Bangladesh
Practice Relating to Rule 52. Pillage
Bangladesh’s Army Act (1952), as amended to 2006, states:
Any person subject to this Act who, on active service, commits any offence against the property … of any inhabitant of, or resident in, the country in which he is serving shall, on conviction by court martial, be punished with rigorous imprisonment for a term which may extend to fourteen years, or with such less punishment as is in this Act mentioned.
Bangladesh’s Air Force Act (1953), as amended to 1978, states:
Any person subject to this Act who commits … any offence against the property or person of any inhabitant of, or resident in, the country in which he is serving;
shall, on conviction by court-martial, be liable to suffer short imprisonment.
Bangladesh’s International Crimes (Tribunal) Act (1973) provides that “plunder of public and private property” is a war crime. It adds that the “violation of any humanitarian rules applicable in armed conflicts laid down in the Geneva Conventions of 1949” is a crime.
In 2010, during a debate in the UN Security Council on the protection of civilians in armed conflict, the Counsellor of the Permanent Mission of Bangladesh stated: “My delegation urges all parties to conflicts to ensure protection of the … property of civilians.”