RETURN OF REFUGEES
MACE SHARES P. M.’S VIEWS From Our Special Representative, NEW DELHI, May 16 – Mr. Charles Mace, leader of the team of the U. N. The High Commission for refugees said here today that he shared the Prime Minister’s desire that the refugees who had come to India from East Pakistan should go back. In this only lay the basic solution to the problem, he added.
On the question of provision of relief of the refugees from the UNO. Mr. Mace did not wish to commit himself; barring saying that his recommendations would be contained in the report he intended to submit. But he pointed out that the provision would depend on what each wing of the UNO could do.
He expressed the hope that the member nations of the UNO would play their part.
The team returned here last night after a visit to the refugee camps along the eastern border. It did not have any meeting with Government of India departments today, though team members conferred among themselves, discussing their own experience during the visit to the camps and what they would like to be thrashed out at a series of meetings which had been arranged for them tomorrow at the External Affairs Ministry and the Rehabilitation Ministry.
It is not yet known whether the team members will meet the Prime Minister. They hope to leave Delhi on Tuesday night for Geneva, where they will prepare their report for submission to headquarters.
FOOTING THE BILL
UNI ads from Lucknow that the Union Minister for Industrial Development Mr. Moinul Haq Choudhury, today demanded that either the Government of Pakistan or the countries which were responsible for arming it should bear the cost of the rehabilitation of the East Bengal refugees in India.
Speaking to reporters, Mr. Choudhury said that about 2.3 million East Bengal refugees were staying in various parts of the country. Particularly in the areas bordering East Bengal.
The Government, he added, would be forced to spend Rs. 100 crores per annum on a million refugees.
The Government, he added, should ask for compensation for their rehabilitation and would also ask the Pakistan Government to take them back.
Reference: Hindustan Standard, 17.05. 1971