1971-06-18
By Marilyn Berger
Page: 0
Indian Foreign Minister Swaran Singh said yesterday that he had found "near unanimous agreement" in world capitals that the Pakistani government must negotiate a political accommodation with East Pakistan and end the fighting that has driven millions of refugees into India.
In an interview at the Indian ambassador's residence here, Singh, who held talks in Moscow, Bonn, Paris, Ottawa and New York before coming to Washington, conceded that governments are "reluctant" to say, what measures they are prepared to take.
But he said he believed that diplomatic representations, combined with public sentiment, would "In itself have a powerful effect on the Pakistani military regime and is bound to make them consider seriously the futility of continued action."
State Department spokesman Charles W. Bray, meanwhile, discussing Singh's Wednesday meeting with Secretary of State William P. Rogers, said that in the talks it was recognized that ending the flow of refugees into India "would be greatly facilitated by the restoration of peaceful conditions in East Pakistan and a political accommodation." He said the department welcomed India's "restraint" in the situation.
Singh, in an appearance before the National Press Club yesterday, also refrained from outlining any specific formula for a political accommodation.
The burden of Singh's remarks, both in the interview and at the press club, was that aid to feed and clothe the refugees was only a palliative; what is needed is international pressure on Pakistan to stop seeking a military solution in East Pakistan.
Singh also called on all countries to cut off military and economic aid to Pakistan. "In our view," he said in the Interview, "any aid, economic or military, given to Pakistan at the present Juncture would only prolong the agony of innocent people and would amount to condoning the acts of repression and would make the military rulers even more intransigent."
The State Department said no deliveries of military equipment had been made to Pakistan since March 25, when the fighting began.