Guerilla warfare may be prolonged
By A Staff Reporter, NEW DELHI, September 19: L’Abbe Pierre, member of the French resistance (Maquis) during World War II, thinks that the Mukti Bahini has a slender chance of forcing the issue unless it can count on international cooperation.
Mr. Pierre, who is here to attend the international conference on BanglaDesh said that even the Maquis could not have been very effective without international co-operation. His experience of guerilla warfare was in an European setting and he has not studied the situation in BanglaDesh. But he feels that the guerilla warfare in BanglaDesh would have to be long drawn out, carried on with great perseverance. There would be great suffering. He feels that Pakistan Government’s military action in BanglaDesh could not go on for any length of time without economic aid. The civil war has already destroyed the principal source of its revenue. International community, therefore, can force it to accept a rapid political solution.
YAHYA’S ATTITUDE But, according to him, there is one unknown factor. This is the personality of General Yahya Khan, “I do not know if he has sufficient political finesse to understand the needs of his people,” he says.
He would not like to humiliate Pakistan – “I am a man of peace, you see.” and would prefer a solution which could save the face of General Yahya Khan and at the same time is acceptable to the people of BanglaDesh. That would be the best solution to the present crisis. “But, I know that such a solution is impossible.”
He does not agree that the present situation in BanglaDesh is an internal matter of Pakistan. A similar plea was made by Germany when it established special camps for jews. It was then argue that since they were German citizens, the international community had no business to intervene, “But very soon Germany started killing the citizens of other countries as well.”
He likens the situation in BanglaDesh to an outbreak of cholera. It may be an internal affair of the country concerned, but the international community promptly imposes medical restrictions. “You may call it a very sentimental view,” he says.
BRITISH ROLE
Mr. Fred Evans, British MP, who is associated with the Bangladesh Committee in Wales, feels that his country should have done much more to resolve the crisis in BanglaDesh.
He thinks that there is still a slight chance of a political solution if General Yahya Khan, in a moment of generosity, admits that “some insane things” have been done by his Army in BanglaDesh, if West Pakistanis leave BanglaDesh, and if Sheik Mujibur Rahman is released and agrees to let the past bury its dead. “I don’t say it is a very practical solution. But there is just a slender chance that it might work out. It needs a bit of probing,” he said.
He feels that it was up to the U.K. and the U.S.A to take initiative in raising the issue of Bangladesh in international forums, particularly the U.N.
Mr. Evans wanted to visit the refugee camps, but he has to go back because of the Parliament session this week. He would prepare the case studies of at least 50 persons, men, women and children, retracing their lives back to March 25 when the Yahya hordes began their genocide. These case histories would convey the tragedy of BanglaDesh in a much more effective way to the people in the West.
IMMEDIATE REACTION
He feels that the readers of newspapers and TV viewers have been overexposed to the scenes of horror. Consequently, their sense of sympathy had been blunted. But if they were told of the misery in individual lives, particularly that of children, they would react immediately. These case histories would have to wait till the returns to India.
Mr. Evans feels that because of the Russian commitment in West Asia, Berlin, on the Chinese border and, to a lesser degree, in Africa, it may not be possible for the USSR to take any active interest in an armed clash in the sub-continent. It could not stretch its resources beyond a certain limit. If, on the contrary, it did intervene, China was sure to jump into the fray. In the final analysis, India may have to face the situation all alone.
Mr. Evans feels that the issue of the recognition of BanglaDesh could be reopened in the British Parliament. By getting a few more members to sign the old resolution, it could be resurrected.
Reference: Hindustan Standard, 20.09.1971