UN to send team to East Pakistan
July 31, 1971
UN AID EXPERTS TO BE POSTED IN EAST PAKISTAN
The United States, working behind the scenes, won the agreement of both Pakistan and the United Nations to station an international group of 153 civilian relief and rehabilitation experts in East Pakistan under United Nations sponsorship, officials said today.
Moreover, they said, the United States had notified U Thant, secretary general of the United Nations, that it would contribute $1 million as an initial payment to help the group organise and fly necessary equipment to Dhaka.
Among the United Nations staffers will be 73 monitors who will be stationed at four area offices in Dhaka, Chittagong, Rajshahi and Khulna and at 69 other locations. Each monitor would be linked by radio with a United Nations headquarters in Dhaka, qualified informants said.
"The presence of 73 UN monitors, each reporting on conditions in his area, may cool off passions and damp down military reprisals," one informant said. "It's not the UN function to do this—but it will be an important side effect."
One official today described the agreement of Thant and of Pakistan President Yahya Khan to the proposals for a United Nations group in East Pakistan as "the only ray of sunshine in an otherwise gloomy situation".
Pakistan's agreement to the United Nations force was said to have been inspired largely by unremitting, but unpublicised, United States pressure.
PAK DIPLOMAT MUHITH DEFECTS
Abul Maal Abdul Muhith, who had been serving as economic counsellor at the Pakistan embassy in Washington, disassociated himself from the Pakistan government and predicted that up to 15 million people might die of starvation in Bangladesh within the next three months. He would publicly announce his move on the NBC news television programme, "Commentator". A transcript of the programme released today quoted Muhith as saying, "Since May 25 I have been deferring this decision in the hope that President Yahya Khan would make a proper move for peaceful settlement of the crisis. No ground exists for such a hope anymore and so it becomes impossible to go on working for a self-destructive government."
'PAKISTAN IN A STATE OF SIEGE'
"Entire Pakistan is now in a state of siege," said J Saqi, a popular peasant and youth leader of Sind. In a statement he said along with East Pakistan at least two provinces of West Pakistan -- Frontier and Baluchistan -- have been protesting against the tactics and conspiracies of the military junta.
"The Military Junta," he added, "is sowing seeds of hatred among different communities and is giving the world the impression that the two wings of the country are confronting each other."
MCCARTHY ASKS RECOGNITION OF INDEPENDENT BANGLADESH
Eugene McCarthy, former senator from Minnesota, declared support today for an independent state of Bangladesh and reproved the United States government for being "unresponsive" to the urgency of the Pakistan crisis. He said repressive measures in East Pakistan came "very close to genocide", and it was "a pity" that the United States was still sending aid to West Pakistan. McCarthy said the United States should grant recognition to Bangladesh regime established by the autonomy movement.
Shamsuddoza Sajen is a journalist and researcher. He can be contacted at [email protected]
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