Framing law to stop enforced disappearances at final stage: CA

Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus today said the government is going to frame a law to stop enforced disappearances in the country.

In his address to the nation this evening the CA said the law is almost at the final stages and will be finalised in a few days.

"We have started the process of uncovering the truth about the past 16 years of enforced disappearances, murders and torture, including the massacres that took place in July-August last year, and the endless corruption, irregularities and crimes in the financial sector," he said.

He said trial of the perpetrators of crime against humanity is in the process. In view of this International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) has been established, prosecution team and investigation officers were appointed.

"We were optimistic about starting the trial as soon as possible. The trial of the massacre that took place in July has already begun. We are providing all the necessary cooperation from the government so that the trial is completed quickly," he said. 

The courtroom of the ICT has been equipped with digital technology, he said adding for the first time in history judicial activities are being broadcast live or recorded in the media with the permission of the court.

He hoped this will increase people's confidence in the judiciary and the propaganda about the trial will stop. 

Pointing out the investigation of the ICT prosecution team, the CA said, people loyal to the ousted regime set fire on police stations, hospitals and important government offices in a bid to destroy or burn documents.

He said attempts were made to destroy the evidences of torture on the people of enforced disappearance by breaking and distorting the shapes and walls of torture centers.

The chief adviser said investigation officers are working to recover and restore various digital evidences, such as videos, audios, internet data, which have been deleted or destroyed, using the technology. He also sought cooperation from the countrymen in this work.

"A large number of people became of enforced disappearances in the last 16 years. Those people were kept in detention centers, some of them kept under arrest only in a three-feet-by-three-feet room," he said.

An independent commission on disappearances is working tirelessly to investigate the occurrences and bring those involved in this heinous crime to justice, he said.

"The commission found that many detainees were killed by cutting their bellies and stuffed in cement bags and drowned in rivers, they were pushed injections to make people unconscious and thrown into burning brick kilns, under trains and cars," Yunus said.

The commission has so far submitted two interim reports and they are still receiving new complaints all the time, he mentioned.

Three hideouts were unearthed in Dhaka, Chapainawabganj and Bogura where the victims of enforced disappearance were detained. The commission have already been visited those places and recorded the testimonies of the victims, he said.

Yunus said public hearings were held at the university and madrasas to increase people's involvement in the investigation. 

A total of more than eight hundred students, teachers and the general public participated in the public hearings, he said.