পাতা:বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্র (ত্রয়োদশ খণ্ড).pdf/২১৯

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বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্রঃ ত্রয়োদশ খণ্ড

is manifestly clear that neither India, burdened with a huge and growing army of refugees nor Pakistan herself faced with the prospect of massive famine, can cope without outside support. Yet so far the response to U Than's appeal for- help has been pitifully inadequate. The world, community must act now or be prepared to witness a human disaster of unimaginable proportions.

MARK EDWARDS, KEYSTONE PRESSAGENCY

 Almost total lethargy has overtaken the adult refugees. How long this will last before political agitators start to rouse them to action, even possibly violent action, is anyone's guess. Rut it is one of the dangers of leaving this problem unsolved.

TIGER STACK, OXFAM

 Coming back to this country from working in the utter human degradation and suffering of the refugee camps, the thing that hits one is the indifference of people here.......... their total preoccupation with home affairs. ERNEST HILLEN, WEEKEND MAGAZINE (CANADA)  Thus far the attitude of governments and people-including us in Canada-to the continuing East Pakistan disaster has been mostly one of indifference. And this is hard to understand. Standing in the rain in one of the hundreds of miserable refugee camps that crowd East Pakistan's border, it is beyond comprehension. Unprecedented numbers of people are suffering and dying, and the numbers are growing, there is widespread famine, and there is the very real threat of war.

 The blame for the catastrophe rightly enough belongs to the men who run the West Pakistan Government. The shame belongs to all of us. Almost from the start, the world community could have stopped it. And it must be stopped now-by whatever manner or means. Our children will inherit enough shame.

DR. TIM LUSTY, VOLUNTEER DOCTOR

 I remember one evening walking through a refugee camp in Couch Behar, 700 miles north of Calcutta. Our progress was interrupted several times by sick and dying children who had been laid on mats in our path. I asked the camp's director, a Norwegian, whether general malnutrition was improving or getting worse. “Definitely worse", he replied.

 Within days Oxfam had Indian medical teams working in the area; but there is a limit to what private charities can do. That limit is set by the degree of concern shown by more fortunate people.

DAVID HART, SCF VOLUNTEER

 I spent fourteen years in the East as a Tea Planter so I know something about conditions out there. I saw the plight of the East Pakistanis after the Cyclone which hit them last November and the misery and suffering that followed. But nothing I have seen