In the last few weeks, I have felt like someone watching
history in the (re)making in Dhaka, rather than someone participating in life
in Dhaka. It’s been a reminder of how
much collective memory and experience matters in the present; there are things
you can’t learn and pick up just by being here for a few years. Lived history is one of them.
Recently, there have been several individuals on trial for
their actions during the bloody war for independence in 1971. Many have been given the death
sentence. When one of the notorious
leaders (known as the “butcher
of Mirpur”) was given a life sentence instead of the death penalty, Dhaka
exploded into a full-fledged demonstration, symbolically centered in Shahbag,
near Dhaka University, the birthplace of most movements in Bangladesh. Since February 4th, there have
been people gathered there at night and many days to demand “justice,” which in
their eyes means the death penalty. I
can’t speak for the motivations of all the protesters, but it does seem
pertinent to mention is that many fear that if he just gets a life sentence,
when the opposition party comes into power (which could occur in 2014 during
the next elections), he’ll be pardoned and released. Death is a more secure and permanent form of
punishment.
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