694 ংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্রঃ ত্রয়োদশ খন্ড শিরোনাম সূত্র তারিখ ফ্রান্সের বাংলাদেশ সংহতি কমিটির ম্যানিফেষ্টো | বাংলাদেশ ডকুমেন্টস অক্টোবর, ১৯৭১ MANIFESTO ISSUED BY THE FRENCH COMMITTEE OF SOLIDARITY WITH BANGLADESH-OCTOBER, 1971 Before the immense distress of East Bengal and the tragic situation which will only get worse in the coming months, particularly on account of the ruin of agriculture, the French Committee of Solidarity with Bangladesh appeals to French public opinion to take note of the following facts: The Bengali people, maintained in a situation of colonial type by West Pakistan since the creation in 1947 of Pakistan, almost unanimously pronounced itself, during the first free elections based on universal suffrage organized in the country, for a very wide regional autonomy. This autonomy had been provided for as early as 1940 by the founders of Pakistan (Resolution of Lahore). In its electoral programme, the Awami League resumed this claim for autonomy. On the basis of this legally defended platform, it won 167 seats out of 169 in East Bengal and ensured itself an absolute majority within the new Constituent Assembly for the whole of Pakistan, with 167 Scats out of 313. In front of the transformation of the demographic majority of 75 million Bengalis-as against 55 million West Pakistanis-into a democratic and parliamentary majority, the military Government of Islamabad reacted by trying to drown in blood this majority's determination for autonomy. In fact, it only succeeded in transforming it into a determination for Bengali national independence which expressed itself by a refusal to co-operate, by the constitution of the Provisional Government of Bangladesh, and by the guerrilla which has been a proof for the last six months of the implacable determination of the Bengali people. The savage repression being continued by the Pakistan Army since 25th March, 1971, has already caused several hundreds of thousands of deaths. It provokes misery and famine entailing an exodus of 9 million Bengalis to India. The flow of refugees still amounts even now to several tens of thousands per day. These facts constitute a deliberate and continued violation of exceptional gravity and scope by the Pakistani Government, and in particular of: 1. The Universal Declaration of the Rights of Man, Article 21; 2. The Charter of the United Nations, Articles 1 and 25 of the International Pact concerning political and civil rights; 3. The Convention for the Prevention and Repression of the Crime of Genocide (ratified by the General Assembly of the United Nations on 9th December, 1948, and coming into vigor on 1st December, 1951).
