পাতা:বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্র (ত্রয়োদশ খণ্ড).pdf/৫০৯

481 বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্রঃ ত্রয়োদশ খন্ড শিরোনাম সূত্র তারিখ নিউইয়র্ক টাইমস প্রতিনিধি সিডনী সেনাবার্গকে ------ ১১ মে, ১৯৭১ লিখিত মিঃ জন রোডের চিঠি 4005 Everett St. Kensington. Maryland 20795 May 11, 1971 Mr. Sydney Schanberg New York Times Dehli Dear Sydney, This seems a hell of a time to be writing in thanks for sending me your articles of last December on Manpura after the cyclone. You have the notoriety of being the only Journalist who kept his word to us during that relief effort. The December 30 article will appear in tomorrow’s congressional Record as part of my testimony before the Foreign Relations Committee on the East Pak situation. My reason for writing amidst these perfectly hectic times is to inform you of the impact of your current excellent journalism and to encourage you to keep sending all you can. You note the juxta sition of your writing next to maleolm Brown in NYT June 9. To our dismay there have been, of late almost no factual presentations of the real situation among the refugees and an absolute ZERO about East Pakistan situation. In Congress, people point to the line Browne is fed by the paks and tell us the thing is all over. As you probably know, there is almost no one here to speak the truth on the Hill all Govt. employees, have been told to keep still and that leaves very few of us who actually witnessed anything. Guys like Scott Butcher, who you talked with on the 25th are in no position to say anything on the Hill. Congress looks very closely at your reporting and that is one reason. I included your Dec. 30 article in my testimony in trying to prove that the paks cannot and DID not even give aid properly back then, My wife and I are pushing hard but it is a small lobby indeed. We have succeeded in getting legislation before both senate and House in the form of amendment to Foreign Assistance Act with bipartisan Saxbe (R-Ohio) and Church (DIdaho) sponsorship, but to our dismay the times did not even note the introduction of this legislation which will suspend all assistance to Pak until international relief EFFECTIVELY Working throughout E. pak and Majority of refugees repatriated. We need the press badly, Browne reporting the garbage of pak govt. is no help. We are getting a lot of first hand stuff out of Bengal and it has been helpful in getting our lobby this far but it needs general publication for impact. We figure we have less than a month to get ahead or a huge famine. I sincerely hope you will continue to send, frequently, graphic descriptions of the refugees and their reports of Army action in E. Pak that the Congress may at least be informed if the US then continues. Clearly it only takes