U THANT PAYS FULL ATTENTION TO PAK REFUGEES
Concels African Trip
Secretary General U Thant said Wednesday that the “dimensons of the Pakistani refugee problem were without precedent in history”, according to report from U.N. New York.
He cancelled plans for his African trip next week in order to devote full attention to the relief operations.
He also issued a world wide appeal for contributions in cash and kind for “this challenging humanitarian effort”.
In paralel messages to Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia and Secretary-General Diallo Telli of the Organisation of African Unity, U Thant said he would be unable to attend the African summit meeting in Addis Ababa, opening next Monday.
It was his duty to remain in New York to give his personal attention to “this most tragic and urgent problem of the East Pakistani refugees, the Secretary-General told Emperor Haile Selassie.
- U.N. spokesman said U Thant still hoped to be able to complete his scheduled programme of visits to Russia, the Ukraine, Byelo-Russia, Mongolia, Poland and Switzerland later this month.
He is due in Moscow on June 24 and expects to confer with Premier Alexei Kosygin then or on his way back through Moscow to Warsaw.
PRINCIPAL REASON
A principal reason for U Thant’s cancellation of the African visit, it was learned, is his wish to remain in constant communication with Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, who is serving as the “focal point” for international relief in India.
Prince Sadruddin was in India Wednesday conferring with officials on the needs of an estimated six million people who have crossed the frontier from East Pakistan.
In his message to Emperor Haile Selassie U Thant referred to “the tragic problem of displace persons from East Pakistan to India.”
He said many concerned Governments had called on his good offices and on the servies of the U.N. and its were dear to him and independent Africa was a matter of much concern to the UN. His presence at the African meeting would have represented “an importnant symbol of close relationship between the United Nations and O.A.U.”
U.S. PLANES ARRIVE
Reuter correspondant Ian MacKenzie roported from Gauhati, Assam, that one of four American C-130 U.S. Air Force transport planes had arrived there to carry out an airlift of refugees from Tripura to Assam.
Two American Air Force C-141 Starlighter jet transports were also due in Gauhati with supplies and equipment to support the U.S. airlift.
CHOLERA AGAIN
Cholera has again erupted in the Indian state of West Bengal after showing signs of abating, West Bengal Health Minister Dr. Jainul Abedin said in Calcutta Wednesday.
Dr. Abedin said he had received reports that cholera was raging among refugees in Burdwan district, centred on the industrial Town of Burdwan about 90 kilometres (53 milles) northwest of Calcutta.
Burdwan district is due west of Nadia district, which borders East Pakistan and was the main area affected by the recent cholera epidemic among the 4,400,000 refugee in West Bengal.
The Djakarta Times, 18.6.1971
I have ordered the armed force to do their job and fully restore the authority of the government (in East Pakistan) Yahya said in a 20-minute broadcast.
Yahya accused Sheikh Mujib of treason and outlawed the Awami League, which won a majority of seats in last December’s election for a national assembly that never met because of the consitutional crisis.
As Yahya was speaking, Indian Radio monitors picked up a message broadcast from clandestine radio transmitters inside East Pakistan announcing unilateral independence for the province.- which is separated from West Pakistan by 1,000 miles of Indian territory.
“The Sheikh has declared the 75 million people of East Pakistan as citzens of the sovereign independent Bangla Desh (Bengali) nation,” Indian monitors reported an announcer saying from a Independent Bangla station named “Voice of Desh.”
Unconfirmed reports reaching here said 51-year-old Sheikh Mujibur had gone underground to avoid capture by army troops pursuing him.
With Yahya having imposed strict press censorship throughout the country and normal communication with Pakistan virtually cut off, there were conflicting reports about what was happening inside the 55,126-square-mile eastern province.
Pakistan government radio stations heard here said the situation in East Pakistan had come under control to great extent since stiff martial law regulations were imposed in the morning.
The milltary orders included an indefinite curfew throughout the province and instructions to troops to shoot violators on sight.
FIGHTING
But reports reaching Indian towns along the 1,349-mile broder with East Pakistan said there was heavy fighting-and heavy casualties- as the West Pakistan-dominated army battled against the East Pakistan police, a paramilitary organization known as the East Pakistan Rifles and common citizens.
The voice of independent Bangla Desh, monitored in India claimed that East Pakistan security forces had rallied behind the Sheikh and had surrounded West Pakistani troops in Chittagong, Comilla, Sylhet, Jessore, Barisal and Khulna- all the major cities in the province except Dacca, the capital.
The Sheikh’s rodio late Friday appealed to the United Nations and to Asian and African nations for help.
The Liberation war now going on in Bengal Desh as part of the Afro-Asian countries movement for liberation from colonial dominations; it said, according to monitors in Calcutta.
The radio also said that at least one army regiment from West Pakistan had been surrounded in one undisclosed area of East Pakistan by the East Pakistan rifles.
“The whole regiment will be crushed,” it added.
The radio also announced an emisary from Bangla Desh had been sent abroad to seek help from “foreign powers” but no details were given as to the identity or mode of travel or itinerary of the person.
The radio then said it was signing off for the night but would be back on the air on saturday, although it did not give the time or wavelength.
There was no official estimate on how many West Pakistani troops were in East Pakistan following a massive army buildup the past week with reinforcements rushed in ship and plane.
Informed Indian sources said it was believed that there were three to four army divisions- or about 60,000 troops- in East Pakistan.
The same sources said the East Pakistan had about 18,000 men of whom two thirds were from the Eastern wing.
There also were believed to be about 100,000 militiamen, resembling civil defense members, nearly all of whom would likely back the Sheikh- plus the civilian police force.
Since independence, Mujib has spent nine years and eight months in jail on numerous charges, the most serious of them accusation by former President Ayub Khan that he was gulity of treason, the same charge levelled now by Yahya.
Yahya said Mujib had made a political settlement impossible by inststing on an end to martial law first, and said he should have taken action against mujib “week ago.” but be hesitated beause he did not want to jeopardize his plan for a peaceful transfer of power, he said.
Should Sheikh Mujib be successful in his independnce campaign, which is based on Bengali nationalism, India could be faced with similar demands from its own turbulent state of West Bengal, which has a population of 40 million.
West Bengal and East Pakistan (also known as East Bengal) share a common border, have similar cultural backgrounds and have the same language- although the Indian state is predominantly Hindu while East Pakistan is mainly Moslem.
Slogans appeared this week on walls in several parts of calcutta, the capital of West Bengal, saying :
“Survival of Bengallies in unification of its two parts, and “East Bangal’s victory is also our victory.”
The Indian Government however would likely take a tough stand against any move for a united Bengal.
The two states were united before the Indian subcontinent was partitioned in 1947 but they became, parts of seperate nations after the borders were drawn on a religious basis.
Indonesian Observer, 27.3.1971