The BDR Special Tribunal convicted 29 BDR members for mutineering and committing reprehensible acts that really just begin at murder.
The Times has published a Reuters piece that runs through a good chunk of the relevant facts and the pertinent history behind the mutiny.
The verdicts were expected, and I might even think less severe than many had hoped. In a certain sense, there is a tragic momentum to these trials and in most cases the outcome is not in doubt. Hence, the proceedings aren’t as revelatory as are the consequences of the proceedings. This is Bangladesh’s attempt to turn a corner in its history with its military and, the sitting government, has finally been given the opportunity to do right by the armed forces, an entity that has overrun so much of Bangladesh’s political biography.
It helps then that contrary to other local news oulets the Reuters piece alludes to a bit of the politics of the mutiny.
Consider a passage from that piece:
“The mutiny, less than two months after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina took office for the second time, threatened the stability of her government and raised fears of military intervention”.
“Instead of calling in the army to quell the mutiny, Hasina chose a negotiated settlement and may have spared the south Asian nation worse carnage, officials and analysts said.”
“Her political rivals, including former prime minister Begum Khaleda Zia, said summoning the military would have crushed the revolt more quickly and saved lives.”
“The dead included the then-BDR chief Major-General Shakil Ahmed, his wife and a number of civilians. The rebels buried most of the bodies in mass graves and tossed some into sewers.”
“The revolt undermined attempts to restore democracy after two years of emergency rule by an army-backed interim authority.”
Before the trials even began the frame that might capture the government’s conduct was up for grabs. In this, it seems the sitting AL government has come out the victor. This, even though the BNP has enjoyed a closer relationship with the military than has any AL government. The sitting government has done well by not allowing this event to mar the rebirth of democracy in Bangladesh, one that is normatively anchored on liberal principles–or so one hopes.
The crux of interest the story of this mutiny, the center that holds the nations’ attention is that the atrocities committed during those two days call back to the vicious and genocidal acts committed by the Pakistani military during its rampage throughout much of 1971 during what is now termed Bangladesh’s Liberation War. Compound the burden of that history to the fact that the military has administered the country for a longer period of time than has any democratically elected administration. In some ways, then, this a test for the government to show the military that it intends to act in good faith. The implicit proviso is that in turn, the military must also act in good faith and that democracy must be bolstered as a consequence.
The proceedings of this trial are meant to neutralize some of the complaints that might allow the military to move in ways that undermine, finally, this running, newly resurgent democracy that might well stand for the hopes of millions.
