Kosygin warns Yahya

August 17, 1971

WAR WILL BE SUICIDAL, KOSYGIN TELLS YAHYA

Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin was said to have told Pakistan President Yahya Khan that any war with India will be suicidal for Pakistan. Kosygin conveyed this in a message which the new Soviet Ambassador to Pakistan AA Rodinov delivered at Rawalpindi today.

The communication, it was learnt, asked the Pakistani junta to bring an end to atrocities in Bangladesh and not to proceed with the trial of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. The Soviet Premier also pointed out that the continued influx of refugees from Bangladesh to India had been due to conditions of insecurity in East Pakistan. He was supposed to have advised President Yahya in favour of a political solution with the elected leaders of Bangladesh.

OPERATION OMEGA BEGINS

Operation Omega, a radical London-based scheme to rush relief to starving millions in Bangladesh, begins today.

The Pakistan government had so far spurned all efforts to send relief through regular channels to Bangladesh, keeping it a closed country for the outsiders, even when the spectre of famine loomed large over the Bangladeshi people.

Eight Omega volunteers, therefore, decided to defy even gunfire to help the people of Bangladesh overcome the prospect of famine. They refused to recognise legitimacy of a boundary "which attempts to separate those in pain from those who can help".

"Human beings do not need permission to aid those threatened with death," said a spokesperson of the operation.

They crossed the Indian border at Petrapole today in two white Land Rovers carrying food and medicine for the starving people of Bangladesh. However, Pakistani troops stopped the volunteers within minutes after they had crossed the Indian border outpost.

After a day of negotiations with the army, the Omega teams decided to sleep in their cars and attempt to continue with their missions the following morning. At 9:20pm, both teams were arrested by Pakistani forces and taken to Jessore.

The next morning both teams were returned to the Indian border and told not to return to East Pakistan, or they would face arrest and prosecution.

NEW PAKISTAN BID TO INTERNATIONALISE

BANGLADESH ISSUE

Pakistan today made a proposal for what it called "defusing the present tension" along the Indo-Pakistan border. In a letter to the president of the security council, Pakistan's permanent representative at the UN suggested that a committee, comprising members of the security council should visit the "areas of tension" along the border.

AUSTRALIAN CONCERN OVER TRIAL

The Australian government informed Pakistan of its concern over the trial of Bangabandhu, Foreign Affairs Minister Nigel Bowen told Australian Federal Parliament today.

"We have noted with concern that Sheikh Mujibur Rahman whose party, the Awami League, captured a clear majority at the recent elections, has been brought to trial for treason," he said.

The Australian government expressed through a personal message from the Prime Minister William McMahon to Yahya their anxieties in this matter, shared the Australian foreign minister.

Shamsuddoza Sajen is a journalist and researcher. He can be contacted at [email protected]