Ever since the Awami League came to power, it has been insisting on such an apology from Pakistan, following time-honoured international norms and conventions.

This with good reason, as the Awami League was the leading political party that spearheaded the struggle, first for regional autonomy and then for outright independence. Its charismatic leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, father of present Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wazed, is the founder of Bangladesh.

Interestingly, not all leaders nor political parties in the East were quite as firm in their stand on breaking away from Pakistan. Some of them later joined such groups or parties as the religion-based Jamat-e-Islami or the Bangladesh Nationalist Party. Broadly described as the pro-Pak group in Bangladesh, just as the League is sometimes seen as being pro-India, these groups have never pressed Pakistan for the tragic incidents and events of 1971.

An estimated 30,00,000, mostly unarmed, people were killed and 3,00,000 women raped by the Pak army units, which later lost their war against Indian troops and surrendered.

Media reports in Kolkata show that Bangladesh Foreign Minister Ms Dipu Moni has been quite firm in making it clear to Pakistani authorities that the issue of an official apology remains important to Bangladesh and its people.

Observers point out that since the Second World War, Japan has formally apologised to Korea for the atrocities of its troops there. Australia too has apologised to its now minuscule aboriginal population for the wholesale slaughter of natives carried out by white, mainly British, settlers.

In South Asia, after the Bengal famine engineered mainly through the dictates of British policies during the Second World war in the 1940s, the Bangladesh war has accounted for the biggest loss of human lives. Naturally Pakistan wants to wash its hands of an affair that does its international image little good, quite apart from its failure to keep its house together.

The Pak stand has been ambiguous: one section maintains that a major tripartite trade and other agreement worked out between India, Pakistan and Bangladesh contained provisions that could be seen as an apology for what happened in 1971. And President Pervez Musharraf, during his Dhaka visit in July 2003, had expressed an apology of sorts by regretting “developments in 1971.” For the rest, the uneasy Pak establishment has always stressed that “bygones should be treated as bygones” and “unfortunate” aspects of the relationship between Bangladesh and itself should not be over-emphasised. The idea was to “move on and look forward,” not raise matters that could lead to a cooling off of ties. This was made clear, according to newspaper reports here, during a visit to Pakistan by a visiting Bangladesh team of journalists, by senior Pak officials.

It remains to be seen how the League administration in Bangladesh responds to the apparent Pakistani reluctance to say sorry and acknowledge its responsibilities for the unfortunate genocide and the break-up of the country.

Both countries however, take a common stand that countries comprising the South Asian bloc should be more closely integrated in terms of trade and political ties. (IPA)