The US is sharpening its criticism of Bangladesh's tribunal on war crimes after death sentences were upheld this week against two influential opposition leaders.
US lawmakers overseeing foreign policy described the tribunal as "very flawed" and a means of political retribution. The State Department was less pointed, saying yesterday that executions should not take place until it's clear the trial process meets international standards.
More than 15 people, mostly leaders of the opposition Jamaat-e-Islami party, have been convicted of war crimes committed during the country's 1971 independence war against Pakistan by two separate tribunals set up in 2010 by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who says justice for victims' families is overdue.
The Bangladesh government says that Pakistani soldiers, aided by local collaborators, killed 3 million people and raped 200,000 women during the war. While rights groups say atrocities were committed and there needs to be accountability, international doubts over the legal proceedings are intensifying.
On Wednesday, Bangladesh's Supreme Court upheld death sentences against Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid of Jamaat-e-Islami, who were convicted in 2013 on charges including genocide and rape during the war.
Stephen Rapp, who until August served as President Barack Obama's ambassador for war crimes, said it was "disturbing" that Chowdhury was denied the right to call alibi witnesses, including a former US ambassador, to provide testimony that he was not present in Bangladesh at the time the alleged crimes were committed.
Human Rights Watch said the tribunal allowed the prosecution to call 41 witnesses, while Chowdhury's defense was limited to four witnesses.
Hasina, leader of the Awami League party, denies the tribunal's actions have been motivated by the South Asian nation's bitterly divided politics, but leaders of the House Foreign Affairs Committee voiced concern that "democratic space is shrinking" in Bangladesh amid "a growing climate of violence, fear and self-censorship."
Bangladesh was the eastern part of Pakistan until the 1971 war of independence that arose after the military leaders in the west of Pakistan responded to a crushing election victory by the east-based Awami League party then led by Hasina's father with a bloody crackdown.
That culminated in a war with neighbouring India that Pakistan lost, leading to the creation of Bangladesh.
