Editorial
GENERAL Yahya Khan’s Government of Pakistan has practically resumed control over east
Pakistan. Its better equipped forces have successfully crushed the insignificant resistance of yhe poorly armed forces of the “Bangla Desh”. What remains ate the consequences of the military operatoions staged to opporess the people of East Pakistan.
Losses of lives and materials are among the consequences. Worse is the growing prejudice among people of different ethnic groups making up Pakistan, whose “unity” has been preserved by force rather than willingness of the people. Worse still, perhaps, is the flight of refugees from East Pakistan across the border into India’s border states of West Bengal, Assam and Tripura. About five million refugees have reportedly been in India, posing a serious problem for the host country. The problem became more complicated as cholera epidemic hit the area, with most cases reported in refugee camps, already killing several thousand of them.
International aid for the refugees has began to pour into West Bengal and medical teams started to fight to contain the disease. Some 32 million dollars of relief funds have been promised in answer to the U.N.S specila appeal.India’s external Affairs Minister Swaran Singh is in a six-nation tour to explain to the visited governments that India cannot cope alone with the criticial refugee stuation complicated by the cholera epidemic.
For the time being with the inflow of international relief aids, the refugee problem may not be too difficult for India. But this situation cannot be expected to last long. There must be time when the relief funds dry up and new sources are not available. Then it will become a really crucial problem. The refugees will mean to India an addition of five million unemployed people to its already vast population. The presence of the refugees will put India into a dilemma: leaving them unemployed would mean an extra burden for the Government, but giving them jobs would mean a keen competition for India’s manpower, which in turn would mean a decrease in the prices of labor. This situation would in turn breed a series of other problems detrimental to India and very likely, arouse tention in the sub-continent.
The best solution to the refugee problem, therefore, is the return of the refugees to their homeland. This is only possible if and when a political solution is reached. It is the duty of the international community to pave the way for such a solution.
The Djakarta Times, 10.6.1971
সূত্র: আন্তর্জাতিক গণমাধ্যম ও মুক্তিযুদ্ধ ১৯৭১ . ১ম খণ্ড – মুনতাসীর মামুন