Kennedy terms Pakistani drive genocide
August 16, 1971
KENNEDY'S PRESS CONFERENCE
US Senator Edward M Kennedy today denounced Pakistan's military action against Bangladeshis as genocide and said the secret trial of Bangladeshi leader Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was "an outrage to every concept of international law".
At a news conference in New Delhi as he ended his weeklong visit to India, the Massachusetts Democrat blamed the Nixon Administration's policy of continued arms aid to Pakistan for the severe damage to United States relations with India. Kennedy spent most of his time in India visiting the squalid border camps that hold Bangladeshi refugees.
Kennedy -- who came to India in his capacity as chairman of the senate judiciary subcommittee on refugees -- said President Richard Nixon's policy "baffles me and after seeing the results in terms of human misery, I think it's an even greater disaster".
Kennedy further said a political solution to the East Pakistan crisis was possible but he did not pretend to have it.
As to the 20'year Soviet'Indian friendship treaty signed a week ago, the senator said he saw nothing inconsistent with India's stated policy of nonalignment and did not think it was "in any way disadvantageous to US friendship with India". As a matter of fact, he added, Indian Foreign Minister Swaran Singh had indicated that India was willing to sign a similar treaty with the United States.
Kennedy also planned to visit both East and West Pakistan and had obtained a Pakistani visa. But after his arrival in India on August 10, 1971, the Pakistan government cancelled the visit, saying it would serve no useful purpose because "the partisan statements he made on arrival in India showed how deeply he imbibed Indian propaganda".
PAKISTAN ASSAILED BEFORE HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION
The Pakistan government's action in Bangladesh was assailed before the UN sub-commission on human rights. John Salzberg, representing the International Commission of Jurists, said from all information available to the public and the sub-commission, including Pakistan government's own white paper, it was clear that there had been a consistent pattern of violation of human rights in Bangladesh.
The sub-commission, he urged, should either set up its own investigatory body or recommend its parent body the Commission on Human Rights for the setting up of such a body. The sub-commission should also call for a halt to the secret trial of Bangabandhu, he said.
ROUNDUP OF REBELS IN DHAKA
The New York Times today reported that Pakistani troops made house‐to‐house sweeps through Dhaka over the weekend to thwart the attack by Bangladeshi guerillas. According to rebel posters and handbills, guerrilla attacks were planned to coincide with observances of Pakistan's National Day.
Sounds of shooting were heard in several parts of the city, added the report.
It was further reported that institutions of higher education, which reopened August 2 for the first time since March, remained virtually deserted. According to the latest unofficial tally, at Dhaka University, which normally had about 6,000 students, there were 32; at Chittagong, 30 of 2,000 and at Mymensingh Agricultural University six of 1,200, disclosed the New York Times.
COMMISSION FORMED TO MANAGE
BANGLADESH GOVT RESOURCES
The Bangladesh Government-in-exile today formed a three-member commission to oversee the management and distribution of financial resources brought to the headquarters from different parts of Bangladesh. Abdul Hannan Chowdhury was made the chairman of the commission. The other two members were Joy Gobinda Bhowmik and S Barua
Shamsuddoza Sajen is a journalist and researcher. He can be contacted at [email protected]
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