পাতা:বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্র (ত্রয়োদশ খণ্ড).pdf/৪৬৬

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বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্রঃ ত্রয়োদশ খণ্ড
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leader of East Bengal Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, was still in jail. In West Pakistan, President Yahya Khan was vowing to condemn Sheikh Mujib for treason and sought to normalize the situation in East Bengal by forming a puppet government of politicians sympathetic to the military regime, Martial law was tightening is grip on the cities, and the threat of famine stalked the land.

 In India, relief workers were struggling to deal with the largest human tide of refugees in modern history: Attempting-but not succeeding-in providing minimal shelter, food and medicine to a hopeless people dying by the thousands under the monsoon rains. As India strained under the refugee burden a cost which has totaled more than all the funds it has received in foreign aid for economic development this year-Indian leaders complained that they could not withstand the pressure much longer, that the refugee flow must be stopped, that it would be cheaper to go to war than suffer this intolerable drain on its society.

 Such, then, was the desperate situation in South Asia last July, when Mr. Henry Kissinger travelled to India and Pakistan while on a world tour. He was, we were told, the President's Personal representative to speak to the leaders of India and Pakistan about the conflict in East Bengal, and its repercussions on the stability of the region. Many Americans were gratified that the intensifying conflict in South Asia was finally receiving the attention and the priority it deserved by the highest officials of our Government. Until then, many of us in congress had worried over the silence and inaction that had characterized our Government's policy toward the crisis-a silence and a lethargy made clear to me during hearings on June 28 of the Subcommittee on Refugees, for which I serve as chairman.

 When Mr. Kissinger disappeared for several days from public view while visiting President Yahya khan in Islamabad, many speculated-and all of us hopped-that he was secretly trying to get at the root of the problem in South Asia by visiting Sheikh Mujib, jailed in secret, near Islamabad.

 But as we now know, Mr. Kssinger was neither negotiating nor primarily concerned about the root cause of the conflict in South Asia, but rather about America's policy toward China.

 Mr. President, if we have been in such a “race against time” for peace in South Asia, as White House spokesman now tell us then where was the President's representative racing off to last July? Certainly not toward a peaceful resolution of the conflict ranging in East Bengal-a conflict that was then already 4 months old. Rather he had headed toward Peking and more substantive negotiations unrelated to the refugee tragedy which he refused to see firsthand in South Asia.

 Mr. President, as I said in this Chamber just 3 days ago, this administration has rightly taken pride in its efforts to reestablish contract with one-fifth of mankind's population in China. But are we at the same time-by neglect, by wrong-headed, shortsighted policies-going to allow one-sixth of mankind, located in India, the world’s largest democracy, to become permanently alienated from the United States? In our rush to place