Julian Francis says he still wakes up from the nightmare of the genocide of Bangladesh in 1971 when he was involved with relief activities of Oxfam.
Published : 25 Mar 2019, 09:37 PM
“Sometimes I wake up shouting and I wake up with the same bad dream in a muddy refugee camps and I have a dead baby in my arm,” he said speaking at a discussion on Bangladesh genocide 1971.
The International Affairs Sub-Committee of Bangladesh Awami League organised the discussion on Monday in observance of the black night of March 25 in 1971 when Pakistan army launched genocide in Bangladesh.
Over three million people were killed in the nine months of war before Bangladesh earned independence from Pakistan on Dec 16.
Bangladesh nationally observes Mar 25 as Genocide Day commemorating those killed by the Pakistani occupation forces on that night in 1971.
During the systematic genocide of the innocent and unarmed people of Bangladesh by the then Pakistani military regime, a quarter of a million women and young girls were raped.
Bangladesh is also lobbying for international recognition of the day.
Francis witnessed the 1971 genocide that he remembered at the discussion and said the ministry of foreign affairs should be asked “to ensure that all missions around the world must get ready to bring the issue of the genocide in 1971 to their respective host governments and to seek their cooperation.”
“Rightly or wrongly, personally I consider all the deaths of all people who left their homes as a result of the actions of the Pakistan authorities and their collaborators as genocidal deaths. Perhaps we will never know the accurate figure. It could easily be over three million,” he said.
He cited a recent survey report that had found 4,180 genocidal locations in 20 districts and in only 10 of the 20 districts surveyed it had found 695 murder points, 92 torture centres, 200 killing fields, and 351 mass graves.
“A bloodbath of hideous proportions followed. Thousands upon thousands, including women and children, were rounded up and shot, machine-gunned, or bayoneted.
“Many women were raped. From Mar 25 to Mar 31, it was estimated that about 200,000 Bengalis had been killed. An Italian priest living in Jessore at the time told me that about 10,000 had been killed in the 10 days after Mar 25 in Jessore alone.”
He said it is now up to the government to contact members of parliament, especially of Bangladeshi origin, or with strong connections to Bangladesh, in many countries of the world so that they can have debates in their respective parliaments to recognise that what happened in Bangladesh in 1971 was indeed ‘genocide’.
For instance, he said, in the British parliament’s House of Commons, there are three Labour party members including Tulip Siddiq, niece of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
“After national parliaments of different countries have officially recognised that genocide did occur in 1971, pressure can be brought to bear on different world bodies to officially recognise the Bangladesh genocide in the same way that the Holocaust of the Second World War is recognised,” Francis said.
“March 25 each year can then become recognised in Bangladesh in the same way and with the same respect as February 21 which is recognised by the UNESCO as International Mother Language Day.”
Francis has been associated with relief and development activities of Bangladesh since the War of Liberation.
In 2012, the government of Bangladesh conferred on him the ‘Friends of Liberation War Honour’ in recognition of his work among the refugees in India in 1971. In 2018, he was honoured him with full Bangladesh Citizenship.
In 2019, Julian was also honoured by the Queen Elizabeth II with the Order of the British Empire for services to development in Bangladesh.
“If you don’t teach your children what is right or what is wrong, and what is genocide, future generations will again become Hitler….because they will not know any better.
“Had you recognised our genocide, Rwanda would not have happened. If our perpetrators in Pakistan were brought to trial, Baluchistan today would not have happened,” she said.
State Minister for Foreign Affairs Md Shahriar Alam, Awami League Presidium Member Faruk Khan, Joint General Secretary Mahbub Ul Alam Hanif, retired Supreme Court judge Justice Shamsuddin Choudhury Manik, Professor of International Relations Delwar Hossain, Shammi Ahmed, Awami League’s International Affairs Secretary, were present, among others, at the event.
Muhammad Zamir, Chairman of International Affairs Sub-Committee, presided over the discussion moderated by Prime Minister’s Special Assistant Shah Ali Farhad.