পাতা:বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্র (ত্রয়োদশ খণ্ড).pdf/২২১

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বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্রঃ ত্রয়োদশ খণ্ড

The creeping malnutrition among the infants and children in the camps is frightening.

MR. J. BANERJI, GOBARDANGA SOCIAL WELFARE SOCIETY

 Imagine the whole population of Scotland trekking south, bag and baggage leaving their country hearth and home with a basket on their heads, leading their old parents by the hand and ailing children on their-heads in, continuous streams day after day and Finally taking shelter under improvised sheds, only God looking after them. Imagine heavy rains, cholera, and deaths 011 the roadside. This is the picture. How will England or the world accept the situation?

 We want every citizen of the world to come to the aid of these refugees.

REG PRENTICE, MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT

 The situation I saw in the refugee camps in July was the most terrible that I have ever seen-both in its degree of individual suffering and in its size. Since then it has become Much worse. In the next few months, it will become much worse still. Millions wil die unless we act in time.

 In West Bengal and the other boarder states, the local officials and doctors are doing a first-class job. They are working on behalf of the rest of the human family. We should all recognize this and insist that the government of our country, and all countries, take over a fair share of the burden that is falling on India. The impending famine within East Bengal adds a terrible new dimension to the tragedy. We must respond urgently to this threat as well. Time is not on anyone's side.

NARAYAN DESAI, GANDHI PEACE FOUNDATION

 Like an octopus, the problem is clutching the situation from a number of directions.

 When approaching a refugee camp the problem that stares' at you is that of accommodation. Twenty-three persons living in a tent measuring 12 feet by 9 feet. Sixteen living on a raised 8 feet square platform of bamboo chips avoiding direct contact with knee-deep water. This is the rule, rather than the caption.

 Going a little closer, you see a number of other problems. Thousands of women with just half a piece of cloth to wrap their bodies, thousands suffering from gastroenteritis cholera, dysentery and diarrhea hundreds of thousands of children slowly succumbing to malnutrition, millions dreading the advent of winter winds along with pneumonia.

 Moving right among them you realize the more subtle problems: 9 million pairs of hands remaining idle result in frustration: every story -of atrocity across the border-thousands of women molested, almost half a million killed-bring with it bitterness, anger and contempt.

MICHAEL BLACKMAN, OXFAM

 It took the bogy of cholera to stir the conscience of the world, but even this killer came and went. It left behind what was there before, suffering and despair-no homes, little or no