World Bank Report On Horror In Pakistan
Henry Brandon
Washington, World Bank board members today received copies of an outspoken report on the dire situation in East Pakistan. The report was prepared by the World Bank and earlier last week Robert McNamara, the World Bank’s president, had decided to withdraw it and expunge it from the official record, McNamara’s decision to reverse himself was taken late Friday night after it had leaked to newspapers that the report had been suppressed. The Bank’s report, prepared by Peter Cargill, its director for South East Asia, confirms the dramatic descriptions of the situation in East Pakistan that have appeared in The Sunday Times.
The report was distributed with a covering note from McNamara. former US Secretary of Defense. stating that it is based on the findings of a World Bank mission that spent the first week of June in Pakistan and that its findings had been transmitted to the Government of Pakistan. It is also stated that these findings were reported to the member countries of the Pakistan Aid Consortium at an informal meeting in Paris on June 21. His note does not mention the fact that as a consequence, a formal meeting to discuss further pledges of aid to Pakistan was postponed.
The report claims that the reign of terror by Government troops continues in East Pakistan, that the economy is paralysed and urban life badly shattered. It says that guerrillas are still fighting against the Yahya regime, widespread famine could develop in the autumn, and that the Yahya regime is living in isolation and as a consequence is ignorant of world opinion and even the situation in East Pakistan.
Reference: The Sunday Times, 11 July, 1971