A major victim of the rapidly expanding war between India and Pakistan may yet be the United Nations and the principle of international cooperation for peace which it embodies.

Although the threat posed by the Pakistani repression in East Bengal and the consequent flood of refugees into India has long been apparent, and has long since become manifest in direct combat between Indian and Pakistani forces, the world organization has made no move to intervene. It has been immobilized by refusal of the principally interested parties, including the major powers, to face up to their charter obligations to confront the issues forthrightly in the Security Council.

The most disturbing delinquency is that of India, which on the one hand argues that the repression in East Pakistan “is a threat to our security,” as Prime Minister Indira Gandhi has declared, and on the other hand insists that the problems of Pakistan are strictly an internal Pakistani affair, not subject to United Nations intervention. The Indians can't have it both ways.

If the events inside Pakistan since last March indeed pose a threat to India's own internal security, the Indians have an obligation to present their case—which is a persuasive one—to the world body before taking the perilous Military actions which they have already initiated along the Indian border with East Pakistan.

Pakistan has gone through the motions of inviting U.N. intervention of sorts but on terms clearly prejudicial the interests of the repressed Bengalis and their Indian allies. The failure of the Pakistanis so far to risk a call for Security Council consideration of the issues is an indication of the weakness of their case and of the opportunities open to New Delhi if the Indians themselves would bring their grievances before that forum.
Continue reading the main story

A State Department spokesman said the other day that Washington was refraining from any call for Security Council action at this time in order to continue with “quiet diplomacy.” But Washington's quiet diplomacy over the last eight months has conspicuously failed induce Islamabad to move toward the political accommodation with elected Bengali leaders that is essential to defuse the current crisis.

Especially after suspending further arms shipments to India, as was quite properly done yesterday, the United States could now afford to take a public stand at the United Nations in behalf of a peaceful solution to this political problem that is shattering the peace of the subcontinent and threatening the peace of the world. strong Security Council resolution, even if ultimately vetoed by Peking, might yet move President Yahya of Pakistan in a way that provocative Indian military action will not.

Although the major powers have conflicting commitments on the subcontinent, they have an overriding common interest in avoiding a major conflict, as indeed do India and Pakistan themselves. The best remaining opportunity to achieve this common goal is to refer the problem promptly to the Security Council, which was created for just such crises and which cannot long survive as a credible institution if it remains in its present state of withering neglect.