US, USSR, INDIA SEEKING END TO E. PAKISTAN FIGHTING DACCA UNDER ARMY CONTROL
New Delhi, March, 30, (AP)
THE UNITED STATES, the Soviet Union and India are seeking a common approach to bring an end to the fighting in East Pakistan, Indian official source said.
The highly placed said discussions were under way in Washington, Moscow and New Delhi, in addition to parallel talks at the United Nations.
The three countries have been in fairly constant touch about the situation, to see if some common stops could be agreed on,’ one source close to the Indian Foreign Ministry said.
He said consultations also were being held with outher foreign missions here.
The general reaction has been that the developments are very tragic and that the use of force must stop and a peaceful solution found,’ he added.
The sources however did not disclose what action was being considered.
The U.S. Embassy spokesman confirmed that diplomatic discussions were taking place between India and the United States about East Pakistan.
Th diplomatic offensive was reported as there was mounting evidence that the Pakistan army had tightened its control over the Eastern province where a civil warbetween the armed forces and the followers of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s Awami league broke out late last Thursday.
The Sheikh’s clandestine radio in announcing the take over of Dacca, said the Sheikh’s forces had completed a 140 mile liberation march’ from the port city of Chittagong.
United News of India, quoting reports received along the Indian-Pakistan borders said the Chittagong port and navy bases were destroyed in the fighting.
DACCA QUIET
A planeload of 60 Yugoslavs arrived here from Dacca Tuesday enroute back to Belgrade with the first eyewitness reports of the situation in the provincial capital since Sunday, when the last group of foreign correspondents was expelled.
The Yugoslavs representing families of engineers and technicians working in Dacca, said the army was in full control of the city and that there did not appear to be any resistance.
‘The streets are full of soldiers and the people are moving about.’ said one technician. ‘Some shops are closed, but many are open. There is food, but not like before.’
A French tourist who flew out Dacca on the same plane said :
“The whole city is under army control now there are no signs of resistance in the city.”
The evacuees did not have any reports on the situation in the rest of the province.
United News of India said in a dispatch from the Indian border town of Krishnagar. 50 miles (80 km) North of Calcutta, that according to a message received from Awami League sources, Sheikh Mujib’s Wife and daughter have taken refuge in a foreign consulate in Dacca.
The message, according to the agency, said the consulate was from a country ‘sympathetic to the cause of the Bangla people’ but did not dentify the country.
Other unconfirmed reports from acrosss the border had said the Sheikh’s Dacca residence was burned down by army troops Monday.
U.N. DEBATE
India was reported Tuesday night checking international support for a United Nations debate on the East Pakistan crisis on ground’s that genocide is being commited.
But Western diplomats claimed a Majority of the 15-member Security Council seems to be opposing the Indian move and that Secretary General U Thant also is reluctant to intervene at this time.
India’s chief delegate Samar Sen, according to the informants has been sounding the views of his Security Council colleagues to establish if there would be sufficient backing for a discussion of the crisis either in the security council or in the human rights commission.’
Spokesmen for Britain and most other Western governments, however, have taken the position that the troubles are internal to the state of Pakistan and that official comment by outsiders would amount to intervention. For that reason their security council delegates at U.N. headquarters in New York have been attempting to discourage the Indians from initiating an international discussion. The diplomatic informants said the Soviet Union and China, which is outside the world body-also seem to be adhering to a hands off policy in the highly explosive situation.
But if things worsen the big powers and U Thant may be compelled to reconsider their positions. …
Informed sources said that Pakistan’s Ambassador Agha Shahi had officially protested to the U.N. when he learns of the statement and had been in touch with the legal councel, Constantin Stavropoulos, during the weekend.
The U.N. spokesman, Ramsey, said that he had not been authorised to make the statement and was retracting it.
Djakarta Times, 31.3.1971