ABSTRACT
The ongoing national trial of international crimes in Bangladesh is one of the few national issues that have attracted scrutiny, often polarised, domestically and internationally. The Bangladesh independence war in 1971 witnessed widespread and grave atrocity crimes committed by the Pakistani army and its local para-militia (Razakars, al-Badr, and al-Shams). The post-independence reconciliation required Bangladesh to deal with its 1971 traumatic experience. It opted for a transitional justice process to transit from its violent past to a peaceful future, enacted a special national law to govern this justice process in 1973, and established exclusively domestic international crimes tribunals (ICTs), which have since 2011 been prosecuting, trying, and punishing the perpetrators of the atrocity crimes committed in 1971.
