The Spoils of War: Transitional Justice in Bangladesh

In 2009, Bangladesh's Awami League began a process to try `collaborators' for their alleged crimes during the 1971 Liberation War. This single case study approach focuses on the nearly forty years between 1971 and 2009 in an attempt to understand why transitional justice was delayed and why prosecutions were chosen over other mechanism (i.e. truth commission, lustrations, etc.). It suggests that the decision of when and how to implement justice in the aftermath of violent conflict is based upon political elements - parties, actors, international organizations - thereby supporting an already well-understood dynamic of post-conflict reconstruction. This research, therefore, examines four factors were critical in shaping the timing and structure of transitional justice in Bangladesh: (1) the availability of a peace agreement; (2) involvement of regional and international community actors; (3) culpability of decision makers/political elites; and (4) domestic political stability.