THE NEW YORK TIMES, SUNDA Y, A UGUST 1, 1971
U. N. TO SEND TEAM TO EAST PAKISTAN
U.S. Wins Acceptance by Thant and Yahya on Plan for
153-Man Relief Unit.
By Benjamin Welles
Special to The New York Times
Washington. July 31- The United States, working behind the scenes, has won the agreement of both Pakistan and the United Nations to station an international group of 156 civilian relief and rehabilitation experts under United Nations sponsorship in East Pakistan, officials said today.
Moreover, they said. United States has notified U Thant, Secretary General of the United Nations, that it will contribute $ 1 -million al once as an initial payment to help the group organize and fly necessary equipment to Dacca.
Among the United Nations staff will he 73 monitors, who will be stationed at four area offices in Dacca, Chittagong, Rajshahi and Khulna and at 69 other locations. Each monitor will be linked by radio with a United Nations headquarters in Dacca, qualified informants said.
“The presence of” 73 U. N. monitors, each reporting on conditions in his area, may cool off passions and damp down military reprisals,” one informant said. “It’s not the U. N. function to do this-but it will be an important side effect.”
On March 25. President Agha Mohammad Yahya Khan ordered the Pakistani Army- predominantly composed of troops from West Pakistan -to entervene in predominantly Bengali East Pakistan and suppress widespread demands for political autonomy. Since then, the army’s actions have led to widespread loss of life, property damage and economic dislocation and the flight of some seven million refugees into adjoining India. One official today described the agreement of Mr. Thant and of President Yahya to the proposals for a United Nations group, in East Pakistan as “the only ray of sunshine in an otherwise gloomy situation.”
Pakistan’s agreement to the United Nations force is said to have been inspired largely by unremitting but unpublicized United States pressure. In recent years the United States has contributed about $200-million out of the $450-million a year in economic aid to Pakistan by an international consortium headed by the World Bank.
Request from Pakistan
On May 24, President Yahya asked the United Nations for recommendations. His formal approval to the plan is expected momentarily.
World Bank and other sources said today that recruiting for the new group has been under way for several weeks. According to these sources, the first contingent will comprise 38 members of a headquarters staff to be sent to Dacca.
A second contingent will comprise 45 members of specialized agencies. Unicef, the United Nations children’s agency, for example, will send 18; the food and agriculture organization. 2; the World Food Program will send 13 and the world health organization 12. The third contingent-the radio-equipped monitors-will be made up of what are being called the United Nations “field personnel” Ismet Kittani. an Iraqi national who is Assistant Secretary General for Inter-Agency Affaire, is Mr. Thant’s deputy in charge of recruiting and dispatching the new force from United Nations headquarters in New York. Bag hat el-Tawil, an Egyptian who is Mr. That’s personal representative in Dacca, will direct the operations in East Pakistan.
Thant ‘Out on a Limb’
“The U.N. has no machinery and no budget for international disaster relief operations,” one source said. “U Thant has gone out on “a limb. That’s why the U.S. has agreed to contribute an initial $1-million to get this thing moving.’
Other sources said that the expenses for the group might reach $3-million to $4million in its first six months of operation. The United States is hoping that other nations will contribute.
The Agency for International Development was said to have radios and other equipment on hand for dispatch by air once the Pakistani Government’s formal approval is received. The agency has six staff members based in Dacca and is also reported ready to contribute technical assistance to the United Nations force.
Informants stressed that the United Nations force would concern itself primarily with helping the Pakistani authorities alleviate the threat of starvation and disease and with rehabilitating homes and shelter for millions who have cither fled into the countryside to escape the army’s reprisals or whose homes have been wrecked.
They will also help Pakistan restore communications and remobilize the province’s private fleet of 40,000 river boats and 10,000 trucks.
“The U.N. itself won’t operate anything, but it will provide coaching and technical assistance and help restore confidence in the East Pakistani administration,” one informant said.