Geneva, 08 October (EBF/OurVoice): International conference for the recognition of genocide in 1971 will be held at the United Nations side event on Tuesday.
The title of the conference is ‘Justice and Peace : Bangladesh genocide 1971’. The event is being jointly organised by European Bangladesh Forum, Global Solidarity for Peace and International Human Rights Commission, Switzerland and Bangladesh Support Group at the UN building in Geneva, Switzerland.
Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Bangladesh to the UN Offices and other International Organizations in Geneva Mohammad Sufiur Rahman will join the side event as the chief guest and BASUG Chairman Bikash Chowdhury will chair the session. Among others, former veteran Member of the Dutch Parliament and a human rights activist Harry van Bommel, British journalist and publisher of EU Today, Gary Cartwright, lecturer at the Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs at Leiden University, Netherlands and a Pakistani descent Aleena Khan, senior journalist and researcher at the University of Bonn Dr. Hossain Abdul Hai, President of Baloch Voice Association, France Munir Mengal, exiled Chairman of United Kashmir Peoples National Party, Switzerland Sardar Shaukat Ali Kashmiri, President of Global Solidarity for Peace Belgium Murshed Mahmud and the President of International Human Rights Commission Bangladesh, Switzerland Khalilur Rahman Mamun will address the session.
It may be recalled that in 1971 Pakistan military committed one of the worst mass atrocities that the world witnessed in the 20th century. The Pakistani occupation army in nine months killed approximately three million people, violated over two hundred thousand girls and women and forced ten million people to cross the border and take shelter in India. The 1971 Genocide by the Pakistan Army is well documented and reported in the international media and also in the diplomatic correspondences during that period.
