On 15 October a bipartisan Resolution 1430 was introduced in the US House of Representatives in an attempt to formally recognize the crimes against ethnic Bengalis by the Pakistani armed forces in 1971 as “genocide” and “crimes against humanity”.
The genocide against Bengal is perhaps one of the most horrific crimes against humanity committed in the 20th century. After several years of efforts, two American legislators Steve Chabot, and Ro Khanna for the first time, were able to present such a resolution in the House.
In particular, the resolution expresses sympathy for the victims of Bangladesh’s nine-month War of Independence and explicitly calls attention to it. Many Bengalis, including all religious and ethnic minorities, secularists and nationalist organizations, were massacred during the infamous Operation Searchlight.
Poets, singers, teachers, journalists, doctors, scientists, writers and filmmakers were among the representatives of Bangla culture and identity who were persecuted, tortured and killed by Pakistani military forces. Three million people were thought to have died in the crimes (official Bangladeshi government figure).
Rape was used as a weapon of war against hundreds of thousands of people. Up to 50% of the population was internally displaced and nearly 10 million people fled the deadly conflict and sought protection in camps along India’s borders. Over 6 million individuals died in camps in India during the liberation war.
The eight-page resolution, titled “Recognition of the 1971 Bangladesh Genocide,” calls on the US government to recognize the genocide committed by the Pakistani military during the country’s brutal birth in 1971.
In addition, it demands that the government of Pakistan acknowledge its role in the genocide, formally apologize to the government and people of Bangladesh, and prosecute, in accordance with international law, any perpetrators who are still alive.
Genocide Watch and the Lemkin Institute for the Prevention of Genocide, two non-governmental organizations based in the United States, had earlier called for international recognition of the atrocities as ‘genocide’.
Americans opposed the government’s policy
The Blood Telegram by American diplomat Archer Blood is arguably the most accurate chronological account of what happened on that terrible night of March 25 to date. On March 28, 1971, he sent a telegram to Washington on “Selective Genocide,” in which he wrote:
“Furthermore, with the support of Pak[istan] military, non-Bengali Muslims are systematically attacking slums and killing Bengalis and Hindus. The streets of Dhaka are crowded with Hindus and others seeking to get out of Dhaka…”
Fifty years later, Congressman Steve Chabot, co-chairman of the Bangladesh caucus and member of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific, tweeted: “There was a genocide. [in Bangladesh]. We must not allow the years to erase the memory of the millions who were massacred. Genocide recognition strengthens the historical record, educates our fellow Americans, and lets potential perpetrators know such crimes will not be tolerated or forgotten.”
The US government took a radically opposed political position during the liberation war in 1971, actively supporting General Yahya Khan, the dictator of West Pakistan. Although the American people did not agree with the policies of their government at the time, they supported Pakistan and even offered military help to kill the Bengalis.
However, the American people supported the liberation struggle of Bangladesh and even brought a resolution in the US Senate to recognize Bangladesh after independence. However, the US recognized Bangladesh in April 1972.
US Senator Edward Kennedy played a crucial role in our struggle for liberation. The International Herald Tribune published a story on August 17, 1971, titled “After visiting refugees in India, Kennedy slams genocide in Pakistan,” in which Senator Kennedy condemned Pakistan’s military crackdown on East Pakistan as genocide. This report was based on his visit to refugee camps for Bengalis in India.
As Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, he submitted a report on November 1, 1971, saying, “Nothing is clearer, or more easily documented, than the systematic campaign of terror — and its genocidal consequences — of launched by the Pakistan Army on the night of March 25.”
The resolution calls on the Pakistani government to apologize to the people of Bangladesh for the atrocities that took place in 1971
The road to genocide recognition
Scholars and historians often engage in heated debates over what constitutes genocide, persecution, atrocity and massacre. Bangladesh argued that the Pakistani army committed genocide with an “intent to eliminate” a race, language, culture, heritage, traditional practices and of course religion. The attempt to eliminate ethnic minorities and the rape of women constitute crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide.
The UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, signed on December 9, 1948, states that genocide “means any of the following acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial. or religious group, as such: (a) Killing members of the group; (b) Causing serious bodily or mental injury to members of the group; (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; (d) Establishing measures to prevent births within the group; and (e) Forcible transfer of children of the group to another group”
It says that they will be punished with the following acts: “genocide; conspiracy to commit genocide; direct and public incitement to commit genocide; attempt to commit genocide; collaboration in genocide”.
The resolution has much to recommend it. Pakistan will come under pressure from the world community to unconditionally apologize to Bangladesh for atrocities committed by its army during the 1971 Liberation War if the resolution is passed by the US senate and signed by the US president.
Similarly, Bangladesh’s efforts to recognize this genocide internationally will be louder, bolder and faster. Bangladesh can approach standard global institutions like the British House of Parliament, the UN in Geneva and the European Union Parliament in Brussels to seek recognition of the genocide that took place in 1971.
Once UN recognition is gained, Bangladesh will have strong justification to demand that the perpetrators of the 1971 genocide be brought to justice in a similar manner to World War II criminals.
Furthermore, recognition of the genocide in Bangladesh would allow Pakistan’s “military establishment” to stop the ongoing ethnic persecution of the Sindhi and Baloch people, enforced disappearances and forced conversion of Hindu girls in the riot-torn provinces of Sindh and Balochistan.
The resolution also presents a chance for the US administration to atone for complicity in the massacres carried out by the Pakistani military in Bangladesh by providing direct aid and military coordination.
The fact that it took the US more than 50 years to realize what Pakistan had done in 1971 is astonishing. But it is hoped that the American people will not miss this chance to undo the mistake their government made 51 years ago. In the same spirit that they supported Bangladesh’s freedom struggle, they would stand by the families whose members were mercilessly killed by the Pakistani army in 1971.
It will not only give relief to the people of America, but it can also ensure the safety of the people of other countries in the world.
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*Strategic Affairs Researcher and Analyst, Dhaka
