International Herald Tribune

The details (IHT, Aug. 6) of the so-called white paper released by the authorities in Pakistan claiming the killing of 100,000 civilians by Awami League workers before the military action of 25th March, 1971, seem unconvincing for more than one reason.

During the period from March 1 to March 25 there were more than one hundred foreign journalists in East Pakistan who were covering the minute-to-minute developments without any press censorship. None of them saw or heard of the mass killing. Besides, all through this period the West Pakistan Army were in full and effective control of the airports and seaports. Their ominous presence at every street corner was also there for all to see. To believe that they were mute observer of such a killing would mean giving the Pakistani Army the credit for self-restraint which unfortunately, they have already proved, is the quality they are lacking most.

As one who was not involved in polities but who nevertheless got very much caught in the holocaust, may I be allowed to put the successive incidents in their correct sequence.

Before March 25 when the first ship carrying arms and ammunition from West Pakistan docked at Chittagong Port, the Bengali dockers refused to unload the cargo under instructions from the Awami League on the valid ground that they should not carry the cross on which they were to be crucified.

At this point the local non-Bengali workers who have been looked after by Bengal for the last 23 years volunteered to unload the cargo in defiance of the sentiment and interest of the Bengalis. Hundreds of non-Bengalis marched to the port and menacingly confronted the Bengalis. In the fight that ensued, the army supported the non-Bengalis by shooting dead most of the Bengali dockers.

Mujib demanded an official inquiry which was grudgingly agreed to by President Yahya with a significant condition which was that the commission would be headed by the General who, the Bengalis believed, had given the order to shoot. There was, however, no inquiry and Mujib was taken prisoner on the night of March 25.

As the stories of the ruthless massacre of the unarmed Bengali civilians by the army reached Chittagong on March 26, the Bengali Officers and men of the East Bengal Regiment and East Pakistan Rifles revolted and took control of the town of Chittagong. During the eight or nine days that the rebels were in control the Bengali civilians of the town got back at the non-Bengalis who only a few days back joined hand with the West Pakistani Army in killing the dockers.

Several hundred non-Bengalis were killed during this period, but as soon as the town fell back into the hands of the West Pakistani Army they went on a rampage of killing, raping and burning that was vividly described in all its brutality by foreigners, including UN workers who were later on evacuated to Calcutta.

A murder is a murder, irrespective of the sequence of events, but a trial is not a trial without the sequence of events, especially when it is claimed that Mujib is going to have a fair trial.