পাতা:বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্র (ত্রয়োদশ খণ্ড).pdf/৪০২

374 ংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্রঃ ত্রয়োদশ খন্ড বাংলাদেশের পরিস্থিতিঃ সিনেটর ফুলব্রাইটের সিনেটের কার্যবিবরণী ২৮ জুলাই, ১৯৭১ ভাষণ July 28, 1971 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE S #2381 EAST PAKISTAN Mr. FULBRIGHT. The cataclysmic chain of events in East Pakistan not only points up the egregious misuses to which U.S. military and economic assistance can be put. It also illustrates the insensitivity of U.S. policy to changing events and the seemingly inevitable reaction to defend the status quo regardless of the context. U.S. military assistance was furnished Pakistan to defend against communism. It was used instead to wage war on India, the world's largest democracy, and subsequently to suppress the feeble steps toward democracy taken in Pakistan itself. Despite this perversion of U.S. largess, we have now been astonished to learn that shipments of military goods are continuing, apparently in pursuit of illusory influence or "leverage" with the Pakistan Army. The shock is compounded in view of the fact that the Foreign Relations Committee had been assured by the administration that no military items had been furnished Pakistan since March 25 and none were scheduled for delivery. This is another sad case of private executive foreign policy decisionmaking taken without the benefit of, indeed in strict isolation from, public discussion and debate. Economic assistance provided by the United States was misused by the Pakistan Government to subsidize unbalanced development favoring West Pakistan at the expense of the East, which in the process exacerbated the problems which have now been so graphically revealed. Yet we support the Pakistan Government, economically and militarily, despite its destruction of emerging representative government and in the face of a ruthless military campaign, largely directed against Hindus and the intellectual and leadership elements among the Bengalis, which has resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people. This support continues in the face of a recommendation by the World Bank against further aid and in the face of contrary attitudes on the part of other aid-giving nations of the world. It is said that we must not intervene in the internal affairs of other countries—a principle which should have been better understood in 1964, or since 1949 in China for that matter-and that we should not use economic aid for political purposes. However, supporting a government engaged in civil war with economic assistance is as much an intervention as helping the other side. It is distressing to see that, through continuation of assistance to Islamabad, the United States again finds itself actively aliened with a military dictatorship pursuing policies diametrically opposed to those to which we say we are committed. Unfortunately the implications of this civil strife arc not confined to Pakistan. The refugees created by the Pakistani military actions have been driven into India where they