Special Tribunals To Try Bangladesh Mutineers-Govt

Witnesses said about 1,000 Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) troops who had fled their headquarters after the two-day mutiny.

Special tribunals will try paramilitary mutineers who killed at least 80 people, mostly army officers, in an uprising last week, government and military officials said on Sunday.

More than 70 people are still missing after the mutiny by members of the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) border guards, which broke out on Wednesday in a dispute over pay and command, officials said.

The bodies of officers, and some members of their families, have been found in mass graves within the BDR compound in Dhaka and in sewers and canals. The mutiny spread to about a dozen smaller towns across Bangladesh.

Witnesses said about 1,000 BDR troops who had fled their headquarters after the two-day mutiny had returned and were having their identities checked outside the complex.

Police said they had identified up to 1,000 BDR members for investigation over the mutiny in a process that could lead to formal charges, including murder.

Government minister Syed Ashraful Islam said the decision to set up the tribunals was made at a cabinet meeting led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Saturday. No details about the tribunals were released.

An investigation led by Home Minister Shahara Khatun has been told to hand down its first findings within a week.

Government officials said Hasina had told cabinet ministers and army chief General Moeen U. Ahmed during several hours of talks at army headquarters on Sunday that all those involved in the mutiny would be brought to justice.

US, BRITISH, UN HELP

Hasina has sought assistance from the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), in a telephone conversation with U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher, to investigate the mutiny, Bangladesh's Foreign Ministry said.

"We will punish the killers and their mentors after proper investigation and fair trial," Hasina told parliament on Sunday. "We will also seek assistance from Scotland Yard (British police) and cooperation from the United Nations to probe the mutiny." Parliament unanimously condemned the uprising.

Former prime minister Begum Khaleda Zia, leader of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, blamed the government for failing to rescue the besieged officers immediately after the rebellion broke out.

One of the survivors, Lieutenant-Colonel Mohammad Salam, told reporters not all BDR troops had taken part.

"Some even sheltered and saved their officers," he said.

Hasina's government will give 1 million taka ($14,520) to the families of each of the victims of the mutiny, which ended on Thursday after Hasina first offered an amnesty and then threatened stronger action and regular troops surrounded the BDR compound.

Army spokesman Brigadier-General Mahmud Hasan said 72 officers were missing after the mutiny. BDR officers are usually seconded from regular army units.

Bangladesh army officials have described the mutiny as the biggest massacre of defence commanders anywhere in the world.

The military at the weekend pledged its loyalty to Hasina, who came to office two months ago after winning a parliamentary election in December that brought to an end two years of emergency rule by an army-backed interim government.

"We want the killers identified and punished," Hasan said.

Bangladesh has suffered several military coups since independence in 1971 but this mutiny was not politically motivated, officials have said.

It still came as a blow to Hasina, who must convince foreign investors and aid donors she can bring stability to a country where 40 percent of the 140 million population live in poverty.

Hasan said 63 officers have been found dead so far, including BDR commander Major-General Shakil Ahmed, and another 23 were injured. About 20 members of the officers' families living on the base were killed, including Ahmed's wife.