George H. Stanton, the founding president of Genocide Watch, made an announcement on Thursday marking the 50th anniversary of the Pakistani military's atrocities against Bangladesh - genocide.
Highlighting the 23-year history of exploitation and deprivation of Pakistanis by Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and the liberation struggle of the people of Bangladesh, the statement said, Genocide Watch acknowledges that the Pakistani army committed crimes against Bengalis during Bangladesh's 1971 war of independence. Among them were Genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes'.
Genocide Watch has called on the UN General Assembly to pass a resolution recognising these crimes and genocide internationally.
The Declaration of Genocide Watch also calls on the Pakistani government to compensate Bangladesh for the 1971 incident 50 years ago.
In December 2021, Touhid Reza Noor, a renowned researcher and son of the martyred intellectual journalist Sirajuddin Hossain, applied to Genocide Watch for this recognition.
He has long been working worldwide to gain recognition for the genocide of 1971.
Touhid Reza Noor told the media, "This international recognition of the genocide that took place during the liberation war in Bangladesh is a great achievement for our nation. I'm proud to be involved."
The Washington D.C.-based NGO works to predict, prevent, stop, and punish genocide and other forms of mass murder.
"These crimes by the Pakistani Military Forces constituted the crimes against humanity of murder, extermination, deportation or forcible transfer of population, imprisonment or other severe deprivation of physical liberty, torture, rape, sexual violence, persecution, enforced disappearance of persons, and other inhumane acts," the declaration states.
"Strong evidence supports the conclusion that the crimes committed against the Bengalis of East Pakistan during 1971 were widespread and systematic and carried out by the Pakistani Army, other militia forces (Razakars, Al Badr, Al Shams etc.), and pan-Islamic political forces (including Jamat e Islam, Nezam e Islam and the Muslim League).
"Conclusive research by internationally recognized genocide experts indicates that the nature, scale and organization of the Pakistani Military operations demonstrates planning and intentional design by the Pakistani junta leadership and military command to destroy a substantial part of the Bengali ethnic and national group and a substantial part of the Bengali Hindu religious group," the report said.
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