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| Bangladesh |
| Dhaka bans travel by 'war criminals' |
| 2009-01-31 |
| Bangladesh has imposed travel restrictions on people suspected of war crimes, the Bangladeshi interior minister said on Friday, as the new government prepared to put them on trial over atrocities committed during the 1971 war that led to the country's creation. Sahara Khatun's statement came a day after parliament unanimously adopted a proposal for speedy trials of war criminals in line with an election pledge by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who took power this month. "My ministry has already ordered concerned authorities to guard all points so that no war criminal can flee the country," Khatun told reporters. The war criminals include people who opposed the creation of Bangladesh. Around 3 million people were killed during the war, according to official records in Bangladesh. Hasina's father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the country's founding leader and first president, launched a move for trying the war criminals but it stalled after he was killed in a 1975 army coup. No successor government initiated the trials but Hasina said she would pursue the guilty if her party was voted back to power. "All relevant information about the war criminals has already been sent to the respective places," Khatun said. |
| Posted by:Fred |