Bangladesh Newsletter
No. 13
November 25, 1971
Editorial
THE US AND BANGLADESH
Seven moths too late, with a million dead and tem million in flight, the U.S. has blocked the shipment of Americal military equipment to the aid of Yahya’s fascist regime. That this signals a change in U.S. policy toward Bangladesh seems most unlikely : the State Department insists that the decision was taken after mutual consultation with Pakistan ; White House spokesman Roanald Ziegler has affirmed the faith of U.S. officials in leverage by working behind the scenes with Yahya. There has been no indication that the U.S. will stop economic aid to Pakistan. Unless the Saxbe-Church amendment to the Foreign Aid bill becomes last, economic aid in the pipeline, which is sizable, will remain available to Pakistan. The U.S. appears to be favorable to the idea of extending the unilateral moratorium on foreign debts declared by Pakistan. Such continuing aid toi Pakistan will enable a continuing flow of American can military equipment.
The U.S. appears unwilling to grant the very simple proposition that any aid to a country releases its own resources and the donor can in no way control the use to which these latter resources are put, regardless of the restrictions it may place on the use of the aid funds. There is every indication that Pakistan intends to continue its repressive occupation of Bangladesh. Despite Chinese assistance to the Pakistan army, the military remains overwhelmingly dependent on American equipement : almost exlusively, according to the former Pakistan Ambassador Agha Hilaly (Washington Post, September 1). The Ambassador underscored the continuing need for spare parts, pointing out : “if we do not buy from her (U.S.), we can get them elsewhere but that would cost us ten times more”.
As long as the U.S. makes no real effort to deny Pakistan the means to keep its American arms active against Bangladesh, as long as the U.S. continues to enable Pakistan to buy arms elsewhere, we remain perplexed by U.S. attempts to alleviate the misery of the refugees and to save Bangladesh from faminc.
ARMS FOR PAKISTAN
While U.S. military assistance has been getting wide publicity, there is a less widespread awareness of military assistance from other countries. Based on reports in Toronto Globe & Mail, Sept. 25 ; Le Monde Weekly, Oct. 14 ; Economist, Oct. 23 ; Sunday Times, Nov. 7 ; Der Spiegel, Nov. 8 ; New York Times, Nov. 9 :
China remains the major supplier of new weapons. At least 50 Chinese—built MIG jet fighters and 110 55-J main battle tanks have been sent. Mortars, small arms and ammunition have been going regularly both to Karachi and Chittagong. Chinese assistance has been announced in restoring the Dacca-Chittagong line, a crucial logistics link rendered useless by the Mukti Bahini.
Norht Korea and Romania are known to be selling arms. France has continued to supply Mirage jets, helicopters, subs, and other military equipment. Helicopters would be of great importance against the guerrillas.
Arab support has extended beyond purchase of textiles that used to be sold in the captive market of Bangladesh. Prince Feisal of Saudi Arabian has sent a check for $50 m. Persian Gulf Sheikhs have promised “unlimited” financial aid. Old U.S. tanks and bazookas have been supplied by Turkey. Libya has acted as the go-between for French Mirage jets. In return for Pakistan training of its pilots, Jordan has loaned several Starfighter jets. Neighboring Iran has offered its facilities for refueling and repairs in case of war with India. Since the Iranian armed forces are almost exclusively U.S. equipped it is able to offer the necessary spare parts for U.S. military equipment used by Pakistan. Iran has also acted as go-between for F-86 jets from West Germany. During his September visit Yahya signed and assistance agreement with Iran, one provision of which calls for Iran to lend to Pakistan, in case of war, 10 of Iran’s Phantom jets.
While some of this assistance is obviously intended for use in the event of a Indo-Pak war, much of it serves to bolster the Pakistan occupation in Bangladesh.
WEST PAKISTANI LEADERS DEMAND SHEIKH MUJIB’S RELEASE
Forty West Pakistani leaders have sent an appeal to President Yahya Khan to release Sheikh Mujib, the undisputed leader of Bangladesh. Signaotires include political leaders, educators, writers, poets and trade union leaders. In this appeal they urged General Yahya either to release Sheikh Mujib immediately or try him in public.
The appeal has been signed by, among others, Air Marshal Asghar Khan, former Chief of the Pakistan Air Force, Chaudhury Aslam, leader of the Pakistan Socialist Party, Mazhar Ali Khan, former editor of the ‘Pakistan Times’, Mirza Mohammad Ibrahim, President of the Pakistan Trade Union Federation and Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Lenin Prize winner poet and journalist.
It may be recalled that General Yahya in a recent interview given to Newsweek Senior Editor Arnaud de Borchgrave told him : “I cannot release him (Mujib) on a whim. It’s one hell of a responsibility. But if the nation demands his release, I will do it”.
Immediately after the publication of the report of this interview the release appeal has been made.
BOYCOTT PAKISTAN INTERNATIONAL AIRLINES
Bangladesh Government in a recent appeal urged all Travel Agents and schedule Airlines of the world to completely boycott the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA). Bangladesh Government has sent a memorandum to the Director-General of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) drawing his attention to the activities of PIA which clearly contravene article III (i) of the Article of Association of the IATA. Mr. A. Razzak, Bangladesh representative in Stockholm, presented an aide-memoire to the Executive President of the Scandinavian Airways System to initiate measures to review the conduct of PIA under article V (2) (i) of the IATA.
PIA, which has obtained its membership from the IATA to operate as a commercial revenue-earning airline, has collaborated with the military junta of Pakistan and crossed all limits of decency to become a party to the annihilation of a vast segment of humanity in Bangladesh. PIA transported two divisions plus two brigades of the Pakistan Army up to the 10th April and is presently carrying troops from Karachi to Dacca on a regular cyclic order. It operated shuttle services during March and April between Dacca/Canton and Shanghai to bring in tons of arms and ammunitions from China. It dismissed over 1400 Bengali employees within one week. Bengali pilots have been grounded. Some Bengali pilots, notable among them are Chief Secotr Pilot Captain Sikander and Captain Islam, have been handed over to the Army. To date, the fate of the unfortunate pilots is not known.
It is interesting to note that the Pakistan Government at no time proclaimed “state of emergency” in the country. And yet, under a torrent of falsehood, hypocrisy and distortion of facts, PIA pressed its Boeings and Fokkers to facilitate the killings of Bengalis.
Bangladesh Government also appealed to the people of the world to disassociate themselves from the PIA in every capacity.
A SAVAGE OCCUPATION ARMY
David Loshak of the Daily Telegraph was in Dacca when the army struck on the night of March 25. He returned to find that the “reign of terror” has “only marginally abated since the excesses of the summer”. Dispatches have continually borne him out. We quote an eyewitness report from Der Spiegel, October 11 (our translation) :
“On the airport road leading to the center of Dacca there are West Pakistani soldiers playing soccer. A dozen robust guys in Khaki green kick a whimpering man—a Bengali. On Dacca’s Green Road soldiers search cars for explosives and suspicious persons. In a taxi they discover two young Bengali girls. A dozen soldiers grab at the two, shouting while loading their bounty to the jeep. With imploring raised arms, the starving rickshaw driver throws himself to the grounde, begging for mercy because he had overlooked the stop sign. The constable smashes the man’s face with the butt of his gun until the man can no longer move.
“Bengalis only whisper when they mention the “cantt” because the stronghold of the soldiers is not only the commanding headquarters of the occupation regime but at the same time jail and torture chamber. 6000 Bengalis vegetate there, tortured and hungry, left to the arbitrarincess of the guards. No one knows how many die there, thousands have disappeared without a trace in the Cantt…
“No relative knows whether a prisoner is still alive”. Questions remain unanswered or lead to the arrest of the questioner. Nobody believes in the promises of the government anymore. “What can we do?” asks a village chief. “If we are passive and loyal, the Punjabis come and and rob us and take our women. If we destroy the bridges to keep them from our throats, the soldiers come burn our villages and shoot the people that fall into their hands. If we must die, we want to die as men”…
“Almost more gruesome than the soldiers are the poliec. Each passengers flight from West Pakistan brings a new landing of Punjabi constables. They roar their commands and orders in the language of the West, Urdu. The Bengalis do not understand them, but they know their curses. Even a six-year-old Bengali child minics their crics : “Tu bahin chood, idhar ao, goli khao”—“Come here you motherfucker and eat a bullet”. …on all the rivers they frisk all of the passengers and rob them. Even the Bishop of Dacca was relieved of thirty-five rupees when the man of God claimed abroad a river boat. Whoever tries to defend his baggage or refuses to pay will be shot as a “Mukti”…as a rebel…“From the Biharis the government has recruited a willing militia. The ‘Razakars’ (volunteers) are paid a monthly stipend of ninety rupees and the freedom to rape, to rob, to murder.”
Another recent report comes from the Associated Press in Dacca, published in the Daily Telegraph, October 27 : “About 50 unarmed civilians have been killed by Pakistan Army, police and volunteers in the Dayaganj residential district of Dacca.
“Fifty more civilians were wounded in the raid which took place a week ago just after two men, believed to be members of the Mukti Bahini, shot six Pakistani soldiers, killing four of them.”
“As a reprisal the Army, aided by police and Razakars, went from house to house firing into rooms and setting buildings alight, according to eye witnesses. At least 60 homes occupied by shopkeepers, workers and Government officials were burned down. The incident was one of a series of exchanges of fire which are said to occur almost nightly throughout the capital city.”
“These reprisals are being taken despite the military regime’s persistent denials. According to authoritative sources in Dacca, President Yahya Khan denies shootings take place and does not even concede that they might have happened accidentally.”
“But a spokesman in the Dayaganj area said : There was no Mukti Bahini when the Army came. I’m a government servant and I tell you no person had a weapon”.
Senior Editor Arnaud de Borchgrave of Newsweek visiting East Bengal wrote (November 15) : “They (Yahya and Malik) are both convinced that the Pakistani Army is effectively and honorably fighting the guerrillas. Yet a highly knowledgeable foreign observer accuses the soldiers of atrocities. Ostensibly in pursuit of a band of rebels, army troops recently surrounded the village of Dmora (where the Mukti Bahini had never been), raped all the women between 12 and 25 and shot all the men older than 12. Only days later, Pakistani gunboats swept up the river at Chalna, sinking fishing boats and shooting the fisherman as they swam for safety. All this accomplishes is to make resistance in East Pakistan more extreme, more dedicated than ever”.
BANGLADESH REFUGEE CAMP AT THE UNITED NATIONS
New York : A refugee camp made of sewer pipes was set up at Hammarskjold Plaza in front of the United Nations Building on the first Navember to dramatize the conditions of Bengali refugees in India. The camp, organized by the Bangladesh Action Coalition, to simulate the conditions of refugee camps in India which house an estimated tem million Bengalis who have fled from the rapacious Pakistani occupation army in Bangladesh, continued its existence for one week.
Volunteers lived in the camp for the entire week, subsisting on rice and dahl (pulse), the refugee ration at the Indian camps. According to the organizers of the U.N. refugee camp, the inmates of the camp were not threatened with death by cholera, typhoid and above all, a brutal army unlike their less fortunate counterparts, but they attempted to point out to the well-fed and comfortably clothed diplomats at the United Nations the harash realities of Bangladesh. Igal Roodenko, the chairman of the Bangladesh Action Coalition said, “The camp was a protest against the inexcusable inaction and mute complicity of the world community during the past seven months when an entire people has been subjected to the most barbarous genocked”. The camp was also “a protest against the arms aid and economic assistance which the U.S. government has continued to give to the Pakistani military regime. Ignoring the obvious nature of the conflict in Bangladesh, where a democracy is pitted against the most reactionary of dictatorships, the U.S. government continues to control and manipulate international relief efforts in a way that has only recreased oppression”.
Roodenko pointed out that all United Nations relief aid is being sent through the military regime of West
Pakistan and that U.N. officials admit to the diversion of past aid for military purposes.
Sponsoring groups in the Coalition include Americans for Bangladesh, Bangladesh League of American, Save East Bengal Committee, War Resistors League, Quaker Social Action Program, The Catholic Peace Fellowship and more than a dozen other groups of concerned citizens.
Poets Allen Ginsberg and W.S. Morwin participated in the poetry reading session of the week-long program. The program also included refief fast, memorial service, peace march along the sixth avenue and a protest march to the Pakistani consulate.
FRENCE COMMITTEE FOR BANGLADESH
French Committee of Solidarity with Bangladesh has recently been formed in France. It encompasses political activists and citizens of all political shades. It has published a statement asking the Government to place an immediate and total embergo on the delivery of all arms, military material, helicopters, and submarines—as well as spare parts—for which contracts had been signed before the Pakistani invasion of Bangladesh. The committee pointedly drew attention to a statement by General Yahya Khan in which he thanked the French Government for the military equipment supplied to his country.
BANGLADESH ACTIVITIES IN EAST LANSING
Lansing Area Committee for Emergency Refugee Fund has been formed to raise money for helping the refugees. A target of $100,000 has been fixed. The collection drive is in progress.
A booth was set up by the Bangladesh Association during MSU registration for three days. Literatures on Bangladesh were distributed and ‘Joy Bangla’ buttons were sold. An educational campaign on Bangladesh was also launched by the association in various churches and schools. A public meeting was organized at the Union Building, Michigan State University, which was addressed by Dr. A.R. Mallick and Dr. Ashabul Huq, the members of the United Nations delegation from Bangladesh. The visit of the Bangladesh delegates to East Lansing was highlighted by a series of radio and TV interviews and panel discussioins and a press conference.
THE WORLD OF YAHYA KHAN
Asked by Gerard Viratelle of Le Monde if a solution to save Pakistan exists, Yahya Khan replied : “There are 70 million Bengalis who are ready to save Pakistan. The Bengalis who were exploited by the British and by the Hindus were the first to proclaim the formation of Pakistan. They remain good Pakistanis. They were only deceived by a leader. Certainly they are proud to be Bengalis, like the others to be Pathans or Sindhis, but Pakistan is in the heart of each…
Upon any misgivings of the Army’s violent repression of the autonomy movement, Yahya Khan had this to say : “I am not a brute who would want to crush his own citizens. But when I understood that Mujibur Rahman intended secession, then I acted as a soldier. The question of misgivings never even arises. The interest of the nation demanded that I act thus. This was not an agreeable decision for me. I don’t know what made you think that I could have had qualms about what I did”.
In an interview with Newsweek’s Arnaud be Borchgrave (November 8), Yahya Khan spoke about Sheikh Mujib : “Many people might not believe me, But I think that if he went back (to East Pakistan) he would be killed by his own people who hold him responsible for all the suffering. In any case, it is an acadimic question”.
MORE BENGAL DIPLOMATS DEFECT
Members of Pakistani diplomatic missins in Switzerland, U.A.R., India and Japan recently announced their defection. In New Delhi, 10 non diplomat members of the Pakistani mission and 33 dependents walks out of its building under a hail of stones from West Pakistani employees. Witnesses said several appeared badly cut and one required hospital treatment.
In Bern, Waliur Rahman, deputy head of the Pakistani Embassy in Switzerland announced his alleegiance to Bangladesh. In Tokyo, a press attache of the Pakistani mission to Japan, S.M. Maswood, said that he and his family and a third secretary, Muhammad Abdur Rahim, had defected to Bangladesh.
PLEASE NOTE
1. Mukti Bahini require large supplies of winter clothes, medicines, tents, and blankets. From your individual efforts in your local community you’ll be amazed how much of them you can collect. If you have an organization, all the better. Initiate the drive today. For arrangements for FREE AIR TRANSPORTATION to the Mukti Bahini contact :
Dr. Muhammad Yunus
500 Paragon Mills Rd. Apt B-7
Nashville, TN 37211
Phone : (615) 833-3064
2. Doctors can easily collect medicines by writing to the pharmaceautical companies and also urging thier colleagues to donate the sample medicines. For free air transportation note the above address.
3. Bangladesh Newsletter is mailed to our readers every second Tuesday. This issue is being mailed on Tuesday, the November 16th. If you think it takes too long a time to reach you as a fourth class mail please send us (Editor, Bangladesh Newsletter) $3.00 and we’ll send you the Newsletter by first class mail.
4. For bulk supplies of printed materials for campus distribution (list of items will be supplied on request) contact :
Friends of East Bengal
Box 42, Sta B
Vanderbilt Univ.
Nashville, TN 37203
5. If you’ve prepared materials for distribution or published articles in the newspaper/magazine please send copies to the Newsletter.
MUKTI BAHINI ACTIVE IN DACCA
(The following is a partial reproduction of a report appearing in the Sunday Times on October 31, 1971)
On October 19, a bomb explosion at 10.57 a.m. outside the Habib Bank building in Motijeel, the city’s main business area, killed five people, injured 13 others and wrecked seven cars, one taxi and two cycle-rickshaws. Next day, another bomb exploded on the fourth floor of the State Bank building down the road. No one was killed but the explosion rocked the building, which also houses the local offices of the World Bank. On October 10, there were several explosions in the Demra area where the jute warehouses are located, causing a big fire. Two nights earlier, mortar boms landed on the administration block of the cholera hospital. It is also reported that Pakistan army losses in East Pakistan have risen from 18 to 129 per day. Carpenters are employed full time in the cantonments making coffins for officers who, presumably, get shipped home to West Pakistan for burial.
Reports reaching Dacca suggest that 100,000 Mukti Bahini guerrillas are currently operating in East Pakistan. In recent months they have blown up 165 bridges, damaged five ships in Khulna and Chittagong, destroyed a 1,600-ton barge with 4,000 bales of jute at Narayanganj, and destroyed a power substation at Dacca. On August 27, eight razakars were killed and 15 wounded when the Mukti Bahini mined their Gulshan parade ground. PIA Boeings, once used to come in to land majestically flying over the InterContinental Hotel with all lights blazing. Now they have changed their approach pattern to take them as much as possible over water and fly in without navigation lights.
BANGLADESH NEWS DIGEST
November 1 :
Daily Telegraph
…“By frustrating their own scheme for the transfer of political power to a civilian government, President Yahya and his martial law junta have manoeuvred their nation into a morass of intractable problems. The civil democracy that President Yahya now proposes in the sickly stepchild of what he once promised. The new National Assembly will be hardly more than a handpicked body.”
…“The coming by-elections, therefore, will be a walkover for the Rightist and obscurantist alliance forged by the discredited and outmoded Moslem League parties…Given the current reign of terror in the East Wing, which has only marginally abated since the excesses of the summer, by-elections polling is sure to be pitiably low and unrepresentative. Such an Assembly will hardly be woth the convening.”
…“For reasons of State there can be no doubt of the verdict (of Mujib’s trial). But what is President Yahya then to do? He is not so crass as to have Mujib executed and, indeed, has specifically undertaken, in a personal communication with President Nixon, not to do so. But he has publicly labelled Mujib a traitor and is too deeply committed to climb down.”
…“The President himself show disquieting signs of losing grip. As the nation hovers near the edge of war, as the political problems mount still higher, as the enconomy crumbles, vital decisions are ducked or taken irrationally, impatiently, viscerally.”
…“The economic damage is not yet mainfest, if only because government statistics are palpably fraudulent…China, Persia and Pakistan’s Arab friends, however sympathetic, are not in the charity business, hard currency reserves are almost exhausted…Vital revenue earners like jute, still in the pipeline, are not being replenished. The immense cost of stationing an army in East Pakistan is being met simply by printing money—the road to ruin. In manufacturing, discontent is simmering : a third of the nation’s textile workers have been laid off because machinery, dependent on foreign spares, cannot be maintained. Even wheat production, mainstay of the West wing’s agriculture, is in grave difficulties due to shortage of imported fertilizers”.
(New Delhi)
Although diplomatic sparring has lowered tension on the West Pakistan border the situation is different of the eastern border where Mukti Bahini are increasingly active and successful against Pakistan Army. It is the 52,000 West Pakistan soldiers in East Bengal who pose big problems for Pakistan government. Their minimum requirements amount to 600 ton of supplies daily, a logistics problem of nightmare proportions as merchant ships now shun the voyage round India which terminates in Chittagong where the guerrillas are extremely active.
November 2 :
Guardian
…“(Mrs. Indira Gandhi) treated the offer of the good offices of the U.N. with scorn. She recalled with some heat that during the last war Britain did not agree to have talks with Hitler. ‘Perhaps it did not matter of Jews were being killed in Europe. But then Britain did not talk with Hitler. You fought…hard years’.”
London Times
Speaking before the Foreign Press Association, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi told that of the over 9 million refugees, about 2.5 million were Muslims, the rest being Hindus, Christians, or of other religions.
N.Y. Times (Washington)
Senator Kennedy urged the Nixon Administration support efforts to bring the East Bengal situation before the U.N. General Assembly in the interests of reaching a political settelment. He also recommended that the Administration help arrange an immediate visit by the International Red Cross mission to Sheikh Mujibur Rahman to ascertain his welfare and state.
Wash Post (Editorial)
Commenting upon Mrs. Gandhi’s expected arrival in the U.S. the paper urges Mr. Nixon to halt “the direct supply of American arms to Pakistan”,…suggesting that “whatever supplies might still be necessary could be routed through third countries”. The also suggest that Mr. Nixon listen to “a perspective closer to relity, namely, that the humanitarian and political desasters are chiefly of the Pakistan government’s own making and that their resolution will require the kind of changes in Pakistani policy which only American urging can help bring about”.
(London)
Indira Gandhi disclosed that the Soviet Union has urged India to avoid a military conflict with Pakistan. Her statement reinforces the view that the recently signed Indo-Soviet treaty was partly designed to strengthen Delhi’s doves.
(Calcutta)
Correspondent Jin Hoagland recently visited areas of liberated Bangladesh. He writes : “Major Najmul Huda, who said he had been a captain in the Pakistan Army, asserted that he controls as area of about 150 square miles. He has a company of about 100 regular soldiers who defected to the rebel cause, and 7000 villagers trained by his forces.
The guerrillas claim to have implanted such headquarters throughout East Pakistan and say they are intensifying and insurgency that will drive the regular Pakistani army from the territory. ‘I think it will take a year or so, if we can continue the progress we have made recently,’ Huda said…
“impartial analysts outside credit the guerrilla organization with having expanded within seven months from zero to a force of 80,000 to 100,000 men, a figure roughly equal to the number of regular Pakistan soldiers deployed against them.”
“Authoritative reports circulating in the diplomatic community here also support Majro Huda’s assertion that the Mukti Bahini has become more aggressive and effective within recent weeks.”
“Asserting that his forces keep two Pakistan battalions tied down in the border region, Huda said that in the last 10 days his troops had complelely disrupted the key rail link from Jessore to Benapole, forcing the Pakistanis to use road transport to supply the Battalion at Benapole.”
C.S. Monitor (Islamabad)
“Some West Pakistanis argue that it is cheaper, easier, and better to withdraw from East Bengal than to hang on doggedly to it through military pressure. Those few who are willing to assess the Pakistan crisis unemotionally, candidly, feel that Pak should face the probability that it is already split irrevocably by the bloodshed, continued discrimination, military repressions, and massemigrations of the past seven months. They say it is only a question of how soon and under what circumstances the split becomes publicly acknowledged”.
November 3 :
Daily Telegraph (Dacca)
Claire Hollingworth reports 20 Pakistan military casualties a day as the Mukti Bahini increase their activities inside the towns. In the first street fighting since March, two Pakistan soldiers, one policeman, and a guerrilla were killed in a noon gun fight in Chittagong. A garage and a gas station were destroyed in Dacca yesterday. The Election Commission building in the centre of Dacca was blown up Sunday. A few nights earlier, the TV Studios building was bombed. In Dacca there are prolonged exhanges of fire and 3 or 4 explosions every night. Several bodies, generally unidentified, are found each morning.
One thousand guerrillas held a conference last weekend near Barisal. Banners proclaiming independence were flying only three miles from the nearest Pakistan outpost.
One Pakistan officer said to Hollingworth : “open support for the Mukti Bahini has risen during the past two months like a gigantic tidal wave sweeping over the country”.
London Times (Delhi)
There is ample evidence to prove that at least 6000 men have been lost by Islamabad at the hands of the Mukti Bahini.
N.Y. Times (Dacca)
The Pakistan government announced that 53 of the vacated NA seats would be filled without contest. Candidates for the remaining 25 vacated seatd have been carefully screened to exclude any politician subscribing to the views of the Awami League. Other potential opposition candidates have been denied acess to the press.
Of the 53 seats the Jamaat-e-Islami is reportedly to get 14 seats. The religious party had failed to win any seats in December’s elections.
November 4 :
C.S. Monitor (Karachi)
Correspondent Henry Hayward believes that the danger of widespread famine this winter in Bangladesh has recorded. Pockets of severe food shortages may still appear and the food situation is still “serious”. The brighter prognosis is attributed to (1) a smaller population due to the mass exodus and the large numbers of Bengalis slain or missing ; (2) U.S. shipments of wheat and vessels ; (3) higher, revised, estimates of the new rice crop.
Reports from refugee camps in the Calcutta present a grimmer picture. Estimates of the infants and young children facing death or disease due to malnutrition range between 100,000 and 300,000. The mere dimensions of the problem of getting enough of the highprotein foodstuffs to the camps in time are gigantic. About 5 million infants and youngsters need much more than they receive today to survive much longer. The standard daily diet of 400 grams of rice and 100 grams of pulses, with occassional vegetables, is inadequate.
November 5 :
Daily Telegraph (Dacca)
British engineers at the Dacce power station at which Bangladesh sobateurs, disguised as Pakistani soldiers, wrecked three of the four generators, say it may be six months before the plant is fully repaired. The sabotage has brought Dacca’s industry almost to a standstill.
N.Y. Times (Dacca)
Sharp increases in guerrilla activity over the past 24 hours were reported by the Pakistan Government Included were the sinking of a large oil tanker in Chittagong, the assasination of Mudabbir Hassain, a leading Dacca lawyer, and the robbing of two banks.
Sabotage of electric power has resulted in at least half a dozen stoppages each day. Daily skirmishing is evident between the Pakistan troops or policeman and guerrillas. Razakars, used outside Dacca, are armed with bolt action rifles and little ammunition to prevent the guerrillas from capturing machine gun or other automatic weapons.
(Washington)
$250 million for East Bengal refugees was approved by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Part of this is to go to the Pakistan government.
Senator Muskie called for an end to an U.S. aid to Pakistan and for immediate aid to refugees in India. He also asked for U.S. assurances to discontinue supporting Pakistan until a settelment was reached in East Bengal.
Wash Post (Calcutta)
Correspondent Jim Hoagland writes : “In the refugee camps of West Bengal’s Dinajpur District the fear of death at the hands of West Pakistan soldiers has faded. Terror has gradually given way to exhaustion and exhaustioin has hapsed into hopelessness. When they stumbled into Dinajpur, some refugees were already so hungry and dehydrated that doctors were forced to cut into boney arms to locate veins for saline solution needles. Those with enough strength to remain out of the makeshift hospiatal wander aimlessly through the muddy camps in placeslike Malan and Boyru, just yards inside India from the East Pakistan frontier. Whe ther is food those who get some simply sit down in the mud, in the rain, to eat it.
November 6 :
Economist
“If the refugees remain unwilling to return to Pakistan because of the continuing civil war, President Yahya’s offer (to allow the U.N. to ‘control’ the return of the refugees) may have no impact at all. But—to reduce an issue of tragic proportions to the level of a propaganda war—the President’s appeal for U.N. intervention may give him a temporary propaganda advantage”…
“(that) the Pakistanis are taking no steps towards a true resolution of the Bangladesh problem was supported by reports from Pakistan this week that most of the by-elections…will not be elections at all. More than 50 of the seats have already been awarded to representatives of right-wing parties on the ground that they were unopposed”.
London Times (Peking)
In a surprise visit the Pakistan delegation headed by Z.A. Bhutto arrived for talks with Chou En-lai. The mission met Chou three hours after its arrival. The delegation includes the chiefs of navy, army and airforce.
N.Y. Times (Cambridge)
More than 350 American scholars have signed a statement uring President Nixon to withdraw U.S. military and economic support from Pakistan until there is a “political settlement with the elected Awami League leadership of East Pakistan”. The statement is signed by five Nobel Prize winners and many of the country’s leading specialist on Asia.
(Washington)
The UNICEF is coordinating the gathering of 4.5 million blankets for refugee camps in northern India. The U.S. is planning to send over 1 million blankets soon.
Speaking at the Washington Press Club, Mrs. Indira Gandhi reiterated that the solution to the East Bengal crisis must be reached through Sheikh Mujibur Rahaman.
In separate actions, Senator Fred Harris of Oklahoma introduced a resolution urging that the U.N. hold an emergency session on the Indo-Pak issue. Representative Peter Freling-huysen, of New Jersey, called on the Administration to halt all military aid to Pakistan.
Wash Post (Peking)
Diplomatic observers, who have talked to Chinese officials in recent days, believe that the Chinese are engaged in a major effort to head off a war. Some observers believe that China does not relish an early showdown with India at the Security Council nor have the door shut on an eventual rapproachment with India, which would be prevented by an outbreak of war.
Bhutto’s leadership of the delegation is regarded as significant for he holds no government position. He is considered a strong supporter of the Pakistan decision to use troops to crush the independence movement in East Bengal.
(Washington)
Commenting on talks between President Nixon and Premier Gandhi, White House spokesman Ronald Ziegler made it plain that the U.S. has no intention of taking an open stand against Pakistan. The administration continues to believe in the possibility of leverage by working behind the scenes with Yahya.
November 7 :
Sunday Times (Hong Kong)
Already the Chinese have been sending mortars, small arms and ammunition regularly along the new highway linking Sinkiang with Karachi, and other consignments have been shipped to Chittagong. New mortars are being supplied with a 10,000-yard trajectory which permits a pullback of shorterrange artillery on the Indo-Pak border.
Observer
Correspondent Colin Legum writes : Pakistan is staking most of its hopes on the current talks in Peking. Its delegation is pursuing two objectives : (1) a declaration of solidarity (2) a commitment by China’s new delegation to the U.N. Security Council to support a Pakistan attempt to indict Indian policy.
A Peking spokesman yesterday confirmed that the final communique at the end of the Sino-Pak talks will be of unusual siginticance.
In Moscow Politburo member Vicktor Grishin called for a peaceful solution of the conflict that would allow the refugees to return home. He demanded that Pakistan ‘stop repressions against the people’ and accused China of persisting with it ‘spliting anti-Soviet line’ despite Soviet efforts to improve relations. After the attack, the Chinese Ambassador, who was present during the speech, walked out.
Wash Post (Delhi)
There have been recent U.S. initiatives in probing for a possible basis of negotiations between the Pakistan govt. and the Bangladesh representatives.
The initiative by the U.S. is apparently viewed by the Bangladesh movement here as an attempt to split their leadership by exploring for willingness to negotiate for something less than complete independence.
The increasingly self-confident military men of the Mukti Bahini are said to be even more adament on complete independence than are the politicians, who are thought to be gradually losing their pre-eminence as the guerrilla war escalates.
(Dacca)
According to the Pakistan Election Commission, 86 candidates were elected unopposed to the East Pakistan Provincial Assembly to fill some of the 193 seats ordered vacated by the Pakistan govt.
According to diplomatic sources one of the purposes of the Pakistan delegation to China was to counteract the effect on the population of recent visits by the Soviet Air Force chief to India and to drive home the message that Pakistan has a powerful ally.
N.Y. Times (Washington)
An opinion increasingly discernible here among junior and middle-grade U.S. officials is that East Bengal never again would willingly accept the rule of the West Pakistan military junta headed by Yahya Khan. If senior policy makers—Nixon, Kissinger, Rogers, Sisco—share this appreciation, however, it is not evitdent. As Mr. Sisco remarked not long ago : “Our policy is to preserve the territorial integrity of Pakistan.”
President Yahya’s bloodletting in East Bengal has been viewed here more in sorrow than in anger. Policymakers tend to agree that Yahya has been clusmsy, that he should have defused the Awami League’s drive for autonomy with less adverse publicity. They complain that U.S. plans for economic development in Pakistan have been set back. There is virtually no moral indignation evident among them.
November 8 :
Toronto Globe & Mail (Peking)
Speaking at a banquet in honour of the visiting Pakistan delegation, Chi Peng-fei assured Pakistan “resolute support” in the event of Foreign aggression. Observers here believe that these and other remarks indicate chinese willingness for increased military assistance rather than direct intervention. This storpretation is borne out by Bhutto’s desertion at a later press conference : “it should primarily be our own effort,” should fighting break out.
Mr. Chi said that the situation in East Bengal was one the Pakistan people should settlement themselves. He did not detail the kind settlement acceptable to China but indicated that Peking supports the determination of the Pakistan government to prevent the possession of East Bengal. Mr. Chi said that Peking believed that the broad massesing Pakistan are “patriotic and want to safe-guard national unity” and added that “it is our hope” that they will achieve their aim”.
At this press conference Bhutto declared that the timing of the visit had nothing to do with the departure of the China delegation to the U.N. Pakistan officials later confirmed that no member of the Peking delegation to the U.N. had participated in the talks with the visiting Pakistan delegation.
London Times (Rawalpindi)
No joint communique was issued leading ot some signs of disappointment here. Mr. Bhutto said that the two sides had not found the need for one.
No promise of Chinese diversionary action seems to have been given and this plus the vagueness of the new Chinese statement suggests that China will do nothing to risk the threat of Soviet retaliation under the Indo-Soviet Treaty.
Mr. Chi strongly condemned India and Praised Yahya’s proposal of mutual pullback from borders. China is expected to support Pakistan at the U.N.
(London)
The International Red Cross in Geneva is to be asked to intervene in East Bengal to provide a cover of neutrality for an international relief effort. A deputation from Britain is expected to go to Genevalsoon to argue that the present U.N-Pakistan relief programme does not have much chance of succeding.
The U.N. presence in East Bengal is officially there to “help” the Pakistan government to distribute its relief supplies with the unspoken purpose also of supervising and policing it.
Mr. Eric Jensen, head of bureau at the U.N. office in Geneva responsible for UNEPRO has said : “The idea is that Pakistan should do as much as possible itself”.
(Editorial)
“That Peking should be the only capital to which a Pakistan mission was sent is a sign of how weak Pakistan’s case is, that Mr. Bhutto should have left Peking without a communique in his briefcase suggest that the Chinese are still unwilling to commit themselves”.
N.Y. Times (Washington)
The U.S. has decided to cancel licenses for the export of more than $3 million worth of military equipment to Pakistan. Official announcement is expected tomorrow. The action will shut the contorversial arms pipline that continued to supply Pakistan with spare parts and other military goods despite the arms freeze imposed in early April.
State Dept. officials emphasized that the action was being taken with the consent of the Pakistan government. The officials also said that Mrs. Gandhi had been informed of the cancellation decision shortly before she arrived in Washington.
The proposed cancellation would exempt $160,000 worth of spare parts awaiting shipment in New York
when the dock strike ends.
(Dacca)
A right-wing politician recently named by the Pakistan govt. as a member of the future provincial assembly was assasinated yesterday. He was identified as Sultanubdin Khan a member of the Qaiyum faction of the Moslem League, a party that has no political base in East Bengal. Ahmed Hossain, a member of a local “peace committee” was slain at the same time. Another politician was killed in downtown Dacca and several areas were killed in country areas.
There are fears here that the Mukti Bahini is about to mount an all-out campaign of assasination and sabotage in East Bengal that may involve foreigners as well as the occupation army. Several consulates, including that of the U.S, have been reviewing emergency plans over the last few days.
C.S. Monitor (New Delhi)
“Nobody really knows what policy Yahya Khan will ordain until it’s actually handed down for action”, grumbled a European diplomat. “The Paks don’t know, which is why we don’t know either”. Many of Yahya Khan’s cabinet ministers are said to operate in a virtual vacuum on policy matters and, therefore, to make no major decision until told to do so.
(Rawalpindi)
A new and potentially ominous window sticker is beginning to appear here. “Hang the traitor,” it says. It features a noose running through the slogan. There is no mystery who the “traitor” is. He is the arrested Bengali leader Sheikh Mujib. It is hard to say who starts these Pakistan slogan campaigns. Some think it is the government itself.
November 9 :
London Times (Rawalpindi)
Questioned on Chinese willingness to undertake diversionary action if war boke out, Z.A. Bhutto replied that such action was a “superficial matter”. He said that Pakistan was not interested in diversion and that it wants and cherishes peace. Bhutto descripbed his visit as a “complete success in the complete sense of the word” but would not elaborate. He alluded to the possibility that Pakistan had won promises of acceletated arms deliveries from China.
(Paris)
Pres-Georges Pompidou, in his welcome speech to Premier Gandhi, emphasized the need for a political solution to the East Bengal crisis, which presupposed the consent of the population cocerned. He feared that otherwise the whole subcontinent might be swept into a conflict with incalculable consequences.
(Delhi)
Analysing the prospects of war in the subcontinent, Peter Hazelhurst believes that there are factors which indicate that the onset of hostilities will be influenced only marginally by climatic conditions this winter. He writes : “It is not hard to determine the logical sequence of events which will lead to war. If and when the West Pakistan begin to believe that they are losing their grip on East Pakistan because of pressures from the guerrillas, President Yahya Khan, in desperation, will obviously have to strike at the rebel’s source of strength, India. Under the circumstances, he would (favor) fighting on the western front and particularly in the disputed territory of Kashmir…President Yahya Khan might be forced to take a desperate risk to save the eastern wing…in subsequent cease-fire negotiation. Pakistan would hope to bargain for a package deal : Pakistan would maintain peace in Kashmir provided India refrained from assinting the guerrllas in East Pakistan.”
(Dacca)
Pakistan military morale is understood to have declined as increasing numbers of officers and troops from West Pakistan come to realize that their assignment here is likely to last a long time. The increasing number of Army casualties has apparently made it impossible to continue a former policy of flying the bodies of officers back to West Pakistan for burial.
Police morale has also suffered. The Pakistan government sent over a force of West Pakistan Police officers and men in June to replace the East Bengal police force which ahd defected in its entirely. The were told that their duration would be short but they are still here and the emergency appears more serious than ever. A highly placed source said some policemen staged a one-day strike last week in protest against their contiuned tour in East Bengal.
Wash Post (Peking)
The surprise visit by the Pakistan delegation here is seen as a sharp gambit in Pakistan’s war of nerves with India. At the same time, China served notice that it believed that disputes between Pakistan and India should be settled without force—a posture likely to be adopted by their delegation to the U.N.
(Washington)
Sen Edward Kennedy said that the U.S. decision to cut off military equipment still in the pipeline for Pakistan should be followed by other steps to end the tension in East Bengal. He urgued the President to appoint a special representative to deal with the situation in East Bengal and to communicate with Yahya Khan and other leaders in the area. He also called for the U.S. to help arrange an immediate visit by the International Red Cross to Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
C.S. Monitor (Peking)
The Chinese press, which took note on several occasions earlier this year of the stand taken by Islamabad on the question of national unity of East and West Pakistan, has fallen silent on the subject in the past two months. This is not believed to represent a weakening of the ties between Islamabad and Peking to create as much leeway as possible for diplomatic initiatives to resolve the Bangladesh crisis.
Boston Globe (Washington)
According to U.S. and Indian sources, President Yahya Khan has bowed to U.S. pressures and is prepared to initiate a political reconciliation with the Bangladesh movement. But he has refused to negotiate with Sheikh Mujibur. President Nixon is reported to have asked Mrs. Gandhi’s cooperation by pressing the proposal on Bangladesh leaders in exile in India. Her response was that the proposal will not work since the demands of the exiled leadership have hardened.
N.Y. Times (Washington)
The State Dept. indicated that Congressional pressure had been a major factor in the decision to cancel outstanding military licenses. It also said that the action was taken with the “mutual consent” of the Pakistan government to limit any emberrassment to the Pakistan government.
(Delhi)
According to independent reports from Washington and other capitals, Pakistan has lately been buying arms from North Korea and Rumania but with China still supplying the biggest consignments.
The new Soviet commitments to India are believed to be one reason for the Pakistan mission to China.
November 10 :
London Times (Rawalpindi)
Censorship on news from East Bengal was partially lifted a fortnight ago and since then West Pakistanis have also read of a gloomy round of bomb attacks, sabotage and political assasinations for which the claims of Mukti Bahini killed do not compensate.
The economic costs of holding down East Bengal are being felt now in rapidly rising prices and unemployement. Enough soldiers have been lost to have made a human impact in the villages and cities of West Pakistan.
Sultan Mohammed Khan, Pakistan Foreign Secretary, leaves today on a round of visits to western countries in order to counter the effects of Mrs. Gandhi’s tour.
N.Y. Times (Dacca)
The Pakistan government has announced that collective fines will be imposed on entire communities in East Bengal when guerrilla actions against the government occur.
Collective responsibility has been the government policy since March. Houses with painted slogans have been demolished, villages in which Pakistan troops were resisted have been burnt to the ground and the army’s typical operations are of the search—and—destroy land.
Houses, shops or important buildings that fail to display the Pakistan flag are subject to demolition. As a result, it is easy to distinguish between govrermnent held territory and areas held by the Mukti Bahini.
Political assasinations by the guerrillas have reached a rate of at least half a dozen a day and bomb explosions are heard in Dacca during the day and night. Most of the explosions seem intended to keep up a war of nerves.
C.S. Monitor (New Delhi)
30,000 new arrivals are still coming across each day. Once the tide of humanity was overwhelmingly Bengali Hindus. Now a slightly higher percentage of Muslims is noticeable among the new comers.
Foreign correspondents who have visited some of Pakistan’s 29 reception centers set up to welcome returning citizens, report that camps are well-equipped with everything but a population of returness. Pakistan argues that Indians are deliberately preventing refugees from returning. The Pakistani position is that any genuine Pakistan citizen is completely free to return. Only one stipulation is made—namely that each returnee will be subject to routine checks to ensure their Pakistani nationality. In short, even if they want to return, some refugees may find they cannot get bcak. Pakistan will say who qualifies.
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NBC PROGRAM ON BANGLADESH
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NBC TV network will present a program on Bangladesh on
November 26 (6:30 PM EST) as a part of their news-magazine
Toronolog.
Issued by
BANGLADESH DEFENSE LEAGUE
5245 South Kenwood Avenue,
Chicago, Illinois. 60615
Editorial Office : 500 Paragon Mills #B-7, Nashville, TN 37211 (615)833-2064