বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্র (ত্রয়োদশ খণ্ড)/৩১
| শিরোনাম | সূত্র | তারিখ |
| বৃটিশ এম.পি. মিঃ আর্থার বটম লে ও টবী জেসেল-এর বক্তব্য | দি ষ্টেটসম্যান | ৫ জুলাই, ১৯৭১ |
STATEMENTS BY Mr. ARTHUR BOTTOMLEY AND Mr. TOBY JESSEL, BRITISH M.P.s.
Representatives of Bangladesh gave flowers to Mr. Toby Jessel, one of the three British Parliamentarians who returned home yesterday from their tour of India and Pakistan.
Mr. Jessel (Conservative), who has been the most forthright member of the fourman delegation in calling a spade a spade, told reporters at London airport that he had asked Pakistani refugees in India two questions in camps. He had asked them: “Will you go back?” The answer was: “Not till it is safe".
Mr. Jessel's second question was: “When will you go back?” The answer: “If Sheikh Mujibur Rahman asks us to go back, we shall".
Mr. Reginald Prentice (Labor) was asked by a Pakistani correspondent whether it was a good policy to use aid as a lever. He said he had only recently seen reports of the proceedings of the U.S. Senate on this question, in 99 cases out of 100 he would be against using aid as a lever, but in the present case in Pakistan it was justified.
Three aspects
Mr. Arthur Bottomley earlier made an agreed statement on behalf of the fourmember delegation. He emphasized three aspects of the situation: the element of fear existing in East Bengal, the continuing atrocities there' and the need for further assistance to the refugees.
Mr. Bottomley said this had been the most harrowing mission he had undertaken in his entire public life. He found President Yahya Khan an honorable man who did not seem to know what was happening in East Bengal.
But General Tikka Khan, he felt, was the wrong man in Dhaka who had no knowledge of or concern for the economic and social aspects of the situation. The army had not only perpetrated atrocities in East Bengal but was continuing to do so. He said the mission went everywhere it wanted to in East Bengal except in one instance in which he was satisfied with the Pakistani explanation.
Mr. Bottomley paid tribute to Mrs. Gandhi who, he said, was not only a great Prime Minister but was behaving like a great statesman. In his view she was handling the enormous problems with compassion and wisdom and deserved every support.
He appealed to the British Government and people to give succour to the refugees and assured them that the money was well spent, with Indian administrators doing a magnificent job.
Asked whether India was obstructing the return of refugees home, Mr. Bottomley said “Why should it?” The refugees, he said, were creating inevitable problems for India.