What Made Them Flee?
By our Special Correspondent in Calcutta
“Our Public relations machine was not ready. The army PR people were not in Dacca on March 25th and 26th, and we definitely made a mistake with the foreign correspondents there.” This was as far as a senior West Pakistani diplomat was prepared to go in admitting that his government’s handling of East Pakistan had not been perfect. What has happened in East Pakistan, one of the most overcrowded and poverty-stricken areas of the world, to make 5 million refugees flee across its borders?
The two hard facts since the West Pakistani troops moved against Sheikh Mujib’s Awami League and shot up and destroyed part of Dacca on the night of March 25th are that during the following six weeks the army gradually established its control over most of East Pakistan, and that millions of refugees have poured into the surrounding states of India, The army’s version of events is that in March Awami League extremists had been planning a coup, that thousands of West Pakistani living in the east and Biharis (always closely identified with the West Pakistani regime) had been slaughtered by the Bengalis. and that only prompt action by the troops had saved the day.
There were certainly some members of the East Pakistan and East Bengal regiments, as well as police and paramilitary border guards, who fought against the army. And Awami League leaders who escaped to India admit that quite a number of Biharis and Punjabis were murdered. But there was no planned uprising. Many of the troops and police were caught, disarmed and shot before they knew what was going on. Sheikh Mujib was arrested in his own house, and his colleagues were captured or narrowly escaped capture. There is little doubt that atrocities have been committed on both sides. But there is an appalling amount of evidence from the stream of refugees, Moslem and Hindu (and Christian). educated and illiterate, that the Pakistani troops have gone beyond what was needed to restore their control over the main centers of population.
What is the army up to ? Villages seem to be being burned and men shot ‘long after most of the armed resistance has come to an end. One explanation is that with only 70,000 troops on the ground West Pakistan can keep control only by judicious terror of this sort. But quite apart from the fact that this policy is hardly a good basis for a future political settlement which does not just depend on force of arms, there is the question of the mass exodus of human beings. “In order to get their troops to shoot, the army’s officers have told them they are fighting a holy war” is the explanation given by some educated refugees. “They have said that the Islamic state is threatened by the fifth columnists and infidels, notably the Hindus, Awami League leaders and intellectuals.”
With most of the intellectuals and Awami Leaders either dead, captured or escaped, the army appears to be happy to see the Hindu population, roughly 10 million out of East Pakistan’s total of 75 million, move en masse for the border. But it is not just the army which is driving out the Hindus. The so called peace committees recently set up in a number of villages and manned by Biharis and right-wing Muslim Leaguers are apparently expropriating the Hindus’ properly and looting and burning their houses.
The rate at which refugees move across the border seems to depend on just where the army has been operating and its strength on particular parts of the border. At first the flow was roughly half Moslem, half Hindu. It was when the stream became a torrent in the early part of May (which was when the Pakistani army reached some of the border areas) that the Hindus began to predominate. This arouses the fears of the Indian states most affected, West Bengal, Assam and Tripura, that the refugees will keep on coming until there are hardly any Hindus left on the other side of the border. At first the numbers seemed to be a gross exaggeration put out by the local states in order to get a quick reaction from the central government. But few of the experts from the local UN organizations and charities would seriously quarrel with the figures. Rather over half the total are in camps and therefore easily counted. A spot check on the rest can be made at the border and at centers for dispensing food. The latest total put out at mid-week by India’s ministry of rehabilitation was 4.7 million, of which 2.7 million are in camps and the rest with friends or fending for themselves.
The first Indian policy was to keep the refugees close to the border. This has now broken down : the population of Tripura, for instance. has nearly doubled. Prices of essential goods are rising all around the border, wage rates are falling under the pressure of refugees who are not in the camps, and in some areas, such as West Bengal, there is very little suitable open space left to put up more camps. The threat of violence is growing daily, especially since the population on the Indian side of the border is mainly Moslem. So far the administration of the camps has been impressive. particularly since in the border areas it falls on the already overburdened shoulders of magistrates and officials. Of the cholera epidemic came as a surprise to the outside world, it had long been feared in the camps themselves and many have already had a programmer inoculation for some weeks. The Indian government’s original shopping list put out in May for 250,000 tents and tarpaulins has had to be revised upwards, although no one knows when the original demand will be met.
If things are bad in India, they must be worse in East Pakistan. The region’s main port, Chittagong, appears to be cut off from the interior and factories are still only just ticking over. There has been an unparalleled movement of population from the towns and the villages. The ravages of last November’s typhoon have not been repaired. The available transport is being used for troops rather than food and in many areas rice has not been planted for the main post-monsoon crop. Pakistan has accepted UN help in principle for the eastern wing. This is an important change of policy. One can only hope that it is not too late.
Reference: The Economist, 12 June, 1971