THE TIMES, LONDON, JUNE 1, 1971
Editorial
BENGAL’S SUFFERING MILLIONS
For six weeks now (he flow of refugees from East Pakistan into India has gone on relentlessly, into Tripura in the east, into Assam in the north and heaviest of all into west Bengal. Despite the heroic efforts assembled by the Indian Government and by voluntary agencies there is little hope that this gigantic mass of suffering people will find all their needs can be met. The first and most urgent need is food. As this monsoon rains begin any day now shelter will become more urgent. Worst of all-in view of the difficulty of coping with it in such surroundings-is disease. As described in our report today cholera has now take to a hold that could be extremely dangerous. Yet another risk is that of communal tension in a city like Calcutta where the social fabric is brittle at best and where a stream of refugees is beginning to flow in.
The refugees, now present a much greater problem than did those who suffered from the cyclone disaster of last autumn. That was a natural disaster and one often experienced on a smaller scale. The help that was needed went to people who were trying to rebuilt their own homes and restore their own land, tasks for which their own energy was readily available and fortified by hope. The refugees coming into India are the blindly fearful sufferers of a man-made disaster. Of that there can be no doubt from the many reports sent by our correspondent from several widely separated crossing points round the border.
The evidence of the refugees does not confirm the claim made by the army authorities in East Pakistan that order has been restored and that life is returning to normal. The refugees had too many stories to tell of wantonly punitive action in villages by the Pakistan Army. Exaggerated many of the stories may have been but in the main the fears of the refugees were plainly started by brutal and indiscriminate action.
Aside from the charges and counter-charges exchanged between India and Pakistan about refugees it does seem that the Pakistan Government has not yet acted with the necessary urgency. They have been no signs yet of effective steps towards reconciliation in East Pakistan. After a long period of silence President Yahya Khan made a statement a week ago but then only to promise a further statement two or three weeks later, on how he would fulfill his promise of handing power back to the people in East Pakistan. Meanwhile what is being done to disperse the hatred that it has accumulated? Has all repressive action now ceased? The Pakistan Government has at least now conceded the need for United Nations help in the task of distributing food and medical supplies. On both sides of the border that is now the absolute priority.