus in Lahore etc, your accounts are also equally one sided read alone. Considering the carnage Bengalis wrought in 1971, it is highly hypocritical for them to assume a self serving version of events and omissions in which they are portrayed solely as victims, ‘freedom lovers’ (I say murderous freedom lovers) and demand trials of those, who restored some semblance of order. But I note, they are quick to call for ‘justice’, being winners as far as being on the ‘right side’ of history, counting on liberal Western sympathies for their nationalist movement fighting against an ‘ obviously oppressive dictatorial regime’. The real story is not so clear, the generals were willing to hand over power, but not at the price of the break up of the country, which is what Mujib wanted from the start, and made clear in those fateful days in March. Mujib wanted to impose his absolute will without any desire for flexible political compromise. He even clearly stated that the ‘6 point plan’ was no longer a subject for negotiation or any flexibility. Let us not forget he demanded Pakistan become a ‘Confederation’, which implies the right of succession. As for the West Pakistan political parties participation in drawing up a constitution, they could go hang themselves. It is because President of United Pakistan Yahya Khan (a tragic figure indeed) did not want a hung assembly and a divided parliament that the convening of the National Assembly was postponed initially till March 3rd. Bengali riots had started by March 1st. Their lack of good faith is obvious. The planning for the takeover of East Pakistan in conjunction with Indian support had been going on long before March 25/26th. This story should be read by those Pakistanis who have any ‘guilt-complex’ whatsoever about ‘what the Pakistan army may have done’ in 1971 in East Pakistan.
OMAR MIRZA
(Scourge of those [any] who assume a holier than thou, simple minded attitude about complex political-historical events).
#244 Posted by khokan on April 30, 1999 3:56:46 pm
OMAR1974 in reply #235 claimed:
``I strongly feel that mere unsubstantiated accounts and information posted anonymously on the internet does NOT constitute grounds for calling someone a `war criminal`...``
RESPONSE: It was not an anonymous posting that pointed to the murderer of Mr. Samsuddin, the project engineer of Wapda. The information came from Dr. Saleh Tanveer who is with the mathematics
department at Ohio State University.
Furthermore, Brigadier Z.A.Khan is not particularly bright. He has managed to incriminate not only his colleagues but even himself. For example, at any war crime trial he`ll have to answer why he took no action against soldiers under his command who had looted and destroyed a shop (owned by a retired Bengali subedar in the cantonment area) even though he was aware of the crime at the time it was committed or shortly after.
``I strongly feel that mere unsubstantiated accounts and information posted anonymously on the internet does NOT constitute grounds for calling someone a `war criminal`...``
RESPONSE: It was not an anonymous posting that pointed to the murderer of Mr. Samsuddin, the project engineer of Wapda. The information came from Dr. Saleh Tanveer who is with the mathematics
department at Ohio State University.
Furthermore, Brigadier Z.A.Khan is not particularly bright. He has managed to incriminate not only his colleagues but even himself. For example, at any war crime trial he`ll have to answer why he took no action against soldiers under his command who had looted and destroyed a shop (owned by a retired Bengali subedar in the cantonment area) even though he was aware of the crime at the time it was committed or shortly after.
#243 Posted by mnkhan58 on April 30, 1999 11:55:57 am
From Omar?s response #243
Excerpt from `The East Pakistan Tragedy` by L. Rushbrook Williams
``That the troops were confined to the barracks by the orders of the Governor, mobs armed with firearms, staves and iron bars raided business premises in Jinnah Avenue and Baitul Mukarram. The Shalimar Hotel and the Gulistan Cinema were set on fire .... On March 3, mob violence spread to other parts of Dacca, particularly Islampur, Patnakhali Bazar and Nawabpur. Shops, private houses belonging to non-supporters``
M. Nawaz Khan?s reply
April 30, 1999
Well done, Mr. Omar! Finally you?ve found some printed materials to defend your uncle. You do not have to be a ?Rocket Scientist? to figure it out that the book was written ?vilainizing? the Bengalis. Was the author present in Dhaka at the time? Or was it written purely based on personal accounts of some razakar Biharis?
I am personally satisfied to know that the Bengalis burned down Hotel Shalamar. Ask your uncle how many times he wined (I mean it literally!) and dined in that joint. Outside Hotel Shalamar was located a Kebab House by the name ?Dar-Ul Kabab.? This eatery used to be frequented by Pakistani army officers. In the late sixties the army officers from Kurmitola cantonment used to come there in the early evening with their family members for gastronomic extravaganza. Local Bengalis were persona non grata in this eatery. Punjabi and Urdu were the major vernaculars spoken in this Xanadu. The footpath adjoining this Kabab House used to be a popular hangout for Bengali street urchins. These kids would run errands for the Khan Shahibs, clean their automobiles, etc. etc. The Khans? would in return toss the leftover Kababs to these kids. Quite a ghastly sight, I might say. The colonial charades used to go on and on day-in-day-out in front of Dar-Ul Kabab. The educated middle class Bengali in Tejgaon area, where Dar-Ul Kabab and Hotel Shalamar was located, used to look at this ``colonial masters`` with nothing but disdains. I am not surprised a bit that when push came to shove the freedom loving Bengalis did the right thing, i.e., they burned down the symbol of colonialism in the heartland of Dhaka.
The author Rushbrook Williams, a paid agent of Pakistan, should have interviewed Bengalis to know a little bit of history of those infamous places in Dhaka.
Mr. Omar, find the works of some credible writers of Bangladesh Independence Struggle -- they are plentiful -- and then post relevant excerpts in this forum.
The readers may be witnessing a sea change here. I feel sorry for Mr. Omar Mirza; he is running out of ideas. So, he is now unearthing C grade chronicler of Bangladesh?s glorious freedom fight.
Well, for us the Bengalis, the discussion has just begun. Mr. Omar, you ain?t seen nothin? yet. Please fasten your seat belt. The ride is gonna be a wild one!
Excerpt from `The East Pakistan Tragedy` by L. Rushbrook Williams
``That the troops were confined to the barracks by the orders of the Governor, mobs armed with firearms, staves and iron bars raided business premises in Jinnah Avenue and Baitul Mukarram. The Shalimar Hotel and the Gulistan Cinema were set on fire .... On March 3, mob violence spread to other parts of Dacca, particularly Islampur, Patnakhali Bazar and Nawabpur. Shops, private houses belonging to non-supporters``
M. Nawaz Khan?s reply
April 30, 1999
Well done, Mr. Omar! Finally you?ve found some printed materials to defend your uncle. You do not have to be a ?Rocket Scientist? to figure it out that the book was written ?vilainizing? the Bengalis. Was the author present in Dhaka at the time? Or was it written purely based on personal accounts of some razakar Biharis?
I am personally satisfied to know that the Bengalis burned down Hotel Shalamar. Ask your uncle how many times he wined (I mean it literally!) and dined in that joint. Outside Hotel Shalamar was located a Kebab House by the name ?Dar-Ul Kabab.? This eatery used to be frequented by Pakistani army officers. In the late sixties the army officers from Kurmitola cantonment used to come there in the early evening with their family members for gastronomic extravaganza. Local Bengalis were persona non grata in this eatery. Punjabi and Urdu were the major vernaculars spoken in this Xanadu. The footpath adjoining this Kabab House used to be a popular hangout for Bengali street urchins. These kids would run errands for the Khan Shahibs, clean their automobiles, etc. etc. The Khans? would in return toss the leftover Kababs to these kids. Quite a ghastly sight, I might say. The colonial charades used to go on and on day-in-day-out in front of Dar-Ul Kabab. The educated middle class Bengali in Tejgaon area, where Dar-Ul Kabab and Hotel Shalamar was located, used to look at this ``colonial masters`` with nothing but disdains. I am not surprised a bit that when push came to shove the freedom loving Bengalis did the right thing, i.e., they burned down the symbol of colonialism in the heartland of Dhaka.
The author Rushbrook Williams, a paid agent of Pakistan, should have interviewed Bengalis to know a little bit of history of those infamous places in Dhaka.
Mr. Omar, find the works of some credible writers of Bangladesh Independence Struggle -- they are plentiful -- and then post relevant excerpts in this forum.
The readers may be witnessing a sea change here. I feel sorry for Mr. Omar Mirza; he is running out of ideas. So, he is now unearthing C grade chronicler of Bangladesh?s glorious freedom fight.
Well, for us the Bengalis, the discussion has just begun. Mr. Omar, you ain?t seen nothin? yet. Please fasten your seat belt. The ride is gonna be a wild one!
#242 Posted by mnkhan58 on April 30, 1999 11:55:57 am
Re: Post #222
Although Omar Mirza and I are engaging in a bitter
Internet debate, I uphold his right to free speech.
The sudden meddling of a PPP functionary is uncalled for. This is a big brotherly nuisance. When Omar called Sheikh Mujib a ``Ghaddar`` no Awami
League functionary got involved.
The PPP functionary needs to see some Clinton jokes on the Internet. Or watch an episode of Saturday Night Live.
Also, the way the PPP person posted, it seems to be nothing less than a threat.
---Mohammad Nawaz Khan
Although Omar Mirza and I are engaging in a bitter
Internet debate, I uphold his right to free speech.
The sudden meddling of a PPP functionary is uncalled for. This is a big brotherly nuisance. When Omar called Sheikh Mujib a ``Ghaddar`` no Awami
League functionary got involved.
The PPP functionary needs to see some Clinton jokes on the Internet. Or watch an episode of Saturday Night Live.
Also, the way the PPP person posted, it seems to be nothing less than a threat.
---Mohammad Nawaz Khan
#241 Posted by khokan on April 30, 1999 11:55:57 am
OMAR1974 quotes L.Rshbrook Williams in The East Pakistan Tragedy, ``Yet the world had been made to believe that it was the Army, not the Bengali mobs, that was guilty of genocide.`` Rushbrook, if he hasn`t changed his mind since then, will have the same complaint even today about world versus L.Rushbrook Williams on ``East Pakistan.`` Pak army officers indeed have a vested interest to embrace this version of events in ``East Pakistan`` even if it is in conflict with that in the rest of the world.
#240 Posted by OMAR1974 on April 30, 1999 11:55:57 am
Another Exerpt from `The East Pakistan Tragedy` by Professor L.Rushbrook Williams as he shatters Bengali Mythology about the events of 1971
Jagannath Hall of Dacca University had been turned into an arsenal and strong-point, manned by members of the Student?s branch of the Awami League. When troops approached it, they were received by heavy mortar and small arms fire, which was returned, as a result of which some of the militant students and one or two members of the staff who happened to be in the building became casualties? But all the other two dozen or so Halls of Residence along with the magnificent buildings of Dacca University itself, remained completely undamaged, as my wife and I saw for ourselves when we visited the University in early July. [The City is described as being completely
normal].
Moreover, there were no signs of any recent patching or repairs ... Sheikh Mujib ur Rehman was arrested at 1:30 am, on the morning of March 26th, but a number of his lieutenants, either more wary than he, or less confident than he, fled from Dacca to those parts of East Pakistan which were under Awami League control. They set on foot the most extraordinary stories. It was said that most of Dacca had been razed to the ground; that the army had mown down peaceful citizens with tanks; that a systematic campaign had been conducted to liquidate the entire intelligentsia of Dacca-writers, artists, professors, University students-the lot. All these stories found their way to the news editors of All India Radio, and were then broadcast, not only to India, but to the world outside. Some at least of these monstrous fabrications were picked up by the BBC, and were thus given even wider currency. In some known instances, an All India Radio Bulletin, picked up by the BBC, was later given a spurious authenticity by being ascribed to the BBC itself, and was again issued to Indian listeners. Most regrettably, these false rumors were not authoritatively contradicted until a later date, by which time they had been accepted by many countries of the Western world as entirely authentic. Worse still, they were swallowed in toto by many members of the East Pakistan community in Britain? By the time that the truth about Dacca became known abroad, supporters of ?Bangla Desh? were no longer receptive to it. Even the signed statement of more than 50 professors, artists,
newspaper editors, poets, and other intellectuals, to the effect that they were quite well, thank you, and that reports of their death had been much exaggerated, (as Mark Twain once remarked in similar circumstances) fell on deaf ears. No: Dacca had been destroyed, its intellectuals massacred, the Army had slaughtered innocent civilians in thousands and no one was going to persuade them otherwise. They were
confirmed in their attitude by the stream of lying reports about the ?freedom fighters,? successes when confronted by the Pakistan army.
...more information came in about the frightful atrocities committed by the Awami League hooligans upon innocent persons? no pen could do justice to their ghastly nature as shown by photographs taken ...
...Rooms splashed high with blood and carpeted with corpses; pariah dogs and crows feeding on the dead; men, women and even small children hurriedly shoveled into mass graves; bloodstained dolls and toys pathetically testifying to the fate of their baby owners-these were some of the sights which the army met when at length they overcame the obstacles of blocked roads, blown up bridges, and water transport destroyed. Of the mutineers of the East Bengal Regiment and the East Bengal Rifles, it was said they killed most of their victims cleanly; but the bestial fury of the mobs, turning upon non-Bengalis suspected of being but luke warm supporters of the League knew no restraint.
Of these massacres certain things need to be noted. First, the beginnings of them date from early March although the full fury of those who perpetrated them was not unleashed until ?D-Day? in the early hours of March 26th. Next, the evidence for them does not rest upon official records alone. In the beginning of April, a T.V team which had come to Jessore under Awami League auspices when the town was still in Rebel hands, filmed a typical example of the cold-blooded killings of Bihars, West Pakistanis, and other non-Bengali citizens. [Foreign businessmen] ? had frightful tales to tell of the massacres of their factory hands, of the burnings of property, and of mob fury?. many of them said frankly only the arrival of troops
saved their lives.
It is this Campaign of genocide perpetrated by the Awamin League mobs, and not, as the time table of events shows, the action of the Army, which set in motion the flood of refugees seeking food, safety and shelter across the Indian border. A highly disciplined force like the Pakistan army rarely gets out of hand,
even when confronted by evidence of murder, rape, and mutilation perpetrated on innocent civilians. Such occasional acts of personal vengeance as occurred were ... dealt with the full severity of military law. Even so, the wildest stories of indiscriminate killing by the Army were carefully propagated by the supporters of ?Bangla Desh? and conveyed to the outside world by every medium of mass communication. They served to augment the fears of ordinary folk, and to swell the tide of fleeing refugees.
... the Pakistan government was reluctant to make known to the outside world the terrible story of what had happened during the Awami League?s Reign of terror ... the government was afraid that if the full story of the terror were published there might be massive reprisals against Bengali residents in the West. Strict censorship avoided this danger but it also left Pakistan vulnerable to the accusations, carefully propagated by her enemies, that the atrocities occuring in East Pakistan were the work of the Army and not the Awami League mob .... The policy of releasing information only gradually about the East Pakistan massacres achieved the desired ends; there were no reprisals against people of Bengali race living in West Pakistan. But the price paid in damage to Pakistan?s ?image? abroad was heavy.
Jagannath Hall of Dacca University had been turned into an arsenal and strong-point, manned by members of the Student?s branch of the Awami League. When troops approached it, they were received by heavy mortar and small arms fire, which was returned, as a result of which some of the militant students and one or two members of the staff who happened to be in the building became casualties? But all the other two dozen or so Halls of Residence along with the magnificent buildings of Dacca University itself, remained completely undamaged, as my wife and I saw for ourselves when we visited the University in early July. [The City is described as being completely
normal].
Moreover, there were no signs of any recent patching or repairs ... Sheikh Mujib ur Rehman was arrested at 1:30 am, on the morning of March 26th, but a number of his lieutenants, either more wary than he, or less confident than he, fled from Dacca to those parts of East Pakistan which were under Awami League control. They set on foot the most extraordinary stories. It was said that most of Dacca had been razed to the ground; that the army had mown down peaceful citizens with tanks; that a systematic campaign had been conducted to liquidate the entire intelligentsia of Dacca-writers, artists, professors, University students-the lot. All these stories found their way to the news editors of All India Radio, and were then broadcast, not only to India, but to the world outside. Some at least of these monstrous fabrications were picked up by the BBC, and were thus given even wider currency. In some known instances, an All India Radio Bulletin, picked up by the BBC, was later given a spurious authenticity by being ascribed to the BBC itself, and was again issued to Indian listeners. Most regrettably, these false rumors were not authoritatively contradicted until a later date, by which time they had been accepted by many countries of the Western world as entirely authentic. Worse still, they were swallowed in toto by many members of the East Pakistan community in Britain? By the time that the truth about Dacca became known abroad, supporters of ?Bangla Desh? were no longer receptive to it. Even the signed statement of more than 50 professors, artists,
newspaper editors, poets, and other intellectuals, to the effect that they were quite well, thank you, and that reports of their death had been much exaggerated, (as Mark Twain once remarked in similar circumstances) fell on deaf ears. No: Dacca had been destroyed, its intellectuals massacred, the Army had slaughtered innocent civilians in thousands and no one was going to persuade them otherwise. They were
confirmed in their attitude by the stream of lying reports about the ?freedom fighters,? successes when confronted by the Pakistan army.
...more information came in about the frightful atrocities committed by the Awami League hooligans upon innocent persons? no pen could do justice to their ghastly nature as shown by photographs taken ...
...Rooms splashed high with blood and carpeted with corpses; pariah dogs and crows feeding on the dead; men, women and even small children hurriedly shoveled into mass graves; bloodstained dolls and toys pathetically testifying to the fate of their baby owners-these were some of the sights which the army met when at length they overcame the obstacles of blocked roads, blown up bridges, and water transport destroyed. Of the mutineers of the East Bengal Regiment and the East Bengal Rifles, it was said they killed most of their victims cleanly; but the bestial fury of the mobs, turning upon non-Bengalis suspected of being but luke warm supporters of the League knew no restraint.
Of these massacres certain things need to be noted. First, the beginnings of them date from early March although the full fury of those who perpetrated them was not unleashed until ?D-Day? in the early hours of March 26th. Next, the evidence for them does not rest upon official records alone. In the beginning of April, a T.V team which had come to Jessore under Awami League auspices when the town was still in Rebel hands, filmed a typical example of the cold-blooded killings of Bihars, West Pakistanis, and other non-Bengali citizens. [Foreign businessmen] ? had frightful tales to tell of the massacres of their factory hands, of the burnings of property, and of mob fury?. many of them said frankly only the arrival of troops
saved their lives.
It is this Campaign of genocide perpetrated by the Awamin League mobs, and not, as the time table of events shows, the action of the Army, which set in motion the flood of refugees seeking food, safety and shelter across the Indian border. A highly disciplined force like the Pakistan army rarely gets out of hand,
even when confronted by evidence of murder, rape, and mutilation perpetrated on innocent civilians. Such occasional acts of personal vengeance as occurred were ... dealt with the full severity of military law. Even so, the wildest stories of indiscriminate killing by the Army were carefully propagated by the supporters of ?Bangla Desh? and conveyed to the outside world by every medium of mass communication. They served to augment the fears of ordinary folk, and to swell the tide of fleeing refugees.
... the Pakistan government was reluctant to make known to the outside world the terrible story of what had happened during the Awami League?s Reign of terror ... the government was afraid that if the full story of the terror were published there might be massive reprisals against Bengali residents in the West. Strict censorship avoided this danger but it also left Pakistan vulnerable to the accusations, carefully propagated by her enemies, that the atrocities occuring in East Pakistan were the work of the Army and not the Awami League mob .... The policy of releasing information only gradually about the East Pakistan massacres achieved the desired ends; there were no reprisals against people of Bengali race living in West Pakistan. But the price paid in damage to Pakistan?s ?image? abroad was heavy.
#239 Posted by OMAR1974 on April 30, 1999 3:35:56 am
Excerpt from `The East Pakistan Tragedy` by L.Rushbrook Williams
On March 1, Awami League militants looted and burned many shops and houses and raided the Narayanganj Rifle club for arms. Almost all the students of Dacca University, except committed militants, had gone to their homes. Iqbal Hall and Jagannath Hall were used as centers from which armed gangs dispersed to collect arms, vehicles and money. On March 2, 2 firearms shops were looted and the arms were taken to an arsenal which was being started in Jagannath Hall. Practice firing in the University grounds was heard all day. On the previous night there had been looting and arson; encouraged by the fact
That the troops were confined to the barracks by the orders of the Governor, mobs armed with firearms, staves and iron bars raided business premises in Jinnah Avenue and Baitul Mukarram. The Shalimar Hotel and the Gulistan Cinema were set on fire .... On March 3, mob violence spread to other parts of Dacca, particularly Islampur, Patnakhali Bazar and Nawabpur. Shops, private houses belonging to non-supporters
of the Awami League and business premises were looted and set on fire. In the disturbances 5 people were killed, 62 wounded ... Violent intimidation continued against all those who were not active supporters of the Awami League; radio and T.V stations in Dacca were compelled to play the new national anthem of ‘Bangla Desh.’ More raiding of arms shops and more looting took place ... On the night of March 5-6, militant students tried to set fire to the British Council premsis, but troops arrived to drive them off.
Whenever the troops went into action, a minimum of force was used; they did not interfere with peaceful processions or political meetings, but only with mobs engaged in looting and arson.
...[Mujib] seized upon the firing of the Army on looters and rioters in Dacca to hail those who fell as martyrs; and on March 7 he announced plans for setting up a parallel government of his own… In the days that followed, the Awami League and their supporters, reinforced by lawless elements which, in Pakistan as elsewhere, are always ready to take advantage of any disturbance of the peace, ranged unchecked through the streets of Dacca, terrorising possible opponents and molesting the persons and properties of non-Bengalis ... Nor were these things confined to Dacca; in many places in East Pakistan frightful atrocities were inflicted by Awami League ruffians upon non-Bengalis and upon all who were not open supporters of Sheikh Mujib Ur Rehman. There seems to have been little trace of religious intolerance about the killings, beatings, and burnings; the criterion was political and Muslims suffered as much as Hindus. But no doubt the occasion was seized to pay off old scores and gratify private greed and enmity.
On March 1, Awami League militants looted and burned many shops and houses and raided the Narayanganj Rifle club for arms. Almost all the students of Dacca University, except committed militants, had gone to their homes. Iqbal Hall and Jagannath Hall were used as centers from which armed gangs dispersed to collect arms, vehicles and money. On March 2, 2 firearms shops were looted and the arms were taken to an arsenal which was being started in Jagannath Hall. Practice firing in the University grounds was heard all day. On the previous night there had been looting and arson; encouraged by the fact
That the troops were confined to the barracks by the orders of the Governor, mobs armed with firearms, staves and iron bars raided business premises in Jinnah Avenue and Baitul Mukarram. The Shalimar Hotel and the Gulistan Cinema were set on fire .... On March 3, mob violence spread to other parts of Dacca, particularly Islampur, Patnakhali Bazar and Nawabpur. Shops, private houses belonging to non-supporters
of the Awami League and business premises were looted and set on fire. In the disturbances 5 people were killed, 62 wounded ... Violent intimidation continued against all those who were not active supporters of the Awami League; radio and T.V stations in Dacca were compelled to play the new national anthem of ‘Bangla Desh.’ More raiding of arms shops and more looting took place ... On the night of March 5-6, militant students tried to set fire to the British Council premsis, but troops arrived to drive them off.
Whenever the troops went into action, a minimum of force was used; they did not interfere with peaceful processions or political meetings, but only with mobs engaged in looting and arson.
...[Mujib] seized upon the firing of the Army on looters and rioters in Dacca to hail those who fell as martyrs; and on March 7 he announced plans for setting up a parallel government of his own… In the days that followed, the Awami League and their supporters, reinforced by lawless elements which, in Pakistan as elsewhere, are always ready to take advantage of any disturbance of the peace, ranged unchecked through the streets of Dacca, terrorising possible opponents and molesting the persons and properties of non-Bengalis ... Nor were these things confined to Dacca; in many places in East Pakistan frightful atrocities were inflicted by Awami League ruffians upon non-Bengalis and upon all who were not open supporters of Sheikh Mujib Ur Rehman. There seems to have been little trace of religious intolerance about the killings, beatings, and burnings; the criterion was political and Muslims suffered as much as Hindus. But no doubt the occasion was seized to pay off old scores and gratify private greed and enmity.
#238 Posted by OMAR1974 on April 30, 1999 1:41:54 am
From the Inside Jacket of the book, ‘The East Pakistan Tragedy’ by L.Rushbrook Williams.
Few writers are more qualified to discuss the complex situation that ripped Pakistan apart than L.Rushbrook Williams. Professor Williams has spent most of his adult life studying and teaching Indian and Pakistan history, and has lived in these countries for long periods of time. While Professor of Modern Indian History at Allahabad University, he built up a school of Mughal studies, among young, Indian scholars. He was invited by the Indian government to help prepare Indian constitutional reforms. During his years in India, he formed close friendships with such leaders of the Indian nationalist movement as Jawaharlal Nehru, and his father Motilar, Tej Bahadur Sapru, Madan Mohan Malviyd, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, and many other important figures, in Indian politica life. Subsequently he became director of the government of India Department of Public Relations.
Professor Williams has distinguished himself as a journalist as well as a historian and diplomat, and is the Asian Specialist on the editorial staff of the Times ... ; it [this book] traces President Yahya Khan’s determined efforts to hand over power to democratic institutions; the progress made, the difficulties encountered; and it describes in detail the tragic intransigence of the Awami League and the anarchy and suffering which resulted therefrom.
Few writers are more qualified to discuss the complex situation that ripped Pakistan apart than L.Rushbrook Williams. Professor Williams has spent most of his adult life studying and teaching Indian and Pakistan history, and has lived in these countries for long periods of time. While Professor of Modern Indian History at Allahabad University, he built up a school of Mughal studies, among young, Indian scholars. He was invited by the Indian government to help prepare Indian constitutional reforms. During his years in India, he formed close friendships with such leaders of the Indian nationalist movement as Jawaharlal Nehru, and his father Motilar, Tej Bahadur Sapru, Madan Mohan Malviyd, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, and many other important figures, in Indian politica life. Subsequently he became director of the government of India Department of Public Relations.
Professor Williams has distinguished himself as a journalist as well as a historian and diplomat, and is the Asian Specialist on the editorial staff of the Times ... ; it [this book] traces President Yahya Khan’s determined efforts to hand over power to democratic institutions; the progress made, the difficulties encountered; and it describes in detail the tragic intransigence of the Awami League and the anarchy and suffering which resulted therefrom.
#237 Posted by OMAR1974 on April 30, 1999 1:41:54 am
The following is an excerpt from the book, ‘The East Pakistan Tragedy,’ by L.Rushbrook Williams
published in N.Y by Drake Publishers Inc.
The widespread and inhuman massacres of men, women and children by Awami League Militants during their brief reign of terror in March and April 1971, although factually reported by several foreign correspondents, aroused comparatively little attention in the world. Yet this was true genocide in the worst sense of the word. Some of the victims were West Pakistanis, many of whom had been settled for years; the majority were Bihari Muslims, who had come to East Pakistan at the time of partition, and had lived there for more than two decades, peaceably and trustingly. Ironically enough, some of those who were brutally murdered were Bengali by race, who had come from such places as Rangoon, Bombay and Calcutta to live in a Muslim majority land. In the eyes of their murders their offense was threefold; they did not support an independent ‘Bangla Desh’ even though many of them had voted for the maximum local autonomy for East Pakistan which was the main platform of the Awami League’s election programme; they did not speak the local patois of Bengali; above all, their industry and hard work had made them relatively prosperous --- the fact that this prosperity was shared by the locality in which they lived and that they gave employment to many was overlooked. The total butcher’s bill for these few terrible weeks will never be known; but from the mass graves which the Army found when at last it was able to fan out from its stations and restore order, the numbers murdered cannot be less than 120,000 and may be far higher, as many corpses were just thrown into the rivers and carried away. It was these mass killingss, raher than the actions of the Army, which set in motion the exodus across the Indian border, although no doubt some of the refugees, particularly the committed ‘Bangla Desh’ partisans, feared lest they might be denounced for their crimes to the authorities when order was restored. Many consciences, too, must have been uneasy about the looting,
arson, and terrorism which, even if they had taken no part in them, they had done little or nothing to stop.
There is some evidence, too, of the deliberate spread of false rumors about the fearful vengeance which the Army was about to exact when it arrived. The joint effect of all this was to set in motion a wave of mass-panic which carried millions of frightened people across the Indian border. Yet the world had been made to believe that it was the Army, not the Bengali mobs, that was guilty of genocide.
published in N.Y by Drake Publishers Inc.
The widespread and inhuman massacres of men, women and children by Awami League Militants during their brief reign of terror in March and April 1971, although factually reported by several foreign correspondents, aroused comparatively little attention in the world. Yet this was true genocide in the worst sense of the word. Some of the victims were West Pakistanis, many of whom had been settled for years; the majority were Bihari Muslims, who had come to East Pakistan at the time of partition, and had lived there for more than two decades, peaceably and trustingly. Ironically enough, some of those who were brutally murdered were Bengali by race, who had come from such places as Rangoon, Bombay and Calcutta to live in a Muslim majority land. In the eyes of their murders their offense was threefold; they did not support an independent ‘Bangla Desh’ even though many of them had voted for the maximum local autonomy for East Pakistan which was the main platform of the Awami League’s election programme; they did not speak the local patois of Bengali; above all, their industry and hard work had made them relatively prosperous --- the fact that this prosperity was shared by the locality in which they lived and that they gave employment to many was overlooked. The total butcher’s bill for these few terrible weeks will never be known; but from the mass graves which the Army found when at last it was able to fan out from its stations and restore order, the numbers murdered cannot be less than 120,000 and may be far higher, as many corpses were just thrown into the rivers and carried away. It was these mass killingss, raher than the actions of the Army, which set in motion the exodus across the Indian border, although no doubt some of the refugees, particularly the committed ‘Bangla Desh’ partisans, feared lest they might be denounced for their crimes to the authorities when order was restored. Many consciences, too, must have been uneasy about the looting,
arson, and terrorism which, even if they had taken no part in them, they had done little or nothing to stop.
There is some evidence, too, of the deliberate spread of false rumors about the fearful vengeance which the Army was about to exact when it arrived. The joint effect of all this was to set in motion a wave of mass-panic which carried millions of frightened people across the Indian border. Yet the world had been made to believe that it was the Army, not the Bengali mobs, that was guilty of genocide.
#236 Posted by OMAR1974 on April 30, 1999 1:41:54 am
Re: CONFUSION OVER THE AUTHOR OF #233
First I thought this was a reposting of a cutoff FerozK post, then I realized that someone on Chowk Staff decided to enter the debate w/o bothering to sign their name. Personally, I think this is somewhat unfair because it created some confusion for me. But life isin`t about being `fair`. I learned lo live with that long ago. So should the `adults.`
My remarks directed at Ferozk posted earlier are hence actually directed to the Chowk Staff. No reply is necessary, but I just don`t want to create further confusion.
First I thought this was a reposting of a cutoff FerozK post, then I realized that someone on Chowk Staff decided to enter the debate w/o bothering to sign their name. Personally, I think this is somewhat unfair because it created some confusion for me. But life isin`t about being `fair`. I learned lo live with that long ago. So should the `adults.`
My remarks directed at Ferozk posted earlier are hence actually directed to the Chowk Staff. No reply is necessary, but I just don`t want to create further confusion.
#235 Posted by OMAR1974 on April 30, 1999 1:41:54 am
Ras commented:
CHOWK and Jamal Hasan have made history.
Response: Amused. I don`t know about that. But i will say its interesting to find so many care about the issues involved. However, aside from incorrectly including Brig. Z.A Khan`s name, there is virtually nothing in this article i, or any well read person has not read before.
As for the bihari issue, frankly considering the number of Bangladeshis that have managed to come to Pakistan over the years since 1971 (many illegally), i think if the Biharis were willing to come, there was always a way. They could have gotten themselves smuggled across the borders of India and Pakistan into Pakistan long ago like many Bengalis did. In 27 years they could even have walked across India into Pakistan. Its ridiculous for them to be sitting there. What do they think they are waiting for? for godot to come? Industrious people don`t sit around and wait for things to happen (like Pie to fall from the sky), they make them happen. Where there is a will there is a way. No excuses. The govt of Pakistan has behaved miserably towards them, but self-help and the fact some? have families in Pakistan should be enough if they wanted to leave their present squalid conditions.
CHOWK and Jamal Hasan have made history.
Response: Amused. I don`t know about that. But i will say its interesting to find so many care about the issues involved. However, aside from incorrectly including Brig. Z.A Khan`s name, there is virtually nothing in this article i, or any well read person has not read before.
As for the bihari issue, frankly considering the number of Bangladeshis that have managed to come to Pakistan over the years since 1971 (many illegally), i think if the Biharis were willing to come, there was always a way. They could have gotten themselves smuggled across the borders of India and Pakistan into Pakistan long ago like many Bengalis did. In 27 years they could even have walked across India into Pakistan. Its ridiculous for them to be sitting there. What do they think they are waiting for? for godot to come? Industrious people don`t sit around and wait for things to happen (like Pie to fall from the sky), they make them happen. Where there is a will there is a way. No excuses. The govt of Pakistan has behaved miserably towards them, but self-help and the fact some? have families in Pakistan should be enough if they wanted to leave their present squalid conditions.
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