THE ONLY HOPE
Small clashes have been occurring several times on the Indo-Pakistani borders which indicate the present tense, if not explosive situation, between the two states. Though India and Pakistan accuses one another of preparing attack, .each carefully avoids giving the impression of being the first to provoke a war. The leaders of both countries are fully aware that war will only bring untold disaster, with neither having the least chance to come out as the undisputed winner. It is with this dubitable confidence that the world seems to regard listlessly the present Indo-Pakistani confrontation.
Meanwhile the days pass with no end in sight for the untenable situation of the refugees. The millions of East Pakistani refugees continue their subsistant living under the worst imaginable conditions, with no hope of immediate relief from their immense suffering not to say of returning to their home land.
Thus far no progress has been reported about political developments in East Pakistan. The situation remains the same as in March this year when the government cruelly smashed down opposition to the way the central government ruled the country. With the political climate in East Pakistan still unsettled, the early refugees prefer to live in their pressent miserable conditions to returning to their homeland. The fact that every day still many refugees flee East Pakistan (according to Indian reports estimated at 30 to 40,000) is undoubtedly a deterrent for those who fled earlier to go back.
Only the central government of Pakistan can give the right answer to the question of what to do with the huge number of refugees in order that they may return safely to their homeland. And this is the internal matter of Pakistan itself to solve in which the outside world has no right to interfere. The most the latter can do is press Pakistan for an urgent humanitarin settlement.
Reference : Indonesian Observer, 16.11.1971