THE TELEGRAPH, AUGUST 31, 1971
EAST PAKISTAN FAMINE INEVITABLE THIS WINTER
By Clare Hollingworth in Dacca
With an acute shortage of foodstuffs already in parts of East Pakistan a winter famine in isolated areas is inevitable.
This is the view of American and other foreign experts who have been attempting for six months to assess the food and transport situation in the province.
Whether or not the shortage becomes a famine now depends on the efficiency of the distribution system.
Many foreigners are deeply disturbed by the refusal of Lt-Gen. Tikka Khan, military governor of East Pakistan, to allow food to be distributed by foreign voluntary organizations working under the United Nations.
He insists that this powerful political weapon remains firmly in the hands of the Pakistan administration which will naturally operate under the West Pakistan Army.
Armed Volunteers
This means in practice that food will be handed out by peace committees and the armed volunteers they employ.
A handful of the men who form the peace committees are sincere members of the Moslem League thrust into the political wilderness by the popularity of the now outlawed Awami League.
But the majority are opportunists, glad of a chance to gain local power by cooperation with the West Pakistan Army.
It is the local peace committees who technically employ the armed volunteer home guards, the Razakars, who in many areas, have acquired reputations for thuggery and violence.
There are genuine fears that those who make a show of collaborating with the Army will receive more rice and wheal than those known to support an independent East Pakistan.
Baghat EI Tawil, United Nations man on the spot, has done something to overcome this and there will soon be about 73 officials working to sec that food reaches the right mouths.
But they are hardly sufficient to cover the 65 to 70 million people believed to be living in East Pakistan.
Jeeps taken over
In some areas the Army is still using the UNICEF jeeps they “took over” when they moved in to “restore order” on March 25, although a handful have been returned to their rightful users.
There are already considerable stocks of rice and other food in Chittagong and Khulna ports while America and on a more minor scale, China, are rushing food to East Pakistan.
Unhappily since boats were bought and hired to move grain along rivers to inland ports, there has been a serious deterioration in the internal security situation.
The Mukti Fouj Guerrillas have laid so many mines on roads and harassed small boats so much that night travel is no longer possible and even movement by day can be dangerous.
The recent severe floods have added to the dangers of famine. The rice crop from 2,600,000 acres has been lost.