Nor can one expect the region to remain insulated from the rival concerns of big power conflicts. Both India and China surround or are close to Bangladesh and cannot expect to remain bystanders as the fires of civil war wage within sight of their borders. With the Victnam war in its closing stages it is hardly in the interests of the big powers to remain witness to another conflagration in the area which promises to exceed in dimension anything witnessed thus far.
There is a chance to contain an international crisis whilst it is, still in its infancy. There is still a leadership structure in Bangladesh which can be available to negotiate a political settlement. This settlement must aim for a peaceful parting of the ways. Yahya's genocidal war clearly indicates that, he is convinced that Pakistan is dead and that not even a shared humanity binds its two peoples. In Bangladesh the totality of the revulsion engendered by this war makes any attempt to bind up the wounds unthinkable. The task for the future remains to come to terms with the reality of Bangladesh so that a sustained programme of massive economic reconstruction can attempt to rebuild this shattered nation and lift its people from the depths of poverty, starvation and disease to which they have been reduced. Such a programme must inspire the conscience of the world already aroused by the horrors of the cyclone and now this war. With international assistance on a sufficient scale Bangladesh can yet be saved from disaster and can build for the future within the framework of democracy and social justice.
