PM raises 1971 genocide with ICC prosecutor

Prime minister Sheikh Hasina on Friday discussed with the International Criminal Court chief prosecutor issues relating to the trial of genocide committed by the Pakistan Army in Bangladesh in 1971.
Hasina held the discussion as ICC chief prosecutor Fatou Bom Bensouda called on her on the sidelines of Munich Security Conference in Germany, foreign secretary M Shahidul Haque said in a briefing, reported state-run news agency Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha. 
Hasina laid importance on bringing the perpetrators of the genocide to book, he said.
Fatou Bensouda informed Hasina that an ICC team would visit Bangladesh to have preliminary examinations aimed at establishing a case on atrocities committed on Rohingyas in Rakhine by Myanmar military.
She said that the ICC already brought the Rohingya issue under its jurisdiction and set up a court for trying the perpetrators.
Hasina welcomed the ICC decision for probing the allegations of atrocities committed against Rohingyas and assured the chief prosecutor of extending all possible support to the team.
The prime minister underlined the background of the killing of Bangladesh’s founding president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and his family members in 1975 and informed the ICC chief prosecutor about the trial process of the killers.
Fatou Bensouda, a national of Gambia and international lawyer, said that she knew about the murders in 1975.
She urged the prime minister to visit the ICC to speak to the judges on the issue of the trial of the 1971 genocide. 
On September 6, 2018, following a request submitted by the prosecutor pursuant to the Rome Statute, an ICC pre-trial chamber decided by majority that the court might exercise jurisdiction over the alleged deportation of the Rohingyas ‘occurred on the territory of Myanmar’ to Bangladesh.
A preliminary examination is not an investigation and does not automatically bring to the opening of an investigation, but it is a process conducted by the Prosecutor that examines the information available and submitted to her by any individual, group or State in order to reach a fully informed determination on whether there is a reasonable basis to proceed with an investigation pursuant to the criteria established by the Rome Statute, according to ICC.
Earlier, executive director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons Nobel Laureate Beatrice Fihn called on Hasina.
Fihn said in a tweet that the prime minister told her [Fihn] that she would make sure Bangladesh would ratify soon the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which includes a comprehensive set of prohibition on participating in any nuclear weapon activities.
Fihn thanked the prime minister for Bangladesh’s firm stance on nuclear weapons abolition issue and constant efforts to make South Asia a nuclear free zone, the foreign secretary said.
More than 7,20,000 Rohingyas, mostly women, children and aged people, entered Bangladesh after fleeing unbridled murder, arson and rape during ‘security operations’ by Myanmar military in Rakhine, what the United Nations denounced as ethnic cleansing and genocide, beginning from August 25, 2017.
The ongoing Rohingya influx took the number of undocumented Myanmar nationals and registered refugees in Bangladesh to about 11,16,000, according to estimates by UN agencies and Bangladesh foreign ministry.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net