Demonstration staged in France demanding recognition of 1971 genocide

ZOOMBANGLA DESK: Members of different organizations including Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist and Christian Unity Council of France on Friday called on the international community and the UN to give recognition to the 1971 genocide of Bangladeshis by Pakistan.

They made the call from a demonstration staged in Paris.

Joining the demonstration the participants said that the 1971 genocide of Bangladeshis by Pakistan is considered to be the largest and longest since it covers the entire length of the nine-month-long liberation war of Bangladesh.

`Ironically the Bangladesh genocide remains unrecognized while other genocides in Europe and Africa have been acknowledged,’ they added.

Participants also raised slogans against Pakistan for the mass killings in Bangladesh (then East Pakistan) in 1971.

Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist and Christian Unity Council of France also organized a poster exhibition at the same venue on Friday. The exhibition depicted the Pakistan Army-led genocide in Bangladesh in 1971 and large-scale violence as well as torture that the Pak army inflicted on the Bengali population of then East Pakistan.

Rights group says the horrors of 1971 are considered as one of the worst mass atrocities in history.

The damage they inflicted can be described in the following numbers– as many as three million people were killed, up to 2,00,000 women were violated and over 10 million people were forced to cross the border to India to seek shelter.

There have been consistent efforts by the Bangladesh government, families of the victims and human rights groups for the UN recognition of the 1971 genocide. But the world body remains consistently silent over it, even though it has, in recent years, given recognition to the Armenian genocide, and also acted decisively on the Bosnian, Cambodian and Rwandan genocides.