The United States will help Bangladesh stage "open and transparent" trials for crimes against humanity committed during the 40-year-old Bangladesh war, a visiting US envoy said on Thursday. Bangladesh last year arrested six people, including five leaders of Jamaat-e-Islami, the principal ally of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), charged with various war crimes.
"The US government will help Bangladesh hold an open and transparent war crimes trial with the rights of defence for the accused," Stephen Rapp, US ambassador-at-large for war crimes issues, told a news conference. US officials would advise how to ensure the right to defence, he said.
They would also help investigators gather evidence. Trying war criminals was an election pledge of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who returned to power in January 2009 after polls that ended two years of rule by an army-backed interim authority. "Justice in Dhaka against war crimes will prevent recurrence of such offences elsewhere in the world," Rapp said, emphasising on the need of the trials even 40 years after they were committed. Law Minister Shafique Ahmed said last week the trials would begin in a couple of months.
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