পাতা:বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্র (দ্বাদশ খণ্ড).pdf/১৬৫

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বাংরাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্রঃ দ্বাদশ খণ্ড
১৩৯

regime the people of East Bengal so over-whelmingly voted for the Awami League showed their deep desire for democratic rights. The military rules used the period of negotiations to a mass troops. And on the very day, when the Awami League through that settlement was to be reached, a reign of terror-such as history has rarely witnessed-was unleashed.

 I have not hesitated sometimes to criticize the Press, of course, in self defense. But on this occasion, I should like to express appreciation of the manner in which the Press correspondents of many countries have tried to arouse the conscience of the world. They have shown courage and perseverance in lifting the veil around East Bengal and revealing the truth of the grim tragedy being enacted there. Their words have been honest and direct, but the photographs have outdone them in conveying the very essence of sorrow and misery.

 What is taking place there is not a civil war in the ordinary sense of the word; it is a genocidal punishment of civilians for having voted democratically. It is a strange and cynical way of getting rid of one’s opponents and of deliberately using helpless millions as a weapon against a neighbor nation. The number of the refugees is equal to the population of some of the countries of Europe, such as Austria and Belgium, where I was only recently.

 We feel that this is a new kind of aggression. It certainly casts an unconscionable economic burden on us and has created political and social tensions endangering pure security. This is not a purely internal matter of one country, because the overflow of the political, economic and security consequences are affecting another country, that is, India. This is not an international dispute, certainly not an Indo-Pakistan dispute, for the traditional international instruments to be invoked.

 We are told that the confrontation of troops is a threat to peace. Is there no threat to peace when a whole people are massacred? Will the world be concerned only if people die because of war between two countries and not if hundreds of thousands are butchered and expelled by a military regime waging war against the people?

 We cannot draw upon precedents to deal with this unprecedented variety of aggression. We have to devise new patterns of response. It is in order to impress on world leaders the nature of the crisis and the means of resolving it that I wrote to heads of governments several months ago and sent some of my colleagues to meet them. We informed them that the only way out of the mess which the military rulers of Pakistan have made for themselves is to have a political settlement with the elected representatives of East Bengal, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, if he is alive, and his colleagues who embody the will of the people.

 Had the world realized it then, much of this mounting misery and the migration of many more millions could have been avoided. The chances of such a settlement have grown more slender with each new day of neglect. But there might still be time if world leaders appreciated the reality of the situation.