Northern Echo

Let us not delude ourselves with thoughts that the Pakistan butchery is too far away to concern us. Some may remember feeling the same way about the early days of Spain’s civil war. We all know what that led to. And there are similarities in the struggle for a Bangladesh, a Bengal nation, which in effect means an East Pakistan no longer dominated by its more powerful Western wing. True, the entire country is still, technically, run by President Yahya Khan, the man who eventually must bear the shame of a daily massacre of civilians that even censorship cannot conceal. The President, however, much he may profess hopes for democracy, is crushing the followers of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the very man whom democracy chose to run the country. And of course the President gained his own post by force. So it has some resemblance to the Franco story. And, as in Spain, the major powers take up their positions. China sides with West Pakistan. Russia, tacitly, sympathises with the East. The United States expresses concern but knows that many American-made weapons, provided for national defence, are being used to put down an internal revolt. These major powers, thankfully, have stayed outside so far but the struggle is young. Pakistan could become another Spain in world power terms. Or at least another Vietnam. Our own Foreign Minister’s recent statement made it clear that Britain would not become directly involved. That is good. But the statement might have achieved more in the long run had it implied to others that Britain might actually try to have a halt called to the carnage.

Because the uprising is still technically an internal matter, the United Nations cannot act. But the major powers could do something. Pakistan is almost bankrupt, and a unanimous threat of total withdrawal of aid would almost certainly bring a lull to the fighting. Without some kind of compromise on federation the fight between East and West will go on indefinitely, and that means outsiders could become involved at any time. With the monsoons almost upon East Bengal, the scope for guerrilla warfare widens. And East Bengal has many reasons for fighting. Ever since Britain uneasily formed Pakistan from two unlike clumps of people and land more than 1,000 miles apart, East Pakistan has always been relegated to a poor second in development, although it has the larger population and earns more of the country’s essential foreign exchange. These economic factors distinguish East Pakistan’s claims from those of Biafra in the Nigerian civil war.

The original bond of Muslim faith in the two Pakistans is almost totally severed, and the country is kept together only by an Army national in name but dominated by West Pakistan in fact. Neighbouring India cheers on a Bangladesh but so far sensibly avoids becoming directly involved (contrary claims by West Pakistan and China are very suspect). India’s sympathies are certainly influenced by the fact that a smaller Pakistan means a weaker arch-enemy. But there is also immense genuine sympathy with families who, just recovering from a devastating cyclone, now find themselves caught up in a civil war. Almost certainly religious feuds of the past will be temporarily forgotten if more Pakistani refugees flee into India. The trouble is, most will probably settle in India’s West Bengal, which is already overcrowded and under-employed. This would mean more discontent and more encouragement for Naxalism, the ultra-Left terrorism already there. Then it might be only a matter of time before India had its own Bangladesh agitation. Bengalis, it is true, are a highly individual people, cultured and clever. But it would be better for them, and for everyone else, if they worked for a stronger Pakistan and a strong India rather than for a shaky state of their own. That is why the major powers now, and certainly the ones that supply Pakistan’s vast sums of aid, should use every influence they have in persuading President Yahya Khan to stop the killing and to find a humane solution towards meeting the democratic wishes of his people.