UN visitor says things better in E Pakistan

Calcutta, June 15.—Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, said today that he had found what appeared to be an improvement in the situation in East Pakistan during his recent visit to Dacca.

He was speaking to journalists at Bongaon, about 50 miles northeast of Calcutta, during a tour of several refugee camps on the Indian side of the border.

The high commissioner seemed optimistic about East Pakistan’s future, and said that he had seen reception camps for refugees being set up. Asked if he thought the refugees in West Bengal could return to East Pakistan, he said that he did not see why they should not in time.

The prince was then asked why people were still fleeing to India if the situation in East Pakistan was improving. He replied that the situation in East Pakistan was a very complicated question, and, added: "Fear is an infectious thing."
The high commissioner had talks with Mr Ajoy Mukherjee, the Chief Minister of West Bengal, before flying back to Delhi tonight. —Reuter.



Peter Hazelhurst writes from Calcutta: Journalists who have toured the refugee camps and the border areas extensively in recent weeks were convinced that the high commissioner could not have fully appreciated the enormity of the problem existing in West Bengal after he had completed a short tour of the Bongaon area.

In all, the prince must have seen about 100,000 refugees during his tour to the border. Most of the displaced men, women and children are already accommodated in comparatively well-organized camps and many of the homeless people who recently swarmed into towns, and villages in this area have been dispersed to newly constructed camps.

But the situation is far worse than the prince could imagine. For instance, to the north, in the region of West Dinajpur, the number of refugees has nearly surpassed the local population of 1,800,000. The administration in outlying districts such as Krishnanagar, has been paralysed by an overwhelming influx of 400,000 displaced people. Children are already, starving to death as their parents wait in the long queues for food.

Nearly half a million people have swarmed into the district of Cooch Behar, in the extreme north. Another half million have overcrowded the small villages and towns in southern Assam, and the population of one and a half million of the small eastern state of Tripura has increased by 50 per cent.

As the High Commissioner left for Delhi tonight a government spokesman said that after a lull of two days the inflow of refugees had begun again. This would indicate that the Pakistanis have failed to seal the 1,300-mile border effectively.

"The inflow stopped for a few days but it has started again. We suspect that most of the evacuees are crossing at night now”, the spokesman said.

Indian trains and American and Soviet aircraft meanwhile continued to shuttle between border regions and adjoining states where refugees are to be accommodated in huge communal camps. Two Soviet AN12 transport aircraft today began to take refugees to newly prepared camps near Raipur, in Madhya Pradesh. But operations were delayed when hundreds of terrified peasants fled on hearing that they were to be transported out of Bengal by air.

However, a maximum number of about 10,000 people can be dispersed every 24 hours. At this rate it will take six months to move to high land the estimated two million people who are living on low-lying land before the monsoon inundates the entire area. Several camps have already been flooded. Indian officials are at present trying to move about 40,000 people out of the flooded regions of Siliguri, in the north.



Islamabad, June 15.—China has agreed to extend $70m (about £29m) worth of assistance in commodities immediately to help Pakistan to meet some of its urgent requirements, the Pakistan Times reported today.
The list of commodities is expected to include coasters for use in East Pakistan. A team of officials may visit Peking in the near future to set up the list of purchases.—Reuter.



More than £500,000 has been raised in Britain by the Disaster Emergency Committee to t help Pakistani refugees since the national appeal was launched a week ago.