CHALLENGE TO THE U.N.
If proof of the full extent of the East Pakistani tragedy were needed, it has been provided by the immense and continuing flow of homeless refugees across the border into India. The Pime Minister (Mrs. Indira Gandhi) estimates there are now 3,500,000 of them in West Bengal, and that the flood is maintained at rate of 60,000 a day. Many bring reports of continued killing between factions and a ruthless campaign of scorching the earth by the Pakistani army. If order had been restored, as president Yahya Khan has been saying, the wholesale exodus would have ended weeks ago. It has not.
This mass flight to safety presents a new and menacing problems, far outweighing in terms of sheer human misery the hardships of the Palestinian refugees. India has suddenly found itself called on to stretch its supplies of grain, its transport and health services to keep alive an influx of people equal to the whole population of Victoria. If it could do so physically, its precarious finances would suffer an unexpected and crippling blow. President Yahya has reported an offer from the Secretary-General of the U.N. (U-Thant) to help distribute the food he claims to have in store. He has also offered a partial amnesty to refugees who return, but his words would carry more conviction of the killing and burning had stopped.
This is not likely to be of much help to India in the coming northern summer. Apart from the very real dangar of warlike clashes in West Bengal, international help is needed-and needed urgently- to prevent famine and epidemics among the million of refugees huddled on its soil. Mrs. Gandhi’s appeal to the great powers to use their influence is phrased in political terms; she is anxious, that they should pressure the Pakistan Government into restoring the situaton in its east wing, and put the movement of peoples into reverse. But in the meantime the U.N, through such agencies as UNHCR (which deals with refugees) and UNICEF (the children’s fund) should be doing more to help India cope with its frightening new problem. If it claims to represent the conscience of the world, this is a challenge to prove it.
Reference : The Age (Canberra), 26.05.1971