Editonial
Sub-Continent in Turmoil, Colonial War of Conquest
Pakistan’s civil war sickens the world by the savagery of the Western troops against the Eastern population, and appalls the world by the dangers of Russo-Chinese conflict in a teeming cockpit of desperate humanity. President Yahya Khan must answer for the policy of repression and its shocking enforcement, both of which increase the turmoil, the suffering and the instability in this crucial area.
What is going on is less a civil war or the suppression of a rebellion than a colonial war of conquest. President Yahya showed courage when, a year after the collapse of Ayub’s 10 year dictatorship, he held democratic elections. These, however, produced an overall majority for the East Pakistan autonomist, Sheikh Mujib, which was something that neither Yahya, nor the West-based Pakistan national army, nor the western politicians would accept. Pakistan’s whole history has shown that the only alternative was far-reaching autonomy for the East within a Federal framework. Yahya, faced by Mujib with a general strike, instead of settling for such continued links between East and West as were still possible, arrested MUJIB and sent in the Western troops.
Strict censorship and the expulsion of all foreign correspondents make it impossible to say whether the instances of brutality reported by many eye-witnesses are typical. But enough has been seen to arouse the worst fears. It seems that at best Yahya’s troops can hold the main towns and make punitive forays into the rebellious countryside. Reinforcements, if available, have to come 3,000 miles round a hostile India. It is difficult to believe that such a situation can last for long, or to see how it will end.
International concern, already aroused by the bloodshed, is now mounting on other grounds. There seems to be a danger of starvation on a vast scale, Yahya’s critics accuse him of withholding food to enforce submission, but dislocation and shortage after months of economic chaos followed by way could suffice. The Pakistan Government has asked the World bank and America for an acceleration of aid. This raised the delicate questions of whether East Pakistan is getting its share and to the admission of observers and aid teams. America, Pakistan’s main supplier of arms of all kinds, is asking that these should not continue to be used against the civilian population. Mrs. Gandhi speaks of Bangladesh as though accepting a UDI, and accuses Yahya of genocide. Pakistan accuses India of infiltrating troops as volunteers. ML Brezhnev, India’s protector, pillories Yahya.
China, Pakistan’s champion, warns India in official Press articles not to interfere, remaining loyal to the Right-wing Government in Islamabad; while Communists of various persuasions in Indian West Bengal and Pakistani East Bengal are working, as never before, for a United Bengal-which would please Mrs. Gandhi as much as President Yahya. The Burmese rebels threaten another complication. In Ceylon, where Mrs. Bandaranaike’s Marxist Government seems to run the army as badly as most other things, young Che Guevarist rebels are seriously threatening the State. Here too, troubled waters and eazer fishers.
Reference: The Daily Telegraph, April 12, 1971