[This
was published on 22 December in the African Herald Express in South Africa and on
12 December 2012 in Dhaka Courier in Bangladesh]
Every
year, 16 December is officially observed as ‘Victory Day’ in Bangladesh since
on this very day Bangladesh, erstwhile East Pakistan, emerged as a full-fledged
free, sovereign and independent state on earth through the historic surrender of
Pakistan Armed Forces in the Eastern theatre under the command of
Lieutenant-General Amir Abdullah Khan Niazi to Lieutenant-General Jagjit Singh
Aurora, General Officer Commanding in Chief of the Indian and Bangladesh Forces
in the Eastern theatre, after a 9-month bloody war of liberation that began with
the declaration of independence on 26 March 1971 from the yoke of internal
colonization of Pakistan. During this period holocausts entailing crimes
against humanity, genocide and war crimes done here by Pakistani army have
been measured and judged as one of the ugliest events against mankind for which
the question of Pakistan’s apology to Bangladesh arose and became a burning
issue. Therefore, the asking is ‘Has Pakistan ever truly apologized to
Bangladesh? Or Is Pakistan perusing an evasive policy under the camouflage of
tactical and baffling words and phrases ‘forgive and forget? Answer lies,
perhaps, in visiting and revisiting the related events starting from 1974 down to
the date.
Pakistan
recognized Bangladesh on 22 February 1974 and Father of the nation Prime
Minister Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman visited Pakistan at the invitation
of thee Pakistan’s Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto to attend the second
Organization of the Islamic Conference in Lahore from 22-24 February 1974. Subsequently a
Trilateral Agreement was stricken between Bangladesh, India and Pakistan on 09
April 1974 in New Delhi which was signed by the foreign ministers of the three countries
Dr. Kamal Hossain of Bangladesh, Swaran Singh of India and Aziz Ahmed of
Pakistan. Interestingly enough, paragraph 14 of the agreement contained
"The Prime Minister of Pakistan declared that he would visit Bangladesh in
response to the invitation of the Prime Minister of Bangladesh and appealed to
the people of Bangladesh to forgive and forget the mistakes of the past in
order to promote reconciliation. Similarly, the Prime Minister of Bangladesh
had declared with regard to the atrocities and destruction committed in
Bangladesh in 1971 that he wanted the people to forget the past and to make a
fresh start, stating that the people of Bangladesh knew how to forgive."
Following
this very determination of Bangabandhu and Bhutto paragraph 15 included, among
others, ‘Having regard to the appeal of the Prime Minister of Pakistan to
forgive and forget the mistakes of the past the ‘Foreign Minister of Bangladesh
stated that the government of Bangladesh had decided not to proceed with the
trial as acts of clemency. It was agreed that the 195 prisoners of war may be
repatriated to Pakistan along with the other prisoners of war now in the
process of repatriation under the Delhi Agreement of 25th August
1973’
It
is well-believed and well-conceived that the issue was discussed at length during
Bangabandhu’s visit to Pakistan where he might have been requested by leaders
of OIC countries to normalize relations with Pakistan by making a breakthrough
on this vital concern. What Bangabandhu did was just a ‘quick but courageous response’
to a call of time, space and dimension with a cautious attention to the then national,
bi-lateral, regional and global political landscapes. Later, Prime Minister
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto paid an official visit to Bangladesh in June the same year
and he also visited National Martyrs' Memorial (Jatiyo Smriti
Soudho) at Savar,
which was critically reacted in Pakistan. History carries records that Bhutto this
time did not act in pursuance of the spirit of Paragraph 14 of the Trilateral
Agreement. Therefore, the matter of Pakistan’s formal apology remained frosty
and unsettled.
However, then both states discussed
an agreement in 1975 in which Bangladesh agreed to take up half of Pakistan's
pre-1971 external debt provided Bangladesh received half of the country's
pre-1971 assets and credit went unresolved. As of today no initiative is
noticeable in practice from Pakistan.
Now
the question is what these 15 and 14 paragraphs actually convey in their
entirety since there are chronic demands from Bangladesh that Pakistan should
seek apology to Bangladesh for the crimes committed here during the war of
liberation from 26 March to 16 December 1971? There may be volumes of focuses
by various shades of think-tanks, political parties, organizations and associations,
national or international, on the paragraphs 14 and 15, even so reality unfolds
the truth that was not the end of the issue of Pakistan’s apology to Bangladesh
since the burning question of the day was to take back war of prisoners to
Pakistan to get away from another catastrophe there. The matter should not go
beyond this limit.
On
all counts it was not an apology from the standpoints of apology since apology
in true sense of implication and application denotes four principles
specifically as cited by Dr. Cat In his book ‘Helping Handbook: A Compassionate
Guide for Being Human’ namely (a) Acknowledgement of the nature and extent of
the victims’ suffering; (b) Taking 100% responsibility for causing the
suffering (c) Asking for forgiveness without expectation or demand (d) Offering
to make amends and follow on this commitment. This is so far considered the
best acceptable and accommodative model and it was duly applied by East Germany
whilst East
Germany Speaker Sabine Bergmann Pohl in a televised session of Parliament on 12
April 1990 read "East Germany's first freely elected Parliament admits
joint responsibility on behalf of the people for the humiliation, expulsion and
murder of Jewish women, men and children," and apologized for East
Germany's role in the Soviet-led invasion that crushed reforms in
Czechoslovakia in 1968’.
He
also said ‘East Germany is prepared to make reparations to Nazi victims and
urged establishment of diplomatic relations with Israel’. Parliament approved a
declaration saying: "Jews in all the world and the people of Israel are
asked to forgive us for the wrongs they experienced. Persecuted Jews should be
granted asylum in the future in East Germany." Before that, West Germany
has apologized for Nazi atrocities and has paid reparations to Jews.
Japan’s
repeated apologies to China and Korea in meticulous are not in a position to
move the hearts of the people of China and Korea as some essential points are
missing in Japan’s apology.
Therefore,
explanation and logic should be forwarded to the direction that it was just a
beginning to reach at the goal and, hence, more pragmatic and material
initiatives and supports anointed with responsibility should be shown and taken
by Pakistan pointedly and visibly to touch the heart of the people of
Bangladesh for the reason that holocaust in the past at times gets stored and
carries also a kind of ballooning germs that swel and affect present and future
seriously. And that has exactly happened in case of Pakistan’s apology.
With these realities in true perspective, Pakistan’s
President General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq visited Bangladesh, first after the severe cyclone hit on
Chittagong, Cox's Bazar, Noakhali and coastal islands (Sandwip, Hatiya, and
Urirchar) in
May, 1985 and secondly in December 1985 during the inauguration of SARRC
wherein all the heads of governments of SARRC countries gathered together. He visited
the national memorial and told Bangladesh's media persons, "Your heroes
are our heroes" and on 10 October 1989 Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto came to Bangladesh but
she did not touch the issue. In January 1998 Nawaz Sharif, during his second
term as Prime Minister of Pakistan, visited Bangladesh and he could not hide
the truth and, honestly enough, standing on the vey soil of Bangladesh for the
first time as a leader of Pakistan he regretted for the past acts.
President General Perez Musharaf came to Bangladesh
on 29 July 2002 and regretted for the same. On his arrival he first visited
the National Memorial for 1971 martyrs at Savar and wrote in the visitors’
book: "I
bring sincere greetings and good wishes from the Islamic Republic of Pakistan
for their Bangladeshi brethren and sisters. We wish this land and its people
peace, progress and prosperity." The Pakistani leader continued:
"Your brothers and sisters in Pakistan share the pain of the events of
1971. The excesses during that unfortunate period are regrettable. Let us bury
the past in a spirit of magnanimity. Let not the light of the future be dimmed.
Let us move forward together. I am confident that with our joint resolve
Pakistan-Bangladesh friendship will flourish in the years to come."
In his banquet address the next day, he said:
"My brothers and sisters in Pakistan share with their fellow brothers and
sisters in Bangladesh profound grief over the parameters of the events of 1971.
As a result of this tragedy a family having common religious and cultural
heritage and united by a joint struggle for independence and a shared vision of
the future, was torn apart. We feel sorry for this tragedy and the pain it
caused to both our peoples."
However, Musharraf's
outburst of regret accompanied with a clarion call to Bangladesh to move
forward together cannot be equated with apology, Scores of think-tanks, medias,
organizations, associations and political parties dubbed it as a
"cosmetic" one and "a cunning effort to sidetrack the historic
crime against humanity" while some others also felt that Musharraf's words
indicated no change in the old Pakistani mindset although it sounded deceptively
so in the changed environment while very few called it a positive move towards
destination.
Prime Minister Shauhat Aziz is the last
leader of such stature and standing from Pakistan who visited Bangladesh in
2004 but remained silent o this issue.
From Bangladesh side President
General HM Ershad visited Pakistan in 1986, Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia in
1992, 1995, 2004 and 2006 and Sheikh Hasina in 1998 in her
first term as Prime Minister when the Indo-Pakistan tension was at the highest
level due to the testing of nuclear bombs as a tit for tat by both countries. But none of them
viably touched the issue of apology during their visits. Even Khaleda Zia did
not retouch the issue of apology In line with Musharaf’s regret during her
visits to Pakistan in 2004 and 2006.In fact, the matter was sidetracked or not
so sounded from Bangladesh side during the period from 1975 to 1996. The
issue of Pakistan's "unconditional apology" and "sharing of
pre-Independence assets" gained ground officially only when Sheikh Hasina was
in power from 1996 to 2001.
Apart from official requests
through diplomatic channels, Sheikh Hasia while delivering speeches in the UN
millennium summit in New York in September 2000 also demanded Pakistan's
apology for the events of 1971. Surprisingly enough, Pakistan's Deputy
High Commissioner in Bangladesh, Irfan-ur-Rahman Raja, told a seminar in Dhaka
on 27 November 2000 that atrocities committed during the 1971 war were started
by "miscreants of the Awami League”, Bangladesh’s current ruling party, and
not by the Pakistani army. He also quoted a recently-published Pakistan
judicial commission report into the conflict, which put the number of dead at
only 26,000 - not the three million claimed by Bangladesh. Bangladesh reacted
seriously and lodged a very strong protest against such undiplomatic norms and
suppression of the true history of the genocide during the war of liberation. Later
he was declared persona non-grata and Bangladesh asking him to leave Bangladesh
within 15 December in the same year. He did so accordingly.
It came to the forefront
again without
more ado after Sheikh Hasina was voted to power for the second
time in 2009. Foreign
Minister of Bangladesh Dr. Dipu Moni raised the issue of seeking formal
apologies by Pakistan when the new Pakistan High Commissioner called on her on
12 May 2009.
In fact, during the last four years, Dhaka's ties with
Islamabad have been limited to visits of Bangladesh's education and commerce
ministers and the parliamentary speaker to Islamabad and foreign
secretary-level official consultations in November 2010. Then on a
six-hour visit to Bangladesh Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar came
to Bangladesh on 8 November 2012 to formally invite Prime Minister Sheikh
Hasina to attend the D-8 Summit in Islamabad on November 22. She called on both
the PM and the leader of the Opposition. However, at the start she had a ‘cut
and dry’ meeting with her Bangladeshi counterpart Dipu Moni at the latter’s
office. Later, foreign secretary
Mijarul Quayes
in a press brief disclosed that during the talks Dipu Moni asked Hina Rabbani that
Pakistan should seek unconditional apology to Bangladesh for the atrocities committed
during the war of liberation and expected
that Pakistan would apologize at one stage. In an instant response Pakistani foreign minister said that they have regretted in
different forms in the past and that it was time to move forward’.
It was just a reiteration of Pakistan’s
old stand’ and was impregnated with a kind of evasive but politico-diplomatic
expression setting aside the burning issue standing as ALPS between these two
brotherly Muslim countries of OIC. Notwithstanding anything contained in the words
and expressions of the leaders of Pakistan about apology to Bangladesh, the issue
is gaining well ground gradually in various circles including political
parties, medias and civil societies in Pakistan. Furthermore, major issues such as
apportionment of assets and liabilities and repatriation of stranded Pakistanis
(non-Bengalis) have not been resolved till today.
Therefore, at the end of Bangladesh’s passing of forty one years of
Victory Day again the hunting question is that Will Pakistan look into the
issue from the standpoints of crude reality and history bearing in mind that the
healing power of true apology is so appealing, extensive and encompassing,
which, if applied correctly and reasonably, is almost sure to touch the very
heart(s) of the sufferer(s) piercing through or going beyond all limitations,
factual or fictitious? Cannot Pakistan set an encouraging example before the
world at large with a spirit of unfolding forward-looking nation and modern
state? Shall Pakistan take lesson from the glorious history of South Africa otherwise
as well?
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