THE SUNDA Y TIMES OF ZAMBIA, DECEMBER 5, 1971
LESSON FOR THE THIRD WORLD
The mild skirmishes, which characterized the start of the confrontation between India and Pakistan, were bound to escalate into open war as long as the world remained unaffected by the plight of the ten million Pakistani refugees who have fled to India.
To her credit, it must be mentioned that the Indian Prime Minister had taken the ultimate step to personally acquaint world leaders about the economic realities of the refugee problem to her country’s well being. Her recent trips to most of the world capitals were obviously a last ditch attempt, to persuade president Yahya Khan to moderate his hostility towards India and the Bangladesh movement and seek a more peaceful solution to the problem.
Had Yahya made even the slightest move to re-accommodate the refugees without inflicting reprisals against them, we do not believe that India would have continued on the belligerent course which has now led the Pakistan President to declare war on her.
Of course, had world leaders used their influence with Yahya Khan earlier in the game, things would not have turned out the way they have.
The United States has gone on record as saying that it would spurn every attempt to embroil it in the Indo-Pakistan conflict. Perhaps it resisted too much the attempts of Mrs. Gandhi to use its influence which is very great indeed-with Yahya Khan to make him realist that a war with India was not the ultimate panacea to his internal problems.
It now seems certain that U. S. reluctance to get involved was based solely on selfish motives. The Soviet Union and the people’s Republic of China have made their positions known in this situation. Russia supports the Indians and the Chinese are backing the Pakistanis. Perhaps the United States, which has always secretly hoped for a Sino-Soviet conflict, decided for this reason alone to let the situation escalate into open warfare in the hope that the Communists would be at each other’s throats in the end.
The United Nations whose record of preventing clashes before they occur is not so impressive, has not lifted a finger to calm tempers in New Delhi or Islamabad. But it will probably be the United Nations which will pick up the pieces after the war has ended.
It is very hard at this stage to halt the hostilities, for most wars have a way of going on until one side gives up or is made to give up. Pakistan is heavily outnumbered military by India, but President Yahya must know what he is doing.
The war itself is another result of the assumed non-challenge of the big powers in a conflict that does not directly threaten their own ambitions of expansion. It is a lesson for the Third World, a lesson which must surely convince them that despite their noble mouthing’s of “non-alignment” in international politics, they have yet to reckon with the cynicism of the big powers.