THE TIMES OF INDIA, JUNE 12, 1971
BANGLADESH PLEA TO THOSE
GIVING RELIEF
“The Times of India” News Service
New Delhi, June 11. Mr. M.A. Samad roving ambassador of Bangladesh today urged the world community to ensure that the relief it was providing for the suffering millions in Bangladesh reached the people rather than the West Pakistani war machine. In a statement here he said that the only effective way of doing this was to channelize the relief supplies through the Bangladesh Government which commands the full confidence and unqualified allegiance of the people.
If this course of action was not acceptable to the relief-givers supplies should be distributed by international organizations themselves or by neutral countries. Mr. Samad again appealed to U Thant, the U.N. Secretary General to allow the Bangladesh representatives to place their case before the U.N., particularly the Security Council.
He was concerned over the failure of the international community to do anything particular for the people inside Bangladesh who were being ruthlessly massacred, maimed and uprooted from their hearths and homes by the occupation force of Gen. Yahya Khan. “The world should not sit idle when democracy is chained and throttled in Bangladesh.”
All Governments and the U.N. should use sanctions against Islamabad to end genocide and planned starvation of the people of Bangladesh, secure immediate withdrawal of the occupation army from Bangladesh and bring about the release of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
Mr. Samad, who recently attended the Budapest peace conference and visited several European capitals, said that according to the information with his Government people in Bangladesh were dying in large numbers of famine and epidemics. The monsoon was adding to their misery as the occupation army had made many of them homeless. The bulk of relief supplies the Islamabad Government had received for the victims of the cyclone of November last are being used by the West Pakistani army to massacre the innocent and unarmed people of Bangladesh.”
The West Pakistani troops must be withdrawn from cantonments to ensure effective distribution of relief.
Mr. Samad was confident that the international community which was aware of Islamabad’s perfidy would compel Gen. Yahya Khan to allow proper distribution of relief.