The question of genocide and the quest for justice in the 1971 war

Abstract

The 1971 war in South Asia that ended with the break-up of Pakistan and the creation of Bangladesh has been framed in terms of genocide in popular representations and the nationalist history of Bangladesh. It has been depicted as genocide by the Pakistan army against the linguistically defined ethnic Bengalis in East Pakistan, in which three million Bengalis were said to have been killed. This article explores some of the problems with categorizing the killings of 1971; assesses, using detailed information on many incidents of violence during the year, which of them might be termed genocide according to the 1948 UN Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide; considers how to treat those crimes that do not fit the definition of genocide, and what the implications are for the quest for justice for the crimes of 1971. It concludes that genocide is not the most useful framework to analyze the conflict; that some of the killings committed by both sides could be termed genocide while others might not, but that they still constitute serious crimes; and that a broader conceptualization of the violence of the war and engagement by the international community were necessary to achieve true justice for the victims of violence in 1971.