বিবিসির এশিয়া বিষয়ক আলােচনায় বাংলাদেশ প্রসঙ্গ
২৭ মার্চ – ১৭ ডিসেম্বর, ১৯৭১
বিবিসি, লন্ডন
1. ASIAN TOPICAL TALKS
27th March,1971
THE BRITISH PRESS ON PAKISTAN
By William Crawley (8)
All the major British papers this morning reports extensively on the crisis in East Pakistan. Most papers describe the situation as one of civil war following Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s reported declaration of independence for East Bengal. Most papers quote passages from President Yahya Khan’s broadcast to the nation yesterday. For reports of the fighting in East Pakistan they rely on news relayed from India and on dispatches of the Press trust of India. It is this source on which all reports of the transmission by a clandestine radio station of statements by Sheikh Mujib rely.
All reports quote parts of the message stating that Sheikh Mujib was the only leader of the people of Bangladesh, and that the people should continue their movement for independence until the last enemy soldier is vanquished. Several papers also quote the statement made by Mr. Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto on his arrival in Karachi that ‘By the grace of the Almighty. Pakistan has at last been saved.” The Daily Telegraph quotes the martial law administrator in East Pakistan, General Tikka Khan, as saying that’ indiscipline is now so rife that the only way to safegeguaid Pakistan’s continued integrity and unity is to curb the destructive tendencies shown in the East Wing.
Clandestine radio broadcasts are also the source of other reports that the East Pakistani rifles had surrounded West Pakistani troops in Chittagong and other towns. The Times and the Financial Times both cite reports from the American consul general in Dacca about the deployment of troops and tanks in Dacca itself. Most papers estimate that there are about 70.000 Pakistani troops in East Bengal.
Several papers assess the implications of and comment in editorials on these developments. The Times says that instead of the speedy and effective police action for which President Yahya Khan hopes it seems possible that something like civil war might result. The Times says that the events of the past few weeks have shown the difficulties of achieving autonomy for East Bengal which stops short of independence. Though East Bengal may be cowed for a time, the Times say that the demand for some kinds of autonomy would not be silenced. The Times thinks that events may have pushed Sheikh Mujib to a declaration of independence, and that pressure from within the army may have pushed President Yahya Khan to action which he would rather have deferred.
The Daily Telegraph in an editorial is in no doubt that civil war has broken out in East Pakistan. The editorial says that separation is in the very fabric of the State of Pakistan. It says that high hopes were raised after the elections last December that East Pakistan would finally achieve its rightful plans in the system of government and its people cease to be treated as second class citizens. Whatever the West Pakistani army do. says the Telegraph, to restore order now. it cannot create a stable and durable democratic system.
A report in the Telegraph from their correspondent David Loshak. who is in New Delhi, says that even it the Army succeeds in quelling East Pakistan’s independence movement by sheer force, the prospects of keeping Pakistan united are dead. David Loshak says that there was never any chance of a compromise or of a lasting agreement arising out of the talks. The two wings were too deeply divided, says Loshak, and President Yahya Khan’s discussions with the political leaders enabled the Army to buy time for a showdown with the East wing. A report in the Guardian also suggests that this was his intention. The Guardian says in an editorial that whatever the outcome it will mean more misery and bloodshed. The President’s attitude that Pakistan must be kept united at all costs made the Sheikh’s declaration of independence inevitable. Says the Guardian.
The Times carries a profile of Sheikh Mujib by Paul Manin, Martin quotes the Sheikh as saying in a recent interview that the people were behind him and that “guns would never silence the voice of the people of Bengal.” Martin reviews Sheikh Mujib’s political career’s his years of imprisonment and his opposition to the regime of former President, Ayub Khan. He quotes Mujib as saying many limes, “I am an optimist. I hope for the best but 1 always prepare for the worst.”
The Guardian also carries reports of the activities of East Bengalis in Britain. It reports the demonstration hold last night outside the Pak High Commission in London at which four peoples were arrested. A spokesman is quoted as saying that the demonstration was a celebration of the independence of Bangladesh, and it was organized by the British branch of the Awami league. It was followed by an all night vigil by 100 East Pakistani students.
The Guardian reports that a deputation of the Bengal Students Action Committee has asked to meet the British Prime Minister Mr. Heath today to ask for recognition of Bangladesh as an independent republic.
The Guardian also reports that the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva. Switzerland, has said that it is keeping a close watch on the situation in East Pakistan. The League of Red Cross Societies has had a representative in Dacca since the flood disaster of last year. The delegate is understood to have medical and other relief supplies at his disposal.
2. ASIAN TOPICAL TALKS
29th March, 1971
BRITISH PRESS ON PAKISTAN
By Mark Tully (S)
Today once again the leading papers in Britain cover the Pakistan situation extensively. Apart from eye witness accounts of the events in Dacca there are editorial comments and explanations of the background to the crisis.
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The Times has a leader which says that it is impossible to forecast what the next move in Pakistan should or will be. There will be pressures on India to get involved. But the Times thinks India might take a cautious line because complication which India would want to avoid could arise in a situation as uncertain as this. Chinese influences might well increase if there is a guerrilla struggle develops. There is also, the Times thinks, the possibility of a movement to unite Bengal developing in West Bengal which would in fact mean a secessionist movement. The Times thinks that Mrs. Gandhi’s problems are hardly less than President Yahya Khan’s, and that her caution yesterday shows that she realizes this.
Peter Hazelhurst writes in the Times about Mr. Bhutto. He says that the troops in East Pakistan are preserving the interests of a powerful minority. No sober-minded Pakistani can believe with Mr. Bhutto that there is a chance of a return to democracy. The West Pakistan can exect, Hazelhurst thinks, is a petty dictatorship in the West and a spell of ruthless military rule in the East. Hazlehurst says that Mr. Bhutto’s behavior during the constitutional discussions pushed the Bengalis to their extreme stand. (Particularly when he persuaded the President to postpone the Constituent Assembly from March 3rd. and when in the end he insisted that his party should be included in any interim government.) Mr. Bhutto and the President with have to remember, Hazelhurst says, that they try the Sheikh, they are trying the whole of East Pakistan.
The Times also carries an article by Paul Martin. Martin says that the army’s action has justified the extremists in East Pakistan who claim that co-existence with the West is impossible. This means that the supporters of violent revolution who have recently been overshadowed by the Sheikh’s non-violent movement will have a much wider appeal.
The Guardian carries a long article by Martin Adency just back from Dacca. He says that the army for the moment is going to retain its hold except perhaps in Chittagong. The Noxalite guerrilla movements in East Pakistan are small and badly armed. The army has been building up its strength and are now reported to be three Divisions strong in East Pakistan. Adeney thinks the that serious situation the army faced in Chittagong last week might have finally persuaded President Yahya to act Adeney says that there were some incidents of Bengali nationalism taking a communal turn but on the whole the discipline of the Awami League was considerable. During the last few weeks, Adeney says that the people of East Pakistan really feet that they had taken over their own country. But they always realized there was the danger of army intervention.
He says that Bengali nationalism has not been fully appreciated by the army because the officers are arrogantly scornful of Bengali. Preston thinks that there is no hope of compromise now. He says that Yahya has bungled, he has made Mujib a martry, he has turned a conservative movement for autonomy into what will eventually become a revolution, he has overstretched the army, and he will have to face the United Nations.
The Financial Times has an article by Charles Smith the paper’s Far East Correspondent. He says that East Pakistan’s economic troubles are partly due to the fact that it is part of Pakistan. At partition East Pakistan had jute, textile mills and fertile lands whilst the West had virtually no industry and relatively and soil. But the cutting off of trade between East Pakistan and India and increasing industrialization in West Pakistan hit East Pakistan which became a privileged market for the West wings expensive manufactured goods.
Smith thinks that the army will be successful in the short term and that neither China. Russia, nor India will give the independence movement much support. But Smith says Pakistan’s problems cannot be solved by a military action, they need patience, time and mutual restraint.
The Daily Telegraph has a leader which says that the present tragedy springs from the neglect of the East wing during the regime of Ayub Khan. The paper says that the army cannot destroy Bengal nationalism. Either President Yahya will have to start negotiations for the return to democracy again or the Fast will eventually split. To start constitutional talks again will require a miracle the paper thinks. But if they don’t start the Telegraph says independence for the East wing will come after untold bloodshed and the West will not benefit in any way.
3. ASIAN TOPICAL TALKS
2nd April, 1971
BRITISH PRESS ON EAST PAKISTAN
by William Crawley(S)
As further eye witness accounts filler out of East Pakistan the British Press this morning tend to confirm earlier reports of the extent of the killing in Dacca and other cities of the province. Most of the papers give prominence to accounts by western journalists of the situation in the town of Jessore. A Times reporter, Nicholas Tomalin, who crossed from India to Jessore yesterday says that Bengali troops and civilians have been taking reprisals on West Pakistani civilians in revenge for the killing of Jessore civilians by Punjabi soldiers. Tomalin himself saw what he describes as “Punjabi prisoners” on their way to be executed Tomalin says that the situation in Jessore is according to some ovservers typical of what is happening elsewhere in East Pakistan. The West Pakistani troops have withdrawn to their cantonment leaving Bengalis in loose control of the town, but the regular troops are poised for further attacks. (The Scotsman quotes a Swedish reporter who also visited Jessore as saying that there were no Punjabi soldiers in sight. The Swedish reporter confirms the reports that some West Pakistanis died in reprisal killings by Bengalis in Jessore.)
The Times also carries a report from peter Hazelhurst in Calcutta in which refugees from Comilla and Jessore claim that the Army had hunted out most of the well known politicians in East Pakistan. Hazelhurst also reports the fears of nonBengali Muslims in Bengal, who were originally refugees from Bihar in India. Hazelhurst says that some of these are beginning to return to Indian. (He reports that several Bihari Muslims surrendered to the Indian authorities at the border yesterday and asked to be transferred to West Pakistan.) Hazelhurst says That though attempts are being made to evacuate non Bengalis by sea by the West Pakistanis, this will still leave many non-Bengalis in East Pakistan, just as there is a large Bengali minority in West Pakistan. In the Times Louis Heren, the well-known journalist, reports on a conversation he has had with an unidentified young man who had spent two years in East Pakistan and left Dacca earlier this week. This witness claimed that there had been a concerted plan to attack selected groups which included Awami League leaders, students, professors and their families, and Hindus. The witness said that West Pakistani troops had been led to believe that Hindus were the malign force behind the secessionist movement. This witness, reported in the Times, claimed that the objective of the Army was to eliminate the political and intellectual leadership of East Pakistan, and that Bengal would be without such leadership for at least a decade.
Reports in the Daily Telegraph and the Guardian give prominence to the situation on the East Pakistan border with India and the Indian concern over what is happening in East Pakistan.
4. ASIAN TOPICAL TALKS
7th April. 1971
NEWSNOTE: CHITTAGONG
by Mark Tully ( s)
Yesterday about 120 people of various nationalities arrived in Calcutta from the East Pakistan Port of Chittagong. From their reports journalists were for the first time able to piece together some sort of impression of what had happened in Chittagong and what the present situation is there. According to a report from a BBC correspondent and reports in British press the refugees from Chittagong confirmed that the Army is now in control of the city but many people have fled. The refugees confirmed that there had been heavy loss of lives and that the army had on occasions fired indiscriminately. But they also said that East Bengalis had killed non Bengalis. One mill manager emphasized the fact that criminal elements among the Bengali population had been responsible for the looting of his mill and the killing of his four West Pakistani fellow directors. The Guardian report says that the refugees confirmed that the East Pakistan Rifles and the Bengal Regiment stationed in Chittagong mutinied. According to the Times report the refugees said that it was not tune that Chittagong’s port had been destroyed by fire (According to the Daily Telegraph one small party of refugees described how they had drived through 45 miles of territory North West of Chittagong, which was controlled by Bengalis)
The Times today also carries a report about a German Technician who had reached Calcutta from Dacca. The German technician told the Times correspondent that the army were in control in the central areas of the city. The people were very frightened. He also said that General Tikka Khan was contrary to earlier reports definitely alive.
There is a report in the Guardian from Martin Woollacott in Chuadanga a small town 20 miles east of the Indian frontier in East Pakistan. Woollacott reports that the town is being run by local people and the liberation Front has a military command there which considers itself in charge of operation for the South West of the province. Woollacott interviewed a West Pakistani army officer wile had been captured at Kushtia a town 20 miles East of Chuadanga. The officer said that his company had been driven out of Kushtia (Woollacott said that morale in Chuadanga was high because of the defeat of the army at Kushtia and the reports of killings by the army which made the local people very angry.) Woollacott thinks that in the Southwest of the province the army will be able to hold their cantonments at Jessore and Khulna hut to send out small parties to try and control the other towns will be very dangerous. Woollacott confirms other reports that the army have now driven liberation forces out of Jessore.
5. ASIAN TOPICAL TALKS
13th April. 1971
BRITISH PRESS ON PAKISTAN
by William Crawley (S)
On the Pakistan crisis the British national press this morning carries news both of the internal military situation and of the international repercussions.
The Times carries a report sent from Dacca two days ago by an American Associated Press correspondent, Dennis Neeld. Neeld reports that the Army is in control of the city but that thousands of families are still fleeing to their native villages from the city. According to Neeld looting by non- Bengalis is commonplace, and West Pakistani troops are still round up Awami League officials and other prominent Bengalis. There is a night curfew in force in Dacca. Neeld says that about 10,000 troops are believed to have been flown into East Pakistan in the past fortnight being the strength of the Pakistan armed forces to an estimated 35,000. According to Neeld previous estimates that there were 70.000 troops in the province are exaggerated.
Reports in both the Times and the Guardian suggest that it is only a matter of days before the Army will have regained control over all the main urban centers in East Bengal. According to a Times reporter, the Pakistan Army has no immediate logistics problems. Supplies and reinforcements are being flown in and the army has control of the key waterways. The Guardian reporter, Martin Woollacott, reporting from Calcutta, says that resistance in the western part of East Bengal is likely to be suppressed in a few days. The Army has gained control of the Pakse Bridge which gives access to the southwestern parts of East Bengal.
Peter Hazelhurst in the Times writes of the international implications of the crisis. He reports that foreign diplomats in India fear that a serious border conflict might erupt between Indian and Pakistani forces on the frontier of East Bengal. Hazelhurst says that the most immediate danger is that members of the Bengali liberation forces may retreat across the border and set up their camps in radian territory, in which case the Pakistani forces would feel justified in following them across the border. Hazelhurst says Indian Military stragies believe that in the event of a full scale conflict between India and Pakistan, President Yahya Khan would ask China to create a diversion on the Sino-Indian border.
In the Daily Telegraph, Clare Hollingsworth reporting from Karachi says test there is a danger of East Pakistan becoming another Vietnam. She says that the appointment of General Tikka Khan as Governor of East Pakistan indicates a desire on the part of the Army to move towards a more representative from of government. Miss Hollingworth says that President Yahya Khan hopes that the formation of national caretaker government will remedy the damage that Pakistan’s image abroad has suffered as a result of the military action in East Pakistan.
6. ASIANTOPICAL TALKS
15th April, 1971
PRESS REVIEW ON PAKISTAN
by Mark Tully (S)
The Daily Express, a popular British Daily, leads today with a report from Sylhet District in the North East part of East Pakistan sent by their reporter Donald Seaman. He tells a distressing story of the suffering there. There is also a report from Sylhet in the Daily Telegraph by David Loshak. He reports that the armies are doing their best to crush all resistance before the monsoons start but the battle is by no means over. Morale amongst the resistance fighters is still high, according to Loshak, although they are very inadequately equipped. Morale amongst the peasants however is very low and food is scarce. The army’s strategy appears to be aimed at cowing the people by causing the maximum distress and doing lasting damage the area. Sylhet he says is a ghost city. In Loshak’s view the army has no hope or gaining control of the countryside before its movements are restricted by the monsoons.
There is also an article in the Telegraph by Simon Dring who was in Dacca at the time of the talks before the banning of the Awami League and who toured the city after the army moved in. Dring feels that resistance will not last long because the resistance movement is inadequately organized and equipped.
There is a report in the Times from Michael Hornsby writing from Calcutta. Hornsby feels that the resistance to the army is East Pakistan will now have to go underground. The reported formation of an independent government cannot, in his view, after this fact. Hornsby is anyhow doubtful about the report because the only source for it is Indian reports based they claim on monitoring of Free Bengal Radio. Indian coverage of the crisis has, in Hornsby’s opinion, not been objective. He points out that the Indian press has not tried to investigate well supported reports of killings of non Bengalis by the Bengalis.
7. ASIAN TOPICAL TALKS
INTERVIEW WITH J. STONEHOUSE
M.P. & MARK TULLY
On Aid Problems arising from E. Pakistan situation
Two “British members of Parliament, both members of the Labour Party have just returned from West Bengal. They have been studying the refugee problem caused by the influx of refugees from East Pakistan. They also assessed the need for relief in East Pakistan by talking to the refugees and briefly crossing the border into the East Pakistan Bruce Douglas Mann went on behalf of the Justice for East Bengal Committee and John Stonehouse went on behalf of two British voluntary organizations to raise money for relief work. J. Stonehouse who was a Minister in the last British Government talked to Mark Tully and told him about the size of refugee problem as he saw it.
JOHN STONEHOUSE: “It was absolutely enormous. When I was there already over 300,000 had come across the border, now I understand the figure is nearly half a million. I was very impressed with the arrangement the Indian authorities had made. But of course if the numbers go on coming across as they are new it would be beyond the Indian government’s resources and I think that it is important that other countries should help.”
John Stonehouse went on to say how he thought aid should be given.
J. S. “Charities have raised a lot of money in the past and I believe that they can raise money again for this. It is important not only to help in the refugee camps themselves but to have some supplies available to assist in East Pakistan. I think government aid should also be used. I think that the money which has been available to East Pakistan in the past should now be used in some of the camps and held in reserve for contingency plan in order to avoid famine in East Pakistan.”
MARK TULLY: Then asked John Stonehouse whether he thought giving aid to the refugees in West Bengal would encourage more people to cross the border.
J. S. “I doubt very much whether a person fleeing for his life is going to worry much about the conditions just across the border. He is going to get out as best he
can.”
John Stonehouse agreed that the government of Pakistan could make it difficult to get aid into East Pakistan but he went on to say:
J. S. The horror is so awful and the evidence of it so strong that it is now absolutely aimperative that the Big Powers put the maximum pressure on the government of Pakistan.
J S. contd: “They have not done enough. What has been done so far isall behind the scenes and I think that there should be an immediate meeting of the Security Council of the U.N. to discuss what is obviously a serious threat to international peace.
I think Britain can take a stand on this. Britain is after all a member of the Commonwealth and I think we can use some of the commonwealth machinery to take some steps. Also in the U.N.. Britain commands a lot of authority and it is for us to take some steps to ensure that Pakistan realizes the way to world opinion.
Britain should also liaise with U.S. and other States concerned on ensure that aid to Pakistan is held up until the situation in East Pakistan is satisfactorily resolved.”
8. ASIAN TOPICAL TALKS
14th May, 1971
PRESS REPORTS ON EAST PAKISTAN
by William Crawley (S)
There are this morning two further reports from British journalists invited by the Pakistan Government to visit East Pakistan.
In the Guardian a report from Reuter’s correspondent Maurice Quaintance says that the tour by foreign correspondents was supervised throughout by the Pakistan Army and it was only after protests that they were allowed to talk to people without being overheard. The Reuters correspondent says that there was an atmosphere of fear among the people they talked to in East Pakistan. He says that the Governor himself considers that it will take at least a year to restore the economy to the state it was three months ago. The correspondent adds that the jute industry is worting at less than 20% of its normal level. He quotes reports of atrocities committed both by the army against Bengalis and by Bengalis against non-Bengalis.
A further report from the Financial Times correspondent, Harvey Stockwin comes today from the town of Rajshahi. Stockwin discusses the possibilities of there being guerrilla activity in East Pakistan. He says that military and civilian officials expect guerrilla activity by East Pakistan Communists in the Rajshahi and Pabna districts and by Indian Naxalites from across the Indian border in West Bengal. But Stockwin thinks that the Bengalis arc badly frightened and he says that a Communist whom he met thought that the conditions might produce mass fatalism rather than revolutionary violence. Stockwin says army reprisals against guerrilla activity would be severe, and quotes General Tikka Khan as saying that Naxalite activity would mean that someone was supporting them, and’ ‘the sufferers will be the people”.
Stockwin thinks that if there is guerrilla activity the Communists are more likely to provide it as the so called Liberation Army is demoralized and without real leadership- He says that the main uncertainties in the situation are developments in West Bengal and the long term Bengali and West Pakistani reactions.
One the possibilities of international aid, Stock win writes that President Yahya Khan’s rejection of it is understandable because of the Pakistan army has yet to exercise full control. The presence of the United Nations could complicate the situation. It was obvious from his tour, he says, that any relief would largely go to the Army-Bihari coalition that is often the instrument in restoring what the Government calls normalcy.
9. ASIAN TOPICAL TALK
14th May. 1971
COMMONS DEBATE ON PAKISTAN
by Mark Tally (S)
Yesterday (Friday) the British House of Commons debated a motion on the situation in East Pakistan. Mark Tully who was at the House of Commons
yesterday, looks at the significance of the debate.
Friday is not normally a good day for debates in the Commons. Many members of parliament like to spend Fridays in their constituencies. Yesterday’s debte was also
a non party debate in that it was proposed by an opposition backbencher and supported by the government spokesmen the minister for overseas development. So it is not possible to judge the concern of the House merely by counting the number of MP’s who attended the debate. In facet the attendance was thin. But the debate lasted 5 hours, there were a large number of speakers, and from the opposition benches four former ministers spoke.
The motion expressed the Houses deep concern at the recent events in East Pakistan and caned on the British government to use its influence to secure and end to the strife to get international relief organizations admitted to East Pakistan and achieve a democratic political settlement in the province.
The first thing that has to be said about the debate is that most speakers accepted that the events in East Pakistan were the internal concern of the Government of Pakistan. Nevertheless they felt that there were ways in which the British Government could and should help.
The main controversy was over aid. Mr. Bruce Douglas Mann who opened the debate had been to West Bengal at the end of last month and had crossed over the border into East Pakistan. He felt so strongly about what he saw that he wanted the British government to suspend all payments of aid to Pakistan or at least not to enter into any new aid agreements until the Pakistan army left the East wing. He believed that economic sanctions could in his world “Prevent this war continuing”. Mr. Richard Wood, the Minister for Overseas Development said that the Government saw their aspects to the aid problem. He believed that immediate relief for the people of East Pakistan could best be provided by the United Nations. That was why the British Government had sent a message to the United Nations Secretary General urging him to get in touch with the Government of Pakistan to arrange for a United Nations Team to go into East Pakistan. Mr. Wood said that the second problem was aid for the refugees in West Bengal. He said that the Government had already helped British charities to fly in relief supplies to West Bengal and it hoped to do more when the needs became clearer. On long term aid to Pakistan the Minister was quite clear that he wanted to resume aid to Pakistan as soon as possible. But he said that it was the government’s policy, to give the bulk of their aid for development work in East Pakistan and that it could not continue its aid programme until the situation in East Pakistan settled down. He profoundly disagreed however with any suggestion that aid should be used as a lever to force a particular political solution on the government of Pakistan. Mrs. Judith Hait who was Minister for Overseas Development in the last Labor government agreed that in general it was quite wrong to use aid as a lever. But she felt that there might be occasions when in the interests of peace and humanity governments had to exercise some influence through their aid policies. (Several speakers pointed out that withholding aid could harm the very people they were all so anxious to help-the people of East Pakistan.)
Many of the speakers spoke about the need to help to preserve the unity of Pakistan. Mr. Dennis Healey, the former Defense Secretary, said that if Pakistan split there was a danger of anarchy which would threaten the stability of the whole subcontinent. On the other hand there were several speakers who felt that East Pakistan could survive on its own and that recent events had made it impossible for the two wings of Pakistan to live together, Mr. Wood said that he saw no value in speculating on the future of Pakistan and that the aim of everyone should be to help to recreate peace there.
From yesterday’s debate it is clear that the British Government is going to do all it can to help restore the situation in East Pakistan to normal. It realizes however that its role must be a limited one because responsibility lies with the Government of Pakistan.
10. ASIAN TOPICAL TALKS BOIL OF
FINANCIAL TIMES ARTICLE
ON PAKISTAN TODAY: AN URGE FOR
SELF-DISTRUCTION BY HARVEY
STOCKWIN
Edited by Mark Tally (S)
21st May, 1971
The Financial Times today publishes an article by their special correspondent, Harvey Stock win who was one of the party of foreign journalists invited to visit East Pakistan by the Pakistan Government earlier this month. In this article. Stockwin looks back on his tour. He fears that there will be more violence in the province and that famine may be inevitable. He says that Bengalis were overconfident before March 25th. Sheikh Mujib he feels must bear a heavy responsibility for betraying Bengali aspirations, because he was indecisive and politically naive. Stockwin analyses the emotions behind the Bengali movement as resentment at being explicated, doubt about their position in Pakistan as it had evolved, and a belief in their strength. This belief stemmed from the Bengalis conviction that agitation had caused Ayub Khan’s downfall, and that the army had shown by its handling of the cyclone disaster that it could not hold down the East wing. Stock win feels that their feelings together with the exclusiveness of Bengali nationalism explains the Bengali Bihari fratricide. He says that the Biharis and other refugees in East Pakistan from more distant parts of India were never integrated into the Bengali community. The army’s role, Stockwin feels, was not as consistent or as directly controlled from the top as earliest reports suggested. The West Pakistani units in the East wing were upset by the world press coverage of the cyclone which justifiably stressed the inadequacy of the West Pakistan reaction but did not mention the inadequacy of the Bengali reaction also. The West Pakistanis according to Stockwin remained comparatively calm throughout the election itself and the post election negotiations. But the extreme actions of the students during the period when the Sheikh was virtually running the East wing so provoked the army that it was inevitable that it would eventually react ferociously and communally. He sees the violence which has engulfed East Pakistan as the latest installment of the Partition riots. The precise chain of events varied, according to Stockwin, from place to place but outside Dacca, the Bengalis generally turned against the non-Bengalis the then army and the non-Bengalis turned against them.
11. ASIAN TOPICAL TALKS EAST
PAKISTAN REFUGEES:
THE CONTINUING CONCERN
28th May, 1971
by Mark Tully (S)
Tension has been created along the borders of India and East Pakistan by the continued flow of refugees into India. The reasons for this influx and the problems it creates are considered by Mark Tully:
For over eight weeks now the Pakistan army has been trying to restore normal conditions in East Pakistan. President Yahya Khan has said that on March 25th, the army faced a situation where East Pakistan was on the brink of secession and law and order had virtually broken down. Besides the secessionists, Pakistan government sources say that the army also had to deal with communal uprisings between the Bengali majority and the Biharis and also a mutiny by East Bengali soldiers and paramilitary personnel. These details were in the main supplies by a party of independent foreign correspondents who were allowed into East Pakistan for a brief visit earlier this month. For several weeks now Radio Pakistan has been claiming that life has returned to normal.
But although there have been no reports from within the province since the correspondents left, there is evidence that all is still far from well. The evidence comes from the refugees who are still fleeing from East Pakistan into India.
The Indian Government calculates that over 3 and half million refugees have already entered India and that they are still coming in. When dealing with an exodus on this scale over a very long border, it is impossible for anyone to calculate the numbers involved exactly. But the team from the United Nations High Commission for Refugees who went out to see the refugee camps were convinced of the gravity of the problem. After their visit the United Nations Secretary General, U Thant said there is conclusive evidence of the presence of very large numbers of people from East Pakistan in the neighboring State of India. The United Nations Commission has now announced that over 3 million pounds has been promised in aid for the refugees. These refugees come out of Pakistan telling stories of atrocities committed by the Pakistan army. Reporters who have spoken to them have all been convinced that the refugees fled in terror from the army. The reporters conclusions have been supported by others who have visited the camps.
Now of course in chaotic conditions panic spreads quickly. There are no doubt, many refugees who fled without ever seeing the army. Undoubtedly there has been communal violence, banditry and looting in the province. But the hard fact remains that almost all the refugees whom the foreign observers spoke to insisted that it was the army they were afraid of. The very people the central government sent in to preserve the unity of Pakistan and protect the civilian population seem to have caused large numbers of them to flee.
Whatever political solution to the problems of East Pakistan President Yahya Khan announces within the next two or three weeks government in East Pakistan will have to be supported by large numbers of soldiers for some time. But if stories like those told by the refugees are being repeated throughout the province it is difficult to see how the President can set people minds at rest as long as the army remains active in East Pakistan. He is going to find it even harder to induce the refugees to return in any considerable numbers. This is why there is widespread international concern about the reports of the Pakistan army’s methods which are coming out from the refugees camps.
Bangali Dawn news talk 28/29 May 1971
12. ASIAN TOPICAL TALKS
BRITAIN’S GROWING CONCERN
OVER REFUGEES
7th June. 1971
by Mark Tully (S)
The British Press has been paying more and more attention to the East Pakistan refugees in India over the last week. Mark Tully looks at last week’s British Press:
More and more foreign newspaper correspondents have been moving into the border areas. The correspondents have pointed out that the stream of refugees has continued in spite of the Pakistan Governments assurances that life has returned to normal in East Pakistan. They have stressed the appalling strains that the refugees are putting on the Government of India and the Governments of the States which lie along India’s border with East Pakistan. They have above all sent back agonised reports about the outbreaks of cholera among the refugees. Most papers have carried leaders deploring the plight of the refugees, suggesting ways helping them immediately, and asking what can be done to get the refugees home.
On Tuesday and Wednesday of last week the Times carried leaders about the refugees and again today it carries a leader. Three leaders within seven days is some measure of the seriousness with which the Times now views the situation. The Times has also been carrying Peter Hazelhurst’s dispatches from West Bengal on its front page. Today Louis Heren, the Times’ Deputy Editor asks why with the evidence of Hazelhurst’s dispatches before it the world has taken so long to wake up to the fact that millions of innocent and defenseless people are threatened with what he describes as one of the largest man-made disasters in recent history. In its editorial today the Times says that there is no obvious political solution of the problems of East Pakistan which could be wished on Pakistan and India. It feels that giving autonomy to East Pakistan could well involve the risk of West Pakistan breaking up also. The Times says that if this happened. India’s unity could also be threatened.
The Guardian. Financial Times and Daily Telegraph have also given wide coverage to the refugees over the last week. In an editorial today the Telegraph says rest cause of the trouble is the situation in East Pakistan. It feels that the interest of the people of East Pakistan can probably best be served by allowing the West Pakistan authorities to restore law and order as soon as possible. If this is so the Telegraph thinks the Government of Pakistan should get all the aid it needs as soon as possible.
Two of the British weeklies ran articles about Bengal as their first stories in this week’s editions. The left wing New Statesman and the right wing Spectator both suggested Britain had a special role to play.
Yesterday all three British Sunday Papers headlined the plight of the refugees. They all also carried very harrowing photographs of the distress of the refugees. The Sunday Times Color Magazine carried a story with pictures of the refugees. It also had an appeal by Nicholas Tomalin who was one of the correspondents who managed on his own initiative to get into East Pakistan after the military action had started. Tomalin said that no one was more deserving of the world’s sympathy than the refugees.
Today’s London Evening papers both carry stories about the refugees. On their front pages. The Evening Standard story by James Cameron covers nearly half their front page. Cameron says that he has been looking at refugee situations for 25 years and that he has never seen anything comparable to the situation in West Bengal. He says that the cholera story is only one small part of the crisis which now faces West Bengal.
13. ASIAN TOPICAL TALKS
8th June, 1971
PRESS and TELEVISION ON PAKISTAN
by Mark Tully (S)
People in Britain are not being allowed to forget the plight of the East Pakistani refugees. British Newspapers and Television and Radio continue to describe and comment on the situation. Mark Tully reviews the recent coverage:
Television more than any other media can give people who do not know India an idea of the sufferings of the refugees and the problems which the Indian Government arc facing. Last night on BBC Television there was a report from Anthony Lawrence, in which he showed film of refugees who were so weak that they were not able to reach the refugee camps but were dying by the roadside. The pictures were so distressing that viewers were warned not to watch unless they were prepared to be deeply shocked. In his report Lawrence said that every effort was being made by the Indian Government to handle the refugee situation but the problems were so vast that there was bound to be a great deal of suffering and many deaths.
Also on BBC Television last night there was an interview with the British Foreign Secretary, Sir Alec Douglas Home. Sir Alec described the British Governments contribution so far to the relief funds. He said that Britain should not cut off aid to Pakistan because of the distress that would cause in Pakistan but he added that Britain could insist on Pakistan providing a political framework into which future aid could be injected.
All the British newspapers today describe the relief supplies which are being flown out to Calcutta and the other developments which took place yesterday.
The Guardian also has an editorial which starts by saying that the world community should be ashamed at how slow it is to learn. . The paper thinks it is now clear that a world-wide organisation to coordinate relief efforts is needed, and should be formed immediately. The U.N. would be the best coordinating organisation. The Guardian goes on to say that the United Nations is in fact already considering a scheme; and it urges that this scheme is considered by the General Assembly of the U.N. in the autumn of this year. The Guardian recognizes that a U.N. Disaster Organisation would be unable to do much in cases where governments are unwilling to cooperate. But it wonders whether the Pakistan Government would have been able to delay accepting outside assistance so long if there had been a fully equipped organisation pressing to be allowed in. The Guardian also thinks that the Security Council could put pressure on Governments to accept help from a United Nations Disasters Organisation.
The Sun which is a mass circulation tabloid newspaper, has a strongly worded editorial which blames President Yahya Khan for the sufferings of the refugees and the troubles in East Pakistan. Nevertheless the Sun thinks that aid should be given to Pakistan on the strict understanding that its distribution is supervised by some international organisation like the United Nations. Another popular paper, the Daily Express, also has an editorial, The Express says that all governments should do their utmost to help the refugees, and no more so than the Government of Pakistan which in the Express’s view caused the disaster.
There is also a letter in the Times and the Telegraph from Malcolm Muggeridge the journalist and Television personality suggesting that people who want to help the refugees should sent money to Mother Teresa and her Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta. The Salvation Army has advertisements in several papers asking people to give money to their work amongst the refugees; tonight on television there is to be an appeal by the Disasters Emergency Committee.
14.
ASIAN TOPICAL TALKS NEWSNOTE:
OPPOSITION MEMBERS OF
PARLIAMENT SIGN MOTION
ON PAKISTAN
26th June, 1971
by Murk Tully (S)
Last night over half the opposition Labor Party members of the British House of Commons signed a motion in the Commons indicating the Government of Pakistan for what it describes as the widespread murder of civilians and the atrocities on a massive scale by the Pakistan army in East Pakistan. The motion says that the government of Pakistan no longer has any right to rule East Pakistan. It calls on the United Nations to consider the situation urgently as a threat to international peace and as a. contravention of the United Nations Convention on Genocide. The motion states that until order is restored under United Nations supervision the provisional Government of Bangladesh should be recogniseds as the vehicle for the expression of self determination by the people of East Bengal” The chief sponsor of the motion is Mr. John Stonehouse a former minister for posts and Telegraphs.
Several other former ministers have signed the motion including Mr. Reg Prentice, a former minister of Overseas Development and Mr. Richard Crossman who is now editor of the New Statesman. The Present Labor spokesman for Overseas Development, Mrs. Judith Hart has not signed the motion. According to the Times, this motion is regarded by the Members of Parliament as the biggest ever frontal attack on the government of a Commonwealth country. It is significant that this motion calls for the United Nations to involve itself in the political aspect of the situation in East Pakistan. This and the call for the recognition of the Government of Bangladesh reflect the growing view amongst opposition members that events in East Pakistan can no longer be regarded as the internal affair of the government of Pakistan. As yet however, the Labor Part has not officially committed itself to oppose the Government’s policy on Pakistan.
15. ASIAN TOPICAL TALKS
BRITISH PRESS REPORTS FROM
EAST PAKISTAN
by Towyn Mason (S)
23th June, 1971
A few days ago it was announced that foreign correspondents were to be allowed once more into East Pakistan to move about and report freely. Today the first reports appear in British newspapers from three correspondents who are in East Pakistan as a result of this decision.
The reports are by the Times correspondent, Michael Hornsby, the Guardian correspondent, Martin Woollacott, and the Daily Telegraph correspondent, Clare Hollingworth. Reporting from Dacca, they describe First impressions that are very similar. All three correspondents feel that while life in Dacca is quiet and gradually returning to normal, there is still underlying tension, fear and bitterness. The Times correspondent, Michael Hornsby, says that about three-quarters of the shops and the stores in Dacca are closed and that the army is very much in evidence. Clare Hollingworth in the Daily Telegraph says the army has effectively restored order in Dacca but fear, hatred and even passive resistance remain. The Guardian man, Martin Woollacott says. “Dacca is quiet, rather too quiet for a Bengali city, and there arc portraits of President Yahya on sale in the bazaar, but the people appear sulky and drained of emotion”.
Outside Dacca, all three correspondents quote reports of continuing military action and continuing resistance to the army, particularly in the Madhupur Forest area near Tangail. The correspondent say it appears that security in the provincial towns is not as good as it is in Dacca.
16. ASIAN TOPICAL TALKS
BRITISH PRESS ON PRESIDENT
YAHYA’S STATEMENT
Edited by Eyan Charlton
29th June, 1971
President Yahya Khan’s broadcast to Pakistan yesterday gets a critical reception in three leading British newspapers:
President Yahya Khan’s broadcast disclosed that he plans to place before the National Assembly a new constitution devised by a committee in four months’ time. Martial law, he said, would continue for a time although his final objective remained a transfer of power to civilian authorities. There would be no new general election but by elections would be held in vacancies created by the disqualification of Awami League elected representatives who had committed what he described as criminal acts or indulged in anti-social activities.
The Daily Telegraph notes that President Yahya Khan’s constitutional plans after the upheavals in East Pakistan are accompanied by grim reports of the situation in that crucified province. It is now several weeks since he held out the prospect of finding enough representative East Pakistanis to set up a provincial administration and to cooperate somehow with West Pakistan politicians to form a civilian national Government. He must have been deplorably out of touch with what was and had been, going on. He now sets more modest and distant goals.
President Yahya. dropping the Constituent Assembly, has set up a committee to draft a constitution for a return to civilian rule in four months or so but longer if the internal and external situation is not propitious. There seems little hope that either will be. Evidently East Pakistan is to be treated as a kind of colony, says the Daily Telegraph, adding that how much self-rule it gets will depend on how it accepts its lot.
In the Time’s view. President Yahya Khan’s proposals are well meaning but will hardly meet the emotional needs of East Pakistan. For three months the province has been subjected to military brutality enough to carry resentment far beyond the ranks of the politically conscious. What is necessary in face of this despite and hatred, asks the Times, and suggests some magnanimity rather than the carefully hedged promises made yesterday-something more generous in spirit than a constitution drafted by an expert committee. No plan for the future will succeed unless it can hope to win over a large body of Bengali opinion.
What is needed now in the Time’s view is surely some measure of good will towards the Bengali population of East Pakistan that will encourage them to think that peaceful compromise might be possible instead of clinging to hopes of guerilla warfare with all the added suffering that more fighting would bring. They will not be inspired by a statement, however well intentioned, that reads as if it had been drafted by an adjutant for battalion orders.
The most sharply worded criticism comes from the Guardian which begins by remarking that General Yahya Khan’s nightmarish dream world shows no signs of crumbling. His faith in what his aides tell him is touching, but tragically pathetic. He has no real plans now. The proposals he unveiled for a return to democratic government are a shame in the Guardian’s judgment. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman remains, in the Guardian’s view, just possibly, the one man who can persuade the five million who fled to return; and-equally vital-those Bengalis who remained not to wallow in communal strife. Mujib, in as the Guardian’s Pakistan’s last chance of a little peace.
A fourth editorial appears in the Scotsman which says President Yahya Khan may have a firm grip on Pakistan in consequence of military ruthlessness but his grip on reality appears dangerously loose. If he believes he has foreign support for his actions, he must be unbalanced, the paper goes on. If he does not believe it, he is trying to deceive the people of Pakistan about the extent of international disapproval of his brutal policies. One thing is clear, the Scotsman adds. Foreign governments have failed to change President Yahya’s mind and steer him back to civilized methods of ruling
17. ASIAN TOPICAL TALKS
DESPATCH FROM MARK TULLY
EAST PAKISTAN REACTIONS
TO YAHYA
Edited by Evan Charlton (S)
1st July, 1971.
Mark Tully of the BBC’s Eastern Service, cables from Dacca; after talking 10 businessmen, journalists, and ordinary people in and nearby Dacca it has become even clearer to me that President Yahya Khan’s latest political programme has been a severe disappointment to East Pakistan. There is nothing in it for East Pakistan, was typical of the comments heard. Many feel that the President’s speech was designed to encourage the people of West Pakistan and the armed forces. His condemnation of the Awami League leaders has disappointed those who genuinely hoped for some settlement. His praise for the armed forces has been treated with the utmost cynicism. The Islamic emphasis in the President speech will, it is fait only increase alarm amongst the Hindus, who are still here and will certainly not encourage Hindu refugees to return. The fact is that the Bengalis here do not believe the army is well intentioned. The destruction of eight villages about 50 miles northwest of Dacca has demonstrated beyond doubt that the army is still taking punitive action cut this is not really so important for the future as the rumors which are rife in and around Dacca. These alarming rumors of continuing army brutality people being taken away to the cantonment and not returned, rape and extracting money and goods by force are rarely confirmable but they are almost universally believed. In this sort of atmosphere it is quite impossible for the army to restore confidence and indeed they do not even seem to be able to make any effort to do so. Armed posses of mainly Punjabi police patrol the city and they are clearly very jittery; one also sees occasional army machine gun patrols. People are searched before going into the telegraph office and there are spot checks on the streets. Several people I have talked to have been frightened to be seen with me. Business in the bazaars appears to be reasonably brisk but there are far fewer people about than normal at night in the streets are still practically deserted. Office attendance has improved but it would seem that most Hindu office workers have not returned. Virtually no effort to restore the damage done by the army has been made. Communal bitterness between the Bengalis and the Urdu speakers is still very strong Under these circumstances it is impossible to see how a government in anyway associated with the basically West Pakistani Army can regain the confidence of the people.
18. ASIAN TOPICAL TALKS
1st July, 1971
BRITISH PRESS ON PAKISTAN
Edited by William Crawley (S)
This morning’s press carries two reports from correspondents in East Pakistan. In the Times, Michael Hornsby reports what he believes to be continuing persecution of the Hindu community in East Pakistan by the armed forces. Hornsby visited the village of Sinduri, some 40 miles to the north west of Dacca, which is one of eight predominantly Hindu villages in the area, which he says have in the past five days been looted or burned down. Hornsby says that on conceivable strategic or security reasons can be found to justify these actions.
In the Daily Telegraph. Clare Hollingworth reports from Dacca. She has been with a Pakistani army border patrol to within four hundred yards of the border of Assam, and she reports that the destruction by guerrilla forces from the Indian side of the border has devastated a border town in East Pakistan and made 5000 Pakistanis refugees’ in their own country. She says that the Pakistan army is convinced that the Indians are trying to destroy the economy of the area, as there can be no military reason for the shelling. Guerrillas have been attacking tea estates, and have put twelve or thirteen estates near the Indian border cut of action with mortar fire. She says that every day more tea planters are arriving in Dacca, as conditions become more difficult and dangerous.
From Calcutta the Daily Telegraph correspondent, Peter Gill reports that Mr. Toby Jessel, one of the four British Members of Parliament who are currently visiting both Pakistan and India in a tour sponsored by the British Government, said last night that he was convinced that the Pakistan Army had conducted a blitz on Hindu villages.
19. ASIAN TOPICAL TALKS
DESPATCH FROM MARK TULLY
IN DACCA
Edited by Evan Charlton (S)
5th July, 1971
In a cable from Dacca, Mark Tully of the BBC’s Eastern Service says that the campaign to prevent life returning to normal in East Pakistan appears to be continuing. On Friday night, another electricity pylon was sabotaged-this time in Dacca. Parts of Dacca were without electricity for twenty hours. Over the weekend several bomb- throwing incidents were reported in Dacca. Last week severe damage was done to the bazaar at Sarisabari, North of Mymensingh. As a result of the damage and the police action taken by the army, work at the big jute baling station at Sarisabari came to a halt. Conditions there are more normal now. In Pabna there was firing and at least one bomb exploded on Friday night. In Rajshahi a bridge was blown up last week. There was also firing and bombs exploded on Saturday night. The authorities in Rajshahi explained that the army had opened fire on infiltrators who were attempting to cross the Ganges from India. Some of the firing came from that direction but not all of it. It is very difficult to make an accurate assessment of the activities of the guerrilla movement because the authorities are anxious that these should be played down. However the fact that these reports have come out under the present circumstances where there are DO official sources and when not many people are travelling the countryside would tend to indicate that at least sporadic acts of violence aimed at disrupting the economy and preventing people from collaborating with the government are likely to continue.
20. ASIAN TOPICAL TALKS
9th July, 1971
BRITISH PRESS ON PAKISTAN
Edited by William Crawley (S)
In this morning’s Daily Telegraph Clare Hollingworth reports from East Pakistan. She says that Pakistani and Indian soldiers confront each other at close quarters at every main said crossing along the border and that there is daily sporadic small arms fire across the border, Bangladesh guerrillas cross the frontier every night and have been damaging communications in the border areas. The Indian side is packed with refugees she says, while the Pakistani army operates in almost deserted countryside. Few refugees are returning into Pakistan. Clare Hollingworth thinks that the presence of a United Nations peace keeping force would be the best solution in view of what she says are the ever rising tempers of the battalion and company commanders.
Another Telegraph reporter, Peter Gill reports from the Indian state of Tripura. He says that there are fresh waves of East Pakistan refugees crossing into India. He says they are mostly Muslim Bengali peasants who have been caught in cross fire in fighting between Pakistani forces and the Mukti Fouj guerrillas.
In the Financial Times, Neville Maxwell reporting from Karachi also notes West Pakistani anger at Britain. He sees irony in the allegation in Pakistan that Britons have always favored the Hindus against the Muslims, as he says exactly the opposite accusation is regularly made in India. The Pakistan Government, he says is engaged in a fundamental reappraisal of its relationship with Britain. (He says that foreign reporting of the situation in East Pakistan is either ignored or discounted both by West Pakistanis and by British people living in West Pakistan).
Maxwell says that the views of such West Pakistanis as Air Marshal Asghar Khan, who has just returned from East Pakistan are ignored. According to Maxwell, Air Marshal Asghar Khan’s appreciation of the situation is sharply different from that of the Pakistan Government.
21. ASIAN TOPICAL TALKS
23rd July 1971
PAKISTAN ARMY AND THE MUKTI FAUJ
by Mark Tully (S)
Reports of sabotage by the Mukti Fauj in East Pakistan continue. Mark Tully looks at the situation now facing the Pakistan Army in The country’s East wing:
The first impression a visitor to East Pakistan would get is that life is gradually returning to normal. This is to some extent true in many parts of the province.
People need to eat and earn their living no matter how much they disapprove of the regime But this return to normality is being slowed down by the guerrilla fighters of the Mukti Fauj. The Mukti Fauj have two weapons, fear and disruption of tile economy. Through Radio Free Bengal, the Mukti Fauj arc preaching a campaign of terror against anyone who collaborates with the army. They are backing this up by murdering members of Peace committees and other prominent collaborators, and by threatening factory workers, tea garden labor and jute growers. On the economic front they are sabotaging vital installation and doing their best to see that communications arc not restored.
The Pakistan army is trying to meet this threat but they are in a very difficult position. In the first place they are very thin on the ground. They have to keep large numbers of their soldiers in the important towns because they are still afraid that there might be major uprisings there. The rest of their forces arc mainly tied down on the borders. This means that they have had to leave the guarding of vital installations to badly trained volunteers called Razakers. These volunteers’ are still being raised in most places and even where they have been trained and are in action they are very often more of a menace than a help. Another problem is that the East Pakistan police force virtually disappeared in many places. The attitude of the population is also still extremely hostile to the army and there is still no sign that the army is getting any cooperation from them. There is always the possibility that the people of East Pakistan will become hostile to the Mukti Fouj if they continue, to threaten them and disrupt their daily lives. But unless the army can guarantee them protection from the Mukti Fouj, which they certainly cannot do at present, the people are not likely to run this risk of Mukti Fouj reprisals by giving information to the army. The main source of resistance are the Mukti Fouj guerrilla fighters who live in camps across the Indian border. The Mukti Fouj find it quite easy to slip between the Pakistan army’s posts and as a result the border areas are for the most pail still in a chaotic condition. Things are not helped by the shelling which breaks out from time to time between the Indian and Pakistan armies.
It is impossible to ten how many of these guerrillas there arc but reports indicate that they are spread out all round East Pakistan’s border with India.
The Pakistan army appears to be facing a virtually impossible task. In an underdeveloped country where communications are appalling everything is on the side of the guerrillas. So far they have certainly succeeded in preventing East Pakistan’s two main industries-tea and jute returning to normal. All that can be said is that at this early stage many of the sabotage efforts have been bungled and that the Mukti Fouj still has plenty to learn. Everything hinges on whether they have the stamina and the skill to sustain a long and effective campaign.
Bengali dawn news talk 24/25 July, 1971
22. ASIAN TOPICAL TALKS
6th August 1971
PAKISTAN’S WHITE PAPER
by Mark Tully (S)
The Pakistan Government has issued a white paper called the crisis in East Pakistan. Mark Tully looks at the white paper.
The white paper sets out the Pakistan government’s version of the events which led up to the military action on March 25th and those which immediately followed this action, The white paper says that the Federal Government acted on March 25th to restore law and order which had completely broken down. It blames the crisis on the failure of the elected representatives to reach agreement on the constitution. They could not agree on the constitution, the white paper says, because the leaders of the Awami League had moved from their original demand for provincial autonomy to a demand for secession. The white paper accuses the Awami League leaders of planning an armed uprising with the help of India. It sets out in detail the case for Indian involvement going back to the Agartala conspiracy case of 1967. The white paper also lists the reported atrocities committed under what it describes as the Awami League’s reign of terror. Not all the dates which these atrocities were committed are listed in the report but the report does indicate that many of them were committed after the army action started. The white paper also gives a detailed version of the negotiations between the President and the political leaders in Dacca from 15th March to 25th March.
One of the difficulties the white paper presents to students of events in East Pakistan is that it makes no attempt to discuss the Awami Leaguers case. It is a one sided version of events and as such many people will take it less seriously than they would have done had it examined the facts from more than one point of view. Two examples of this might be quoted. Much is made in the white paper of the killings by the Awami League but there isn’t even any mention of killings and destruction by the army. No attempt is even made to justify them as militarily essential. Again the repot does not try to assess the effect in East Pakistan of the President’s announcement on March 1st that he was postponing the National Assembly. Many observers believe that this one single action did more to destroy confidence in the President’s good intentions in East Pakistan than anything else. The white paper just quotes the President’s speech in which he admitted that one of the reasons he was postponing the assembly silting was because the major party in West Pakistan has threatened to boycott the session. It then goes on to say boldly “The response of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was to call for a general strike.”
The timing of the report is also a little difficult to understand. The Pakistan Government says that the atrocities and acts of lawlessness committed by the Awami League militants before March 25th were not publicized to avoid possible reprisals. But in his speech broadcast to the nation of March 26th President Yahya Khan said “A number of murders have been committed in the name of the Awami League. Millions of our Bengali brethren and those who have settled in East Pakistan are living in a state of panic and a very large number had to leave that wing out of fear for their lives.” If the President saw fit to make that admission on March 26th it seems strange to delay the publication of this White Paper for over four months for fear of reprisals in the west wing.
The change of Indian collusion is taken back to the Agartala conspiracy case. It implies that the Pakistan government knew in 1967 that Sheikh Mujib was conspiring with India to divide Pakistan and that the plan which was revealed then was actually put into effect in February 1971 with the hijacking of the Indian aero plane. Most of the evidence produced in the report must have been known to the government at the time. If they believed this evidence proved that Sheikh Mujib was planning to commit treason with the help of India why, as is made out elsewhere in the report, did the president continue his negotiations in good faith with the Awami League? why indeed did the President describe Sheikh Mujib as the future Prime Minister of Pakistan?
But perhaps the most important criticism of the report is that it is not what is needed now. In the introduction it says that the White Paper h a full account of the events which led to the present crisis in East Pakistan. But nowhere in the report does the Government discuss what is being done about the crisis now or what its hopes and expectations for the future are. This is what the world wants to hear.
23. ASIAN TOPICAL TALKS
15th September, 1971
BOIL OF GUARDIAN ARTICLE BY
MARTIN WOOLLACOTT
Edited by William Crawley (S)
RefNo. 70J218
In the Guardian this morning Martin Woollacott writes from Calcutta about the different aims and ideologies of those who are involved in the struggle for Bangladesh. Woollacott says that some of those in the movement consider it a blessing in disguise that India does not intend to go to war over Bangladesh, as the prospect of being a client state of India does not appeal to them.
According to Martin Woollacott, the leadership of the Bangladesh movement can he divided into four categories. The first is the Awami League leadership, which he says without Sheikh Mujibur’ Rahman is not a particularly dynamic body but has the unique advantage of legitimacy. Secondly, there is a small corps of former regular Pakistani army officers. Thirdly, there is a group of young men of education and intelligence, without party affiliations, who have secured jobs as private secretaries and policy planners. Woollacott thinks that their influence can be expected to grow.
Finally there is the leadership of the various left wing and Communist parties, especially the Bhashani and Muzaffar groups of the National Awami Party, and the Communist Party of Bangladesh. They have been linked with the Awami League by the creation this week of a formal consultative committee. These parties favor a true liberation war, and are in tacit alliance with the young intellectuals who work for the Awami League Government, according to Martin Woollacott.
Woollacott says that the political prospects are uncertain and much will depend on the course of the war during the coming winter months, when the Pakistan Army is expected to embark on major operations against the guerrillas.
24. ASIAN TOPICAL TALKS
21st September, 1971
SITUATION IN EAST PAKISTAN
Edited by Mark Tully
Yesterday two reports on the situation in Hast Pakistan came in the first in a dispatch from the BBC correspondent in Dacca, Ronald Robson Spokesman for the East Pakistan rebels outside East Pakistan claim that their forces hold large parts of East Pakistan, but this is firmly denied by the authorities in Dacca.
In several hundred miles of travelling in East Pakistan I have not personally seen any sign, or heard even any rumor, that rebels hold any portion of territory at all in the sensitive border areas. Rebels do come across from India, often inflict damage and then return swiftly when chased by troops. This is hardly the same thing as holding areas of territory. Crossing the border is relatively easy. It would be almost impossible for any army to seal such a border of 1,780 miles against Infiltrators. Dispositions can be made, however, to see that no intruder penetrates very far inside East Pakistan with impunity, and the Pakistan Army seems well able to see to this. There has been a diminution in the incidents of acts of sabotage in the past month. Civilian volunteers are guarding the many bridges and other vulnerable points thereby releasing regular troops for other tasks. Pakistani personnel certainly suffer casualties in, for example, border shelling incidents, but observers here in East Pakistan are extremely sceptical of rebel claims that Pakistan Army suffers 3000 casualties per month.”
The second report is from Ian Macdonald who is the relief coordinator for 3 British charities and has just returned from East Pakistan where no use working on an agricultural project. He told Adam Raphael on a BBC Radio programme last night that he feared there would be a major famine in East Pakistan. He had seen land uncultivated in this the main crop season, children with bloated bailies laying by the road side and an increased number of beggars and he had talked to farmers who were very heavily in debt because of crop failure over the last year. Macdonald said that even if the United Nations did manage to get the necessary food stocks to East Pakistan the problem of distributing it would still be enormous. Food which arrived in January was still lying on the dockside at Chittagong. 100 UN trucks arrived a few days ago but up to the time Macdonald left East Pakistan only 30 drivers had been found for them.
The United Nations have said that they will rely on the existing administration to distribute the food but Macdonald was very doubtful whether the local administration could deal with the huge problems it was going to face over the next few months. He said that the United Nations effort was already getting tied up in the bureaucracy. After 3 months work in Pakistan the United Nations had still not been able to get local machinery going. Macdonald indeed by saying that he was afraid that there might be no solution at the problem of fooding the population of East Pakistan over the next few months.
25. NO1 ASIAN TOPICAL TALKS
DESPATCH FROM EVAN CHARLTON
AT THE LABOUR PARTY CONFERENCE: STATEMENT ON PAKISTAN
Edited by Mark Tully (s)
7th October, 1971
The first business on the agenda of the Labor Party’s Conference this morning was the adoption of statement on Pakistan presented by the National Executive Committee This was expeditiously done, less than half an hour being allotted for the discussion. There was no dissent from the statement which expressed the belief that a political solution of the situation in East Pakistan can only be reached after military repression has ceased and the political leaders of East Bengal and in particular Sheikh Mujibur Rahman have been released. Mr. Bruce Douglas Mann M.P. Supporting the executives call for the British Government to raise the issue at the current session of the United Nations, thought that unless this action was taken, the world would see the greatest tragedy it has ever known. The war being fought by the East Bengali guerrillas was a just one, in his view, and one which had to be won. Mr. Douglas Mann believed that Pakis tan was dead and he would go further than the support was Mr. John Stonehouse, M.P.. Who regarded it as a disaster that the United Nations had not raised its voice in condemnation of what had happened and he too thought that the creation of Bangladesh was the only realistic way out. Mr. Tom Tomey, M.P. for South Bradford spoke of the split between immigrants from the two wings of Pakistan in his own constituency and said that it was necessary to recognize that two strongly opposing views of the situation were held by the people of Pakistan. Britain’s main concern should be to stop the holocaust and persuade the people concerned to get round a table and talk. He wanted pressure on the British Government to take more action to bring this about.
Mrs. Judith Hart wound up the debate with a can for more overt pressures on the Pakistan Government to reach a settlement She said that the Executive’s statement was based on an analysis of events which placed the responsibility for the tragedy on the Government of Pakistan. The only answer in the long term was a real political solution but she thought that the danger to the continent of Asia of war breaking out was grave and that it was of immeasurable importance that the world acted promptly through the United Nations.
The Statement on Pakistan was passed unanimously and the conference went on to discuss East-West relations in Europe.
26. ASIAN TOPICAL TALKS
PRESS REPORTS ON INDO-PAKISTAN SITUATION
Edited by Evan Chariton (S)
12th October, 1971
Peter Hazelhurst. in a cable to The Times from New Delhi reports that Mr. Jagjivan Ram, Indian Minister of Defense, has warned President Yahya Khan that if Pakistan launches a surprise attack, India will extend the war to Pakistan territory. Hazelhurst says that this warning comes in the context of unconfirmed reports that Pakistan has evacuated the civilian population along large areas of the Western frontier region and that a number of armored and infantry divisions have moved up to borders. India, says Hazelhurst, has replied by strengthening its positions in the border. Tension, he says has reached a dangerous level with leave for the armed forces cancelled on both sides and a build-up of oil and petrol reserves.
According to Hazelhurst’s report it is estimated in India that President Yahya Khan has deployed nearly five divisions in East Pakistan and most of his remaining 10 divisions along the western front. India says Hazelhurst can commit 12 or 13 of her 27 divisions to the Western front with ten mountain divisions tied down on the Chinese frontier and the remaining three or four divisions near the East Pakistan border.
According to Hazelhurst. Indians fear that President Yahya might be tempted to hit back in the West if the East Bengal guerrillas begin to harass his forces in the East effectively. Indian military strategists, says Hazelhurst believe that if the Pakistanis strike they will do so before the Himalayan passes on the Chinese border close with the onset of Winter. On the other hand, he adds if the Indians decide to solve the refugee problem by pushing the West Pakistanis out of East Bengal, the operation would not begin until the passes are closed.
In a long study of the situation in East Pakistan, Kevin Rafferty in the Financial Times says that it is not certain whether the army there will devote itself after the end of the Monsoon to the business of opening up supply lines to provide food in the areas where it is most needed or to opening up supply lines for the task of mopping up guerrillas. Should he choose the second course, says Rafferty, the Bengal border will be tinder for an Indo-Pakistan war, there will be yet more refugees and many more people will die. It is a question of priorities, says Rafferty. and ifs not certain which President Yahya will choose. But, he adds, there are 40 million people in East Pakistan in danger of starvation whose lives depend on his choice.
27. ASIAN TOPICAL TALKS
15th October, 1971
GUERRILLAS AND FOOD
by Mark Tully (S)
The Head of the United Nations Relief Operation in East Pakistan said on Thursday that the prevention of famine in East Pakistan during the next four months depends on whether food can be distributed efficiently. Mark Tully looks at the situation on the ground in East Pakistan in the light of recent reports.
Ever since the military action in East Pakistan stated at the end of March there have been dire warnings of immersing famine in East Pakistan. The few reports there are from people who have travelled in East Pakistan recently indicate that so far there is no signs of malnutrition on a large scale. But almost everyone who has seen to East Pakistan fears that there are still very real dangers.
Mr. Paul Mark Henri who is in charge of the United Nations Relief Operation in East Pakistan said in his news conference last Thursday that he did not think that there would be a shortage of stocks. The main problem Mr. Henri envisages is distribution. The railways of East Pakistan used to carry about 60% of the food imported into East Pakistan and a foreign correspondent has reported from Dacca this (last) week that the rail ways are still only operating at about 20% of their normal capacity. The United Nations appear to be discounting the railways and are going to try to get food distributed by water and road transport. They will supply a thousand vehicles and various coasters and other boats. But it is reported that of the 100 United Nations trucks which have already been supplied to East Pakistan 70 are still stuck in Chittagong because the road conditions are so bad that they cannot be driven to their destinations.
This is where another very important factor in the situation comes in-the guerrillas. The road conditions are bad because they have been sabotaged by the various groups of guerrillas. Recently also at least three ships have been damaged by limpet mines in Chalna harbor and this has led one British shipping line to stop all sailings into East Pakistani ports. Although it is now believed that none of the S lips which were damaged were carrying food it is going to be virtually impossible to get the necessary food stocks into East Pakistan if the main ports cannot be kept safe. Apart from absotaging the communications, the other main difficulty that the guerrillas are posing is that in many parts of the province the army are still being forced to take action against them. This military activity might well have to be stepped up because the guerrillas are threatening to launch a new and. more intensive campaign. It is very difficult to arrange for food distribution in areas where intensive military action is going on.
Last month. Mr. Moshtaque Ahmed, who describes, himself as the Foreign Minister of the provisional government of Bangladesh, told a foreign correspondent in India that he hoped an International relief operation could be conducted in East Pakistan. But he said that he would not be prepared to cooperate with anything except a full scale international operation in which the distribution of food was entirely handled by independent international organizations. His view was reiterated by a spokesman for the Bangladesh movement in London this (last) week. The spokesman made it’ quite dear that he did not regard the Present United, Nations operation as anything more than an agency of the Pakistan army.
The Bangladesh movement also pointed out that so far no one had even approached them to ask for their cooperation and that until that happened they were unlikely to try and restrain the guerrilla activities.
Bengali dawn news talk for 16/J 7 October
28. ASIAN TOPICAL TALKS
20th October, 1971
PRESS ON PAKISTAN
Edited by Mark Tully (S)
There is a report in the Daily Telegraph today from Clare Hollingworth in Gauhati in Assam. She says that a guerrilla offensive against the Pakistan army is imminent, and that 30.000 men under Colonel Osmani have been alerted. She reports that there has been heavy fighting in Chhatak in the Sylhet district and near Comilla. There is, according to Clare Hollingworth, increasing evidence that the Chinese are giving material and moral support to the guerrillas. Indian officers are concerned about the extreme leftist tendencies developing among the guerrillas. The guerrillas are deeply’ disappointed that India has not recognized Bangladesh. She also reports that there is now an open dispute between two groups described as the provisional government of Bangladesh in Calcutta and the guerrilla leader based in Tripura and that this dispute will increase leftist pressures on the guerrillas.
The Times carried an extensive account of the Indian Prime Minister’s press conference in Delhi yesterday at which she repeated that India did not want war nor would India do anything to provoke a situation by which a war might develop. Mrs. Gandhi also said that she saw no reason to have discussions with the Government of Pakistan because the problem lay between the government of Pakistan and the elected representatives of the people of East Pakistan.
Yesterday and today (Sunday and Monday) the British press has reported and discussed events in India and Pakistan extensively. Mark Tully takes a look at this press coverage:
29. ASIAN TOPICAL TALKS
25th October, 1971
INDIA PAKISTAN AND THE PRESS
by Mark Tully (S)
Anyone who read all yesterday and today’s British papers would emerge from the exercise in a state of total confusion. The main question which is discussed is the likelihood of war between India and Pakistan. Take today’s Times and Scotsman. The Times headlines its story from Peter Hazelhurst, “Mrs. Gandhi flies abroad in spite of war threat “. The Scotsman’s headline is Fears of War abate as Mrs. Gandhi leaves “for foreign tour. The Sunday Telegraph yesterday carried a story from Delhi in which it said that Mrs. Gandhi’s short address to the nation before she left for her world tour must have had a soothing effect particularly in the border areas, where military preparations have according to the Sunday Times Correspondent, caused alarm. On the other hand the other two important Sunday papers emphasized the fact that India had begun to call up army reservists. The Observer correspondent said that the reservists’ had been called up to keep up the Indian government’s show of force at the borders to meet a similar build-up on the Pakistani side.
Today’s Daily Telegraph has two reports whose headlines make alarming reading. One from David Loshak in Lahore is headlined: “Pakistan Army itching to go against India,” while Clare Hollingworth’s story from New. Delhi is headlined, “Indian Troops poised to strike” David Loshak says that the Pakistan army is deployed in strength and depth along the Lahore frontier. The most dangerous aspect of the situation, Loshak feels is the difficulty of unwinding from the present state of tension. Loshak also does not see any sign that the military regime in Pakistan is willing to help bring the situation back to normal. Clare Hollingsworth reports that Mrs. Gandhi had long and calm meetings with her cabinet and with the chiefs of the armed forces before she left at which she insisted on restraint.
John Grigg who has recently returned from a visit to India as an official guest wrote a long article in yesterday s Observer in which he said, that Mrs. Gandhi is still extremely anxious to find a peaceful solution to this problem but she will not shrink from war if her efforts to find a peaceful solution fail. He thinks that Mrs. Gandhi’s foreign tour is her last bid for peace. She will be asking the leaders of the Western powers to use every sanction short of war to bring about the changes in East Pakistan which are essential if the refugees are to return.
On the other hand, Sir Frederick Bennett who is a Member of Parliament has written a letter in today’s Telegraph in which he says that having just returned from a visit to both wings of Pakistan he is convinced that the concept of Bangladesh is as dead as Biafra Sir Frederick Bennett points out that United Nations observers have advised that one of the best ways of inducing the refugees to return is to reduce the tension on the border. If the guerrilla activities inside East Pakistan continue. Sir Frederick warns that a major war is likely to break out.
In an article in the Times today Peter Hazelhurst analyses the relative strengths of the Indian and Pakistani forces. He says that both are well disciplined and well armed. Numerically the Indians have a 3 to 1 advantage but this is offset by the fact that 10 of India’s 27 divisions are tied down on the northern border with China He also points out the logistical strains under which the Pakistan army is having to operate. Hazelhurst does not think India is likely to march into East Pakistan because this would leave the province in chaos and India could end up with 70 million refugees. But he says that if the guerrillas harass the Pakistan army effectively President Yahya Khan might be forced to start a military action, probably in Kashmir. In this way Hazelhurst says President Yahya Khan would focus world attention on Kashmir and force the Security Council to meet.
Finally, both the Scotsman and the Guardian today carry editorials. Both papers agree that war is unlikely while Mrs. Gandhi is away. The Scotsman says that India has responded more readily to appeals for restraint than Pakistan has responded to appeals to make a fundamental hut necessary change in her policy if Mrs. Gandhi docs not succeed in increasing international concern about the return of the refugees, especially in America, pressure for military action with India will increase. The Guardian says that Mrs. Gandhi must succeed in getting a temporary block on American arms shipments to Pakistan and a much larger United Nations forces in East Pakistan otherwise she will not be able to restrain the extremists in India. But the Guardian also feels that India should offer to allow United Nations teams into the refugee areas.
30. ASIAN TOPICAL TALKS
1st November 1971
PRESS ROUNDUP
Edited by William Crawley (S)
There have been reports this morning and over the weekend on developments in East Pakistan. Yesterday morning the Sunday Times published a report from Dacca. The reports is unsigned but the paper claims that it is recent and reliable. The Mukti Bahini guerrillas are said to have launched a series of daylight front attacks on public buildings in Dacca. The report does not quote any attacks more recent than two weeks ago. According to the report, foreigners in Dacca who have been hitherto relatively safe are now under threat both from the Mukti Bahini guerrillas and the razakars. The new wave of Mukti Bahini attacks is said by the correspondent to put an end to a three-week lull which followed the capture by the Pakistani Army of 80 guerillas on September 15th.
In the Daily Telegraph today, David Loshak reviews the current position in Pakistan. David Loshak, who has been until recently reporting from New Delhi, says that the past ten months have seen a catalogue of errors on the part of the Pakistan Government. Loshak says that as the nation hovers near the edge of War vital decisions have been avoided. He says that the cost of keeping the army in East Pakistan is being met by printing money, and that the Pakistani economy is in desperate straits. The country threatened by simmering discontent among workers in industry who have been laid off, and with mounting interprovincial strains in the western wing.
The Financial Times this morning carries an editorial on Mrs Gandhi’s visit to Britain. The Financial Times says that if war does not break out between India and Pakistan, Mrs. Gandhi’s tour will not have been in vain. The paper says that Britain’s policy should be to ensure that the nightmare of an India-Pakistan war. with the possible involvement of the United States and the Soviet Union, does not become a reality. The Financial Times says that the British Prime Minister, Mr. Heath should send a message to President Yahya Khan urging him to take the risk of political negotiation with the Bengalis as a better alternative to the risk of a war with India. The Financial Times says that Mr. Heath should also send a similar message to President Nixon, urging the Americans to take a similar line.
31. ASIAN TOPICAL TALKS
REVIEW OF THE BRITISH PRESS ON PAKISTAN
Edited by William Crawley (S)
3rd November, 1971
A report is published in the Daily Telegraph this morning from Clare Hollingworth in Dacca. She says that forty thousand Bangladesh guerrillas are now operating inside East Pakistan. She quotes a Pakistan Army officer as saying to her that “open support for the Mukti Fouj has risen during the Past two months like a genetic tidal wave sweeping over the country.” Clare Hollingworth says that the guerrillas are increasing their activities inside the towns and that for the first time since March clashes with the army have been taking place in the streets in daylight. According to Clare Hollingworth there are three groups of guerrillas deployed inside Dacca, and bank robberies are frequent Schools have been attacked and many parents are keeping their children at home.
Clare Hollingworth says that the army, position is over-stretched. They are manning the frontiers, leaving too few men to control the countryside. According to her, the authorities are pressing the government in Islamabad to introduce collective fines on areas where guerrillas have been operating, but she thinks such a measure would be difficult to enforce.
According to Clare Hollingworth, 1000 guerrillas held a conference near Barisal last weekend within three mile” of an army outpost. The conference had apparently followed the killing by the Mukti Fouj of a rival Naxalite leader. A rival guerrilla group had then agreed to join forces with the Mukti Fouj, reports Clare Hollingworth in the Daily Telegraph.
In the Times a report from kuldip Nayar in New Delhi says that Hast Bangali leaders were taken by surprise and were unprepared for president Yahya Khan’s military campaign Kuldip Nayar says that Delhi’s strategy seems to be to sit quiet and give as much help to the guerrillas as it can. He says that the extremist group in the Mukti Bahini is putting pressure on its leaders to look more for Chinese support in their campaign. According to Kuldip Nayar the extremists argue that India is not willing to fight the Bangladesh battle.
32. ASIAN TOPICAL TALKS
11th November, 1971.
SITUATION IN EAST PAKISTAN
by Mark Tully (S)
It was reported earlier this week that the Pakistan government had decided to impose collective fines in areas where subversive or anti-state activities have been going on. Mark Tully looks at the situation in East Pakistan in the light of the latest reports from the province:
The Pakistan government’s decision to impose collective fines shows how seriously the government now views the law and order situation in East Pakistan. Previously, the government always denied that it held local communities responsible for sabotage or other guerrilla activities in their areas. Although there was occasional evidence that after some acts of sabotage the army or the police burnt houses in the surrounding areas the government always denied that this had been done as part of an official policy. The Pakistan government has been doing their best to persuade the people of East Pakistan and indeed the world that they are not only fully in control of East Pakistan but also getting cooperation from the vast majority of the people. The government must realize that by its collective fine decision it is admitting that this is not so.
Reports from East Pakistan all speak of a marked increase in the activities of the guerrillas. One of the guerrillas, targets appears to be schools and colleges. The guerrillas want to dissuade students from returning to their classes. The economy has also been a target. It is reported that 3 jute warehouses have been burnt down recently. The guerrilla have also been turning their attention to those they regard as collaborators. On Sunday, one of the Members of the National Assembly who recently gained his seal in an uncontested by-election was shot and there have been other political assasinations. One report from Dacca says that there are now no less than seven areas of East Pakistan where the government in Dacca does not in fact govern.
One of the main difficulties the government appears to be facing is that it is having to depend on the Razakars for a great deal of the work which the police or the army would normally do. The regular police are still weakened by the massive defections after the military action started which have not been made up. President Yahya Khan’s scheme to restore political life to the province does not appear to be doing much to restore the confidence of the people and encourage them to cooperate with the government The main problem is that there seems to be no sign of a party growing up to replace the now banned Awami League, By-elections were scheduled for 78 seats in the National Assembly next month. Reports from Pakistan say that 52 of the seats have already been filled by members who have been returned unopposed. As most of these members come from the right wing Islamic parties who were unable to win a single East Pakistani seat in the last election their unopposed return in this election does not seem to hold out much hope of their being able to command the confidence and respect of their constituents.
Another political problem which the government is reported to be facing is the rump of the ex-Awami League-these Members of the National Assembly who were elected on the Awami League ticket last year and who have been cleard by the government to take up their seats in the National Assembly. Nothing has been heard of most of them in East Pakistan and they are in fact believed to be still in India.
The signs at the moment arc that politically and economically East Pakistan is far from normal and it is very-difficult to see how the province can return to normality under present conditions.
33. ASIAN TOPIC ALT ALKS
BRITISH PRESS ON INDO-PAKISTAN
30th November 1971
Edited by William Crawley (S)
Most British papers this morning give prominence to the admission by India that her forces have been engaged in a tank and infantry battle against the Pakistan army in the Balurghat-Hili area inside East Pakistan. The Daily Telegraph correspondent in Calcutta, David Loshak says that the official explanation, that the military crisis in East Pakistan is a matter merely between the Pakistan army and the Mukti Bahini guerrillas, has now been abandoned by everyone except official spokesmen.
In the Times, David Housego reports from Rawalpindi that the Indian and guerrilla forces are mounting repeated attacks to encourage the Pakistan army to use up their ammunition, while at the same time depriving them of further supplies. Housego says that the thrusts in the north appear to be aimed at airstrips, which are both a source of supply and an escape route for the Pakistan army. Housego says that observer in Rawalpindi do not see how President Yahya Khan can put off a decision much longer, whether to attack India in the west, or face disintegration of the eastern province, or to make political concessions.
Writing in the Guardian from Dacca, Lee Lescaze of the Washington Post says that it is clear that fighting has been confined to small areas and no all-out India offensive has taken place. Lescaze says that both India and Pakistan are intent that its adversary should be painted as Jhe aggressor and says that this concern has shaped the undeclared border war. But Lescaze thinks that the Indian attacks have kept the Pakistani force off balance. He thinks that India would welcome counter thrusts across the border by Pakistani troops which could provide evidence of Pakistani aggression, and give a pretext for even stronger Indian military action.
Also in todays Guardian there is an editorial headlined India provokes war. The Guardian says that Indian military incursions are calculated provocations aimed at securing either the Release of Sheikh Mujib and an autonomous Bangladesh or outright military victory. But the Guardian says that India’s tactics look more and more fallible. They are disastrous diplomatically politically and psychologically. Diplomatically because no one now believes that this is an internal crisis in which India has no part, politically because a counter attack by Pakistan may now seem a just response after so much provocation, and psychologically because President Yahya Khan would never free Sheikh Mujib in circumstance involving such direct crushing personal humiliation, and says the Guardian, Bangladesh without Sheikh Mujib will quickly fall apart.
34. ASIAN TOPICAL TALKS
DESPATCH FROM AHMED NIZAMLDDIN IN DACCA.
Edited by Mark Tully (8)
2nd December. 1971
According to a Pakistan Army spokesman in Dacca, Indian soldiers made attempts to advance towards East Pakistan’s north eastern Sylhet District at Shamshernagar airport and also at the western border railway station, Darsana in Kushtia District. The Army spokesman claimed to have bluffed the advance.” A source however said “Serious fighting awaited but reports reaching Dacca said that Indian soldiers have is still continuing in these to fronts”. Further details are still attacked an the border districts including Bhomra and Sarkara in Khulna, Afra, Similia, Bhadra, Khalishpur Industrial Town. Ustail and Andalbar in Khulna. Kamalpur in Mymensingh, Shamshernagar and Unachom in Sylhet district, Casba, Saldanadi, Barajala, Genagadar Bazar. Patharnagar and Harimangal in Comilla and Chota Harina in Chittagong district. A military source today circulated and published the pictures of two Indian soldiers of 515 Gurkha Regiment with their identification numbers. The two soldiers were killed at Jaintiapur area within East Pakistan territory. The photographs were produced to prove India’s involvement in the present war.
Meanwhile rebels, whom officials describe as miscreants have exploded five bombs in various parts of East Pakistan’s capital city during the past 24 hours. A bomb exploded in a leftist party office at a time when Right wing leader. Professor Golam Azam indicated that a National Government might be formed in Pakistan in the near future. Mr. Bhutto was likely to be included in the government. Prof. Azam also demanded that in the National Government the prime Minister, the Foreign Minister and the Finance Minister should be appointed from the East Pakistani leaders in order to win the confidence of the people of East Pakistan.
Another blast badly damaged electric poles at Rampura, Malibagh area. Two bombs exploded in two Secondary High Schools, Armanitola. New Government High School and Rahmatullah High School. Both institutions were damaged, according to police source. One explosion badly damaged a petrol pump near Pak. Motors on Dacca Airport Road which also injured two persons, one of them reported to be serious. Dacca Mitford Hospital Source said that two more bullet-injured persons who were admitted there bringing such cases to 35 there from nearby Keraniganj area.
A Pakistan Government spokesman said that the trial of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman “Is not over”. Reports of scarcity and high prices of daily necessities are going in from the outlying districts and some 20 miles from various parts of Dacca City. An old man from Medini Mandal, some 22 miles south of Dacca City, Mr. Afzal Hussain, all the way her to buy some essential commodities such as kerosine oil and medicines. In Dacca City the government decided to sell kerosene oil to city dwellers only through their food ration cards. When I visited one of the fairprice shops, I found hundreds of people away from their normal work lined up from early dawn to midday for one gallon of oil per head. In the rural areas according to consumers there was practically no kerosene oil and all the local papers in their editorials appealed to the government to solve this problem. There has been an acute shortage of kerosene oil here since the day when Bengali rebels exploded and sunk an oil tanker at Chittagong port 80 percent of East Pakistan population use kerosene oil for lighting purposes after dusk and in the city areas, they use it for cooking purposes also.
35. ASIAN TOPICAL TALKS
2nd December 1971
PRESS REVIEW ON INDIA/PAKISTAN
By William Crawley (S)
Reports from British correspondents in the press this morning say that Indian forces have cut the railway line at two points inside East Pakistan. Peter Hazelhurst in the Times reports from Delhi that Indian, troops have occupied sections of the rail line in the Hili region. Clare Hollingworth, writing in the Daily Telegraph from Dacca says that Indian artillery supported by Bangladesh guerrillas have also cut the rail link from Chittagong to Dacca and Comilla at Fenni, 38 miles north of Chittagong.
Clare Hollingworth says that it appears that Indian operations have never been mounted at more than battalion level (600-800 men), and that the majority of attacks are made by no more than one company (120 men). Clare Hollingworth reports that yesterday the Indians began heavy shelling of a Pakistani artillery position near Rangpur. The gunners were discouraged from returned the fire. A senior officer said that in this sector it would be impossible to launch a small counter-attack without crossing the Indian frontier, and he had strict orders not to do so, writes Clare Hollingworth.
Correspondents of the Times and the Daily Telegraph were with a party of foreign correspondents who were taken on an officially sanctioned visit to the IndoPakistan front, on the Indian side near Bangaon. There was little sign of conflict apart from a few bursts of machine-gun fire. Peter Gill in the Daily Telegraph reports that Pakistani troops were not to be seem and a Bangladesh flag flew on the customs post on the other side of the border.
A delayed dispatch appears in the Times this morning from A. B. Musa of the Asian News Service, who has been with the Mukti Bahini guerrillas at Satkhira in the Khulna district. Musa reports that two platoons of the Mukti Bahini had succeeded in crossing the Ichamati river and had forced a company of Pakistani troops to retreat. Musa says that some of the guerrillas were boys of only 12 years.
Further eye witness accounts of guerrilla activities inside East Pakistan was provided by a film which was shown on BBC television last night. The film was taken by an American reporter, and it showed guerrillas in entrenched positions opposite the Pakistani lines. They were said to be short of arms and equipment and were operating to a large extent with captured guns, ammunition and motor vessels. A full civilian administration was said to be operating behind the guerrilla lines.
36. ASIAN TOPICAL TALKS
DESPATCH FROM AHMED NAJIMUDDIN IN DACCA
Edited by William Crawley (S)
6th December 1971
After a day’s air battles and dog fights 011 Dacca airfield, 110 further attack on this airport has been reported from yesterday afternoon till this morning. Late last night, at 0230 Local Time, the Indian air force made an attack on Dacca City. I heard a sound of bombing from the suburbs of Dacca City but there have been no reports of damage. Also Meanwhile a Pakistan army source said that the Indians had enlarged ‘battle fronts at Akhaura in Comilla District and Kamalpur in Mymensingh District and also in Dinajpur in northern sector. The source claimed that the attacks had been blunted by Pakistani troops.
Dacca, Narayanganj and East Pakistan’s port town, Chittagong have been placed under dusk to dawn curlew and a complete black-out is being observed for an indefinite period. All means of communication with Dacca and the outlying areas have been completely disrupted and normal life has been suspended. Shops, commercial organizations, banks and other offices remained closed, due to the Indian air and ground attack Dacca television centre last night showed newsreel of the Indian attack on Dacca airfield damaged air force planes and captured pilots. The local papers came out as usual with big news of the war. Reports of fierce fighting from Jessore, Comilla, Chittagong Hill tracts are still coming in.
37. ASIAN TOPICAL TALKS
THE BRITISH PRESS ON INDIA AND PAKISTAN
7th December 1971
Edited by Evan Charlton (S)
The British Press today gives extensive coverage of the war between India and Pakistan. There are also editorials in the major newspapers.
The Daily Telegraph says that in announcing India’s decision to recognize “The people’s Republic of Bangladesh” Mrs. Gandhi could not have put things more plainly Now that “there was war, she told her M. Ps, “the normal hesitation on our part to do anything which could come in the way of a peaceful solution or which might be construed as intervention, has lost significance.” Given Indian’s policy and the stage which had been reached on ground in East Pakistan, the decision had indeed become logical. To give Mrs. Gandhi credit where it is due. it is a fact that, until the most recent developments, she did refrain from actions which could have impeded a political solution to the refugee problem which has hung so heavily round India’s neck since March.
The most obvious candidate to follow India’s example says the Telegraph, would seem to be Russia, perhaps after prodding one or two East European Governments to move first. China supports Pakistan but might want a presence if a new Bengali state emerged. Washington in its present anti-Indian mood will oppose recognition. It is not enough for the world’s greatest power simply to heap unbridled blame on India and threaten to cut off aid, after months of indecision on an obvious threat to peace says the Telegraph.
The Guardian’s editorial is called “Perils of Total Victory. Mr. Nixon may not like it. China may loathe it: but one fact emerges clearly” the Guardian comments. Bangladesh, born of blood and desperation will not go away now.
This is the first major trophy of battle but the Guardian argues that a total Indian victory will raise more questions than it settles. Bengali autonomy is a just and worthy cause, but cannot be conferred from outside by the arch enemy of Pakistan. It cannot be cocooned in a puppet state says the Guardian. It needs its own leaders solving its own problems.
The Times says that India in seeking a military solution to the political problem of East Bengal has left no room for compromise. It is clear to India and may well be true, says the Times, that Pakistan is totally incapable of bringing the people of Bangladesh back under its control. This is to be effected by a brisk campaign that will hand over power to the government that has been rather prematurely recognized. If that can be done quickly, adds The Times, India may well imitate the Chinese in 1962 and briskly withdraw, announcing the end of a war that never was. And until that neat solution is completed the Russians will stonewall in the Security Council. Of course nothing like this may happen, the Times goes on. Pakistan’s action in the west will in any case not be halted even if the east were overrun.
That is where the danger lies and that is why the task of separating them and ending the war will be the harder. At best the United Nations can watch for an opening in the belief that the war can be kept to some settlement of East Pakistan says the times and not stumble hopelessly into a war to end war between India and Pakistan.
38. ASIAN TOPICAL TALKS
REVIEW OF THE BRITISH PRESS ON INDIA/PAKISTAN
Edited By William Crawley (S)
8th December 1971
Many correspondents of the British Press this morning file reports on the course of the war as seen from different places on both sides.
In the Daily Telegraph Peter Gill, reporting from Calcutta says that by taking Jessore the Indian army has brought off a particularly impressive tactical coup. Through adopt manipulation of the press, says Peter Gill, the Indian Army command lulled Pakistani forces into the belief that such a well-defended town would be bypassed to avoid un- necessary bloodshed. But the Chief of Staff of Eastern Command had made it clear in Calcutta yesterday that the principal aim of Indian strategy had been to clear the Pakistani army from all areas, reports Peter Gill. Gill says that Pakistani troops may prefer to surrender to a regular army than fall into the hands of the guerrillas. Clare Hollingworth also reports in the Daily Telegraph from Dacca, on efforts by the United Nations to arrange the evacuation of women and children from the city. Mr. Paul Marc Henri, assistant Secretary general of the U.N. has been attempting to arrange a neutral zone in Dacca under the jurisdiction of the Red Cross, reports Clare Hollingworth. She writes that few people in Dacca arc bothering to take shelter when air raid sirens sound because the Indian pilots appear to be sticking to military targets.
39. ASIAN TOPICAL TALKS
8th December 1971
NEWSNOTE: INDIA AND PAKISTAN
by Mark Tully
Yesterday, the British labor Party’s international committee unanimously passed an emergency resolution which was strongly critical of Pakistan. The resolution said that the cause of the present conflict lay in the refusal of the Pakistan government to negotiate a political solution with the democratically elected leaders of the people of the country’s east wing. The resolution also urged all countries to stop sending any more arms to India or Pakistan. The Labor Party’s international committee put forward a five-point plan which called on both sides to stop hostilities. It also called for the release of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and a political solution which would satisfy the people of East Pakistan. After the political solution had been found, the plan said that arrangements should be made for the orderly return of the refugees and there should be an immediate and massive increase in world aid to the area. Although all members of the committee felt that the state of Pakistan, as it was, no longer existed, they postponed a decision on recognizing Bangladesh because they felt it might hinder the British government’s efforts to bring about an end to the fighting. In spite of the condemnation of Pakistan, the resolution therefore means that the Labour party is going, for the moment, anyhow, to continue supporting the government’s policy.
The British government are clearly doing their best to retain as much influence as they can with both India and Pakistan. According to diplomatic sources, Britain has definitely decided not to follow the American example by cutting off aid to India. The British government also appeal’s determined not to be drawn into the trap of famine either side as the aggressor. At the United Nations Britain was one of the ten countries who abstained from voting on the General Assembly Resolution which called on both sides for an immediate cease-fire and withdrawal of troops. The British government felt throughout the discussions in the Security Council that there was no point in discussing resolutions which were bound to be opposed by those who were committed to either the Indian or the Pakistani position. The British Ambassador is reported to have done his best to persuade the members of the Security Council not to give up hope of finding a compromise.
40. ASIAN TOPICAL TALKS
DESPATCH FROM AHMED NIZAMUDDIN IN DACCA
Edited By Mark Tully (S)
10th December 1971
This is despatch from Nizamuddin Ahmed in Dacca. It was sent yesterday (Thursday) morning.
Reports of scarcity, high prices, and the disappearance of essential commodities are reaching here from all over the province following blockades and the disruption of all means of communications. All postal services to and from Dacca have been suspended with exception of telecommunications in a few selected cities and district headquarters. In the city private car owners buses and public carriers, were refused petrol. However military, police and other government agencies’ cars were on the road as these were being supplied with restricted quantity of petrol. Salt, kerosene oil, mustard oil and other daily necessities of East Pakistan have also disappeared from the open market. The Government has further reduced the weekly food ration of city dwellers by one fourth of the normal quote. Sugar and rice are being sold at higher rates.
Supplies of fish and meat in the city markets are also inadequate. Shops and offices close by 14.00 hours local time. Banking service and industries are also affected seriously due to frequent air raids, but in general, the people enjoy the air battle very much Newspaper circulation is confined mainly to the Dacca and Narayanganj areas.
41. ASIAN TOPICAL TALKS
REPORTS IN THE BRITISH PRESS ON INDIA/PAKISTAN
Edited by William Crawley (S)
13th December 1971
Many reports in the British press this morning focus on the U.N., and the terms that the Indian Prime Minister, Mrs. Gandhi might consider for a peace settlement. .There is some speculation on the future of the Pakistani forces in East Pakistan. An attempt by the military adviser to the civilian governor of East Pakistan, Major General Farman Ali Khan, to initiate negotiations for the withdrawal of Pakistani forces from the province was vetoed by the commanding officer in East Pakistan, General Niazi and by President Yahya Khan himself. Reports in this morning’s papers say that Major General Farman Ali Khan’s position is now in doubt. Clare Hollingworth reporting in the Daily Telegraph from Dacca says that it is assumed that the General is under house arrest.
Clare Hollingworth writes that it was estimated yesterday that fewer than 5000 Pakistani troops still remained in Dacca, and it was expected that Indian forces would take over the city within the next 2 days.
From New Delhi, David Loshak reports in the Daily Telegraph that. China and Pakistan were believed to be preparing 10 evacuate Pakistani troops from East Pakistan. Indian intelligence sources have intercepted messages passing between China and the Pakistani High Command indicating that a large number of rescue ships had been assembled in the Ganges Delta. David Loshak says that it is believed that these ships would sail out of the delta flying Chinese flags and carrying escaping Pakistani troops. Loshak reports that it has become apparent that many of the survivors of Pakistan’s 70,000 strong army are making their way to Ganges ports for possible evacuation towards Burma. According to Loshak. the main reason for the reported parachute drops of Indian units has not been to attack Dacca, as has been widely assumed, but to attempt to cut off the escape routes of the Pakistani troops moving southwards towards the ports. Loshak reports that the Indian government is alarmed at the prospect of Chinese intervention in a rescue operation.
In the Times, Henry Stanhope reports from Calcutta on the establishment of the Bangladesh Government in Jessore. One of the first acts of the government was to announce the setting up of war tribunals to try collaborators with the Pakistani army regime. Stanhope reports that Mukti Bahini forces together with the local police are helping to maintain civil order. Stanhope says that Indian commanders are careful to ensure that their soldiers’ behavior is good, and there have been no complaints heard against them.
A Guardian correspondent, Laurence Stern of the Washington Post, reports from Jessore that the Indians and the Bengali towns people seemed to be on most amiable terms. The acting President of Bangladesh. Syed Nazrul Islam is reported to have said in a speech in Jessore “We will not tolerate anybody who tarnishes the relationships between Bangladesh and India”. Jackson says that India’s interest is in breaking the military junta in Islamabad, but not at all in the break-up of West Pakistan.
42. ASIAN TOPICAL TALKSREPORTS IN THE BRITISH PRESS ON INDIA/PAKISTAN
17th December 1971
Edited by William Crawley (S)
Full coverage is given in this morning’s press to the signing of the instruments, of surrender in Dacca yesterday by the commanders of the Indian and Pakistani armed forces in the east. Several papers print the full text of the surrender terms, which states that full protection will be provided by the Indian forces to foreign nationals, ethnic minorities and west Pakistani personnel.
A report in the Times of an interview with the Pakistan Foreign Minister Mr. Bhutto in New York. Henry Tanner of the New York Times News. Service quotes Mr. Bhutto as saying that Pakistan should accept a ceasefire with India and should be prepared to negotiate a permanent settlement with the insurgents in East Bengal as well as with the Government of India.
However Mr. Bhutto said that he did not concede the final loss of East Pakistan according to Henry Tanner and said that what he called the secessionist leaders may soon come to be regarded as Indian stooges. He said that sooner or later there had to be a ceasefire.
It was sheer madness to continue a war of this nature, and none of Pakistan’s problems were resolved by it.
Other reports from the United States say that America had given a cautions welcome to the ceasefire in East Pakistan and to the Indian offer of a ceasefire in the west. An United States state Department spokesman said that there had been no indication that the Soviet Union had exercised a restraining influence in the events leading up to a ceasefire.
In the financial Times there is a special article by Robert Graham, from New Delhi. He writes on the consequence of India’s victory in the east, and future Indian policy to the state of Bangladesh which they have recognized. India would like to maintain Maximum non-interference in its internal affairs, but geographical and political factors are likely to dictate close tics. New Delhi is bound to offer as much financial and economic support as possible, says Robert Graham.
A short piece in the Guardian asks the question what a citizen of Bangladesh would be called. Four professors of Bengali in London are reported to have coined the form”Bangladeshiya” but the Bangladesh mission in London amended this to “BANGLADESHI”.