পাতা:বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্র (চতুর্দশ খণ্ড).pdf/২২০

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বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্রঃ চতুর্দশ খণ্ড188

Out of touch

 In the months since open conflict crupted, nothing has softened Yahyas stand. In fact, in the face of talk about protracted fighting, mounting dangers of war with India, and an already enormous cost in human suffering, the general has only stiffened. Should India step up its aid to the guerrillas, he warned last week, “I shall declare a general war-and let the world take note of it.” Should the countries that have been funneling $ 350 million a year in economic aid into Pakistan put on too much pressure, he also warned, he will do without it.

 He has already lost some. After touring East Pakistan last month, a special World Bank mission recommended to its eleven nation consortium that further aid be withheld pending a “political accommodation.” World Band President Robert McNamara classified the report on the grounds that it might worsen an already difficult diplomatic situation. The report spoke bluntly of widespread fear of the Pakistani army and devastation on a scale reminiscent of World War II. It described Kushtia, which was 90% destroyed, as “the My Lai of the West Pakistani army". A middle level World Bank official leaked the study, and last week McNamara sent Yahya an apology, in his letter he reportedly said that he found the report “biased and provocative.” Yet one Bank official insisted that though it was later revised and modified somewhat, its thrust remained the same. “We just had to put it on a less passionate basis” he said. “But it did not reduce its impact".

 U.S. policy has been murky, to say the least. The Nixon Administration continues to oppose a complete cut-off of U.S. aid to Pakistan. The White House has asked Congress for $118 million in economic assistance for Pakistan for fiscal year 197172, which it says will he held in abeyance. Despite intense pressure from within his official family, as well as from Congress, Nixon argues that a total cut-off might drive Pakistan closer to China, which has been one of its principal suppliers of military aid since 1965, and also troy whatever leverage the U.S. has in the situation. In the light of Henry Kissinger's trip to China, however, it now seems clear that there may have been another motive for the administration's soft-pedaling. Pakistan, of course, was Kissinger's secret bridge to China.

 Nonetheless, criticism has been mounting, particularly in the Senate, with its abundance of Democratic Presidential aspirants. Senator Edward, M. Kennedy charged that the World Bank report, together with a State Department survey predicting a famine of appalling proportions. “made a mockery of the Administration's policy.” Two weeks ago, the House of Foreign Affairs Committee recommended cutting off both military and. economic aid to Pakistan. The bill still must clear the House and the Senate, but its chances of passage are considered good. Since 1952, when massive aid began, Pakistan has received $ 4.3 billion from the U.S. in economic assistance. In addition the U.S. equipped and maintained the Pakistani armed forces up until 1965. Then, because of the Pakistani-Indian War, arms sales were dropped. Last October the Administration resumed military aid on a “one-time basis". After the East Pakistan conflict crupted, it was announced that arms shipments would be