পাতা:বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্র (ষষ্ঠ খণ্ড).pdf/৬১৩

577 বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্রঃ ষষ্ঠ খণ্ড শিরোনাম সংবাদপত্র তারিখ Afro-Asian Bangladesh News letter 21 June, 1971 Press Say London : No. 7 AFRO-ASIAN PRESS SAY Japan A correspondent of Nippon Kaizai Shimbun, Japan's leading financial daily, said in a dispatch on 24 Ma after visiting Western Pakistan. "The present military regime of Pakistan, which has succeeded in suppressing the independence movement in East Bengal by sheer force is now trying to continue military rule in East Bengal. But the leadership of President Yahya Khan is questioned because of the severe economic blow the country has suffered." Referring to his visit to various leading cities in West Pakistan, the correspondent went on to summarize his impressions as: (1) President Yahya Khan is not necessarily regarded as the real political and military leader of Pakistan (2) The President’s guards have been much reinforced; (3) Common citizens keep their mouth shut about politics and avoid talking to foreigners; (4) Under strict censorship and control, newspapers, both in East and West Pakistan have become stereotyped; (5) Shortage of consumer goods, hoarding and price rise. Uganda In an article in the Uganda newspaper The People (5 May) the writer, Nathan Epenu, asked: "Why this silence and apathy in the capitals of big-power countries to the indiscriminate killings of civilians in Bangladesh by West Pakistani forces? Report for a few protest voices like those of U. S. Senator Fulbright and British MP Shaw, there are no full scale demonstrations against the mass killings in this struggling state of Bangladesh-the king witnessed for the Nigerian civil war or the ever-present Vietnam conflict. Evidently what is at the core of acquiesced unconcern b the big Powers about the civil war in Pakistan is the fact that the vies and vested interests of these countries have in Pakistan and breakaway Bangladesh are at best divided and at worst diametrically opposed to those of the other. Hence the general fear that once one country gets fully committed to one side of the conflict, other countries with different interests win inevitably support the other, thus escalating the conflict to world-wide scale. Certainly these are noble intentions, but what we want to see is not the big Powers taking sides again in this civil war but rather a concerted effort by all of them to exert the maximum pressure on the stronger side (West Pakistan).