Relief Unit Presses On
From our correspondent
Calcutta, 7 August. Eleven members of a British relief team, Operation Omega, are now waiting in Calcutta to cross into East Pakistan next week with medicines, high protein food and powdered milk. Bernard Rivers, aged 24, an employee of British European Airways, who is using his leave for this humanitarian enterprise, says:
“Our aid is only a drop in the ocean, but if we are allowed in, we will distribute that drop. If we are not allowed in, our protest at the border will reveal to the world that the Pakistanis are preventing assistance from reaching the people of East Bengal.”
Eight members of the team are British and need no visas to enter Pakistan. The three American members have not applied for permits. Nor has Omega sought the Pakistan Government’s approval for the mission. This, says Mr. Rivers, is because international and national laws are less important than mankind’s overriding needs.
The crossing into East Pakistan will be made at the West Bengal outpost of Petrapole, about 45 miles from Calcutta. Both the Indian border security force and the Pakistan Army are well entrenched in their respective territories, and there has been some shelling in the area in recent weeks. But the Indians will not prevent Operation Omega crossing into Pakistan. Although the Indian Government has not given Operation Omega its official blessing, members of the team have visited Mrs. Gandhi’s personal advisers and senior officials of the External Affairs Ministry. They found them sympathetic to their cause.
Meanwhile, Operation Omega is negotiating for two or three Land Rovers to drive across the frontier. Their own ambulance, bought in Britain and driven overland to Basra, will not arrive in Calcutta by sea until about 17 August. but they are unwilling to delay the bid until then.
Reference: The Observer, 8 August, 1971