Bangla delegation leader in New York
From J. K. Banerji, UNITED NATIONS, SEPT. 24- The leader of the Bangladesh delegation, Mr. Abu Sayeed Chowdhury, Judge, Dacca High Court, Vice-Chancellor of Dacca University and now de facto High Commissioner in London of the Government of Bangladesh, arrived here yesterday afternoon for the purpose of raising the Bangladesh issue in the UN General Assembly which opened its 26th annual session on Tuesday.
Justice Chowdhury is the first to reach New York. Other members of the delegation are expected to follow shortly.
There cannot be any question that the bloody suppression of the right of self determination of an entire people, the mass flight of refugees causing grave economic and social problems for India and above all, the potential threat that all these events constitute to international peace and security are subjects that cry out for remedial action on the part of the UN.
Unfortunately, political considerations based more often than not on narrow self interest and power calculations have prevented the Big Powers and their camp followers from seeing the problem tonight. This is the reason why the question has not been raised by any country not even by India in any forum of the UN save by a non-governmental agency in a minor sub-committee dealing with discrimination.
It is primarily the opposition of the Big Powers that Secretary-General U Thant recently said that compelled the UN to confine its activities to purely humanitarian activities. Justice Chowdhury, who is no stranger to the UN is fully aware of the roadblocks to any move to raise the Bangladesh question meaningfully and not simply in the form of general references in one or more forums of the UN during the Assembly session of the 130 member States.
The preliminary task of the leader of the Bangladesh delegation will, therefore, be to explore the ground and find out where and under what form could he persuade one or more States to raise the real issue-how to stop the enslavement of the people of Bangladesh.
Reference: Hindustan Standard, 25.09.1971