No new nation has inherited such monumental problems as are faced today by Bangladesh. In practically every case when a colony has been transformed into an independent sovereign state, there has been careful preparation over the years, and both the former colonial power and the new nation are anxious to achieve, a smooth hand-over. Exceptions to this come readily to mind, Algeria and Indonesia for example. But the dislocation in those countries which had to fight for their freedom from colonialism was nothing like the dislocation suffered in East Bengal as a result of the long drawn out repression by the Pakistan Army and the guerrilla war. No new nation has faced the task of repatriating 15 per cent of its population. No new nation has had its communication system so destroyed as Bangladesh, which has special handicaps because of the thousands of waterways which criss-cross the country. No new nation has had the cream of its intellectuals systematically and brutally murdered.

FORTITUDE

Having visited Dacca twice since the cease-fire on Thursday, December 16 and during the nine months paid several visits to West Bengal to visit the refugee camps and the Government in exile, I have formed a very high opinion of the fortitude of the Bengali people and their capacity to cope with disaster on an incredible scale. They will certainly need all that fortitude and strength of purpose to build up Bangladesh after the holocaust of the past nine months. What is particularly impressive is the way the new Government is tackling the problems of rehabilitation. With Donald Chesworth, the chairman of War on Want, I had intensive discussions with Mr. Kamruzzaman, the Minister for Rehabilitation, and his officials. Mr. Kamruzzaman said that the Government are using the opportunity of devastation on such a wide scale to plan for the reconstruction of the country on a new basis.

When the refugees return to their homes and invariably will find them completely or partially destroyed, temporary accommodation will be improvised, but the long term development will be on model village lines using the best possible advice from rural development experts to construct better rural environment. The development of cooperative farming to make best use of scarce tractors, bullocks and other resources will go hand to hand with this plan. Of course, the first priority is to get the displaced persons, as ministers prefer to call them, back into the country. As has already been announced each person is receiving rations and three rupees from the Indian authorities to help them on their way. Wherever possible transport is being provided but bearing in mind the destruction of many of the vehicles and boats and the severe shortage of petroleum products, it would be unrealistic to expect more than a small proportion of the 100,000 people a day returning to have transport provided for them.

Most will have to walk in the same way as they fled carrying their meagre possessions on their heads and occasionally carrying children or aged parents in their arms as well. When these people finally arrive in their home areas they will have to start virtually from scratch. According to the minister six million homes have been destroyed and so have most of the bullocks and other farm animals. There is a severe shortage of agricultural tools and ploughs. It may well be asked, why return the refugees at such a rapid rate if the circumstances are so depressing ? From the Indian Governments point of view it is better that the displaced persons should be encouraged to go back in the euphoria of Bangladesh victory as there could be a risk that having lived for up to nine months in camps receiving charity, some families would prefer to stay in that state if their return was delayed too long. Furthermore, the season now is the best for travelling. When the heavy rains come again there could be utter chaos.

It is also important that the rural community gets itself reestablished in time to plant the next rice crop. If they delay their return until after the end of April, there would be a serious risk that they would miss just that. The Bangladesh Government are determined to stimulate the maximum amount of self help, and for this reason it has been decided not to set up refugee reception centres where the people would be housed even for a short period, because it is feared that this would encourage the continuing acceptance of charity rather than the liberation of energies to build up the, new economy. Nobody except the young, the aged and the maimed will get help for nothing. Payment in kind such as food, clothing or blankets will be for work done by the displaced persons building up their own villages again.

The Ministry of Rehabilitation in Dacca is becoming a hive of activity in contrast to the department which operated under the East Pakistan regime. We were told that previously the department comprised only 13 clerks. Now the Ministry has recruited a permanent secretary, two joint secretaries, six deputy secretaries, 19 additional development commissioners, 62 assistant commissioners and 416 regional officers attached to the local police stations. The running of the rehabilitation programme will not depend merely on governmental bureaucracy in the various areas; authority will be exercised by the members of the National Assembly and the members of the Provincial Assembly who will provide the local dynamism necessary to ensure the success of the overall programme. The need for overseas assistance in this great task is universally recognised. Apart from the United States, which is extremely unpopular, aid will be accepted from any country.

FOOD SCARCE

The minister’s shopping list of immediate requirements is by no means exhaustive. It includes 400 tons of baby foods required to strengthen the children in the refugee camps who have been debilitated by their months in the camps and who need strength for the arduous journey home. Also required are half a million blankets to save the people from the harsh January and February nights which in Bangladesh can be very cold. The immediate need for tents and tarpaulins runs to hundreds of thousands of pieces because these will be needed to provide temporary accommodation for families while they build permanent homes.

In most areas there is not enough straw or other material available for thatching. The deficit in food grains is estimated to be a minimum of 1.8m tons and this can be filled by either rice or wheat but preferably rice. When the stock position is fully checked in the various regions where preliminary reports indicate that the retreating Pakistan Army deliberately set fire in food stocks, the deficit may well be much greater than this. The problem of meeting the deficit is not only finding the money to ship in the food grains, but in clearing the communication system so that it can be transported from the ports of Chittagong and Khulna to the districts which need it most.

The minister explained to Donald Chesworth and me that the Government would welcome overseas personnel to assist in the task of rehabilitation and reconstruction, but he made it quite clear that no foreign teams could expect to work on their own projects autonomously. All foreign personnel would be expected to work under the Department of Rehabilitation or under one of the approved Bangladesh organizations like the Bangladesh Red Cross and the Volunteer Service Corps. The minister’s reasons for this decision are quite understandable. If foreign teams go in without proper coordination with the notional plan for rehabilitation, several areas might get preferential treatment and there could be a wastage of scarce resources which can be avoided if there is overall integration of the relief programme. One of the key organizations in the rehabilitation programme will be the Bangladesh Volunteer Service Corps which was built up to provide educational and welfare facilities in the refugee camps with the philosophy of Bangladesh people helping themselves. This organization achieved outstanding results and was a big factor in keeping up the morale of the refugees and their belief in their capacity not only to survive but also to return to a better country after independence had been achieved.

The leadership of BDVSC is provided by a team under Amir-ul Islam, Chief Whip of the Awami League in the National Assembly and principal aide to the then Prime Minister Tajuddin Ahmed during the nine months of campaigning against the military regime. Amir-ul Islam is one of the remarkable younger men in the Bangladesh leadership on whom much of the future will depend. He has an incredible capacity for hard work and provides a dynamic to every project he assists. The association between War on Want and BDVSC has been very close partly because of the personal friendship between Donald Chesworth, chairman of War on Want, and Amir-ul Islam who knew each other when Amir was training to be a barrister in London and assisted in Notting Hill after the serious race riots. Among other organizations working with the BDVSC has been the Calcutta Cathedral Relief Service, so ably led by Canon Biswas.

It is clear that the immense amount of assistance required by the new Bangladesh Government cannot be provided by charitable organizations alone. These agencies should not raise funds and recruit personnel to work with the Department of Rehabilitation and the Bangladesh organizations, but also need to stimulate governments to provide bilateral aid on a massive scale. To put a figure on the total aid required is difficult because the needs are almost infinite, but the world, should be thinking in terms of a £500m to £800m programme if there is to be any early impact on the devastated economy of Bangladesh.

That these long suffering people deserve international help is beyond question. They have suffered the worst repression of any peoples since Hitler’s, extermination of six million Jews. It is to he hoped that now the problem of the Indian subcontinent is no longer on the front pages or on the television screens every night, the conscience of the world will still be alive to the responsibilities it has in Bangladesh.