695 ংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্রঃ ত্রয়োদশ খন্ড In fact all the accounts prove that there is a systematic elimination of the elite and leaders of the Bengali people and decimation of the population throughout the whole country. The fate of tens of millions of men is at stake, just as essential principles and values are involved. A nation is deprived by force and repression of its right to dispose of itself. It is no longer possible to take refuge behind the alibi of an internal affair of a single State. The very dimensions of this tragedy makes of it an international matter. The official silence of most of the Governments makes it our duty to speak out and act. Our action must particularly be exerted in the following directions: 1.The despatch of help. The sums allotted so far our Government are out of proportion with the needs and only supply a trifling part of international aid, which itself only represents 10 per cent of what has been spent by India for the survival of the refugees. Our country is in a position to do more and to do it quickly. As regards the assistance to be sent to the population of East Bengal, it would be advisable to guarantee that it will not be diverted and used as a means of political pressure by the Pakistani authorities. 2. The pursuit of a political solution. This will necessarily be through a negotiation with the authentic and admitted representatives of the Bengali people. It implies the liberation of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. The freely consented return of the refugees will have to prove that a satisfying settlement has been reached. 3. Suspension of deliveries of arms. Our country is one of the principal suppliers to the Pakistani army. The last agreement concluded involved several dozens of "Mirages". We learn from foreign sources that our Government would have undertaken not to deliver these arms and not to conclude these contracts. The stake would certainly merit an official declaration from our Government on this subject. We consider that the embargo ought to be decreed on all deliveries of arms, munitions and spare parts to Pakistan as long as the military operations in East Bengal are carried Out. 4. The suppression of economic aid. France, member of the International Aid Consortium to Pakistan, should propose maintaining the suspension effected in the Consortium's aid as well as the discontinuance of the bilateral aid allocated to Islamabad as long as the Pakistani Government continues to want to impose itself by force on the Bengali people. The French Committee of Solidarity with Bangladesh intends to encourage the adoption of the measures advocated above, to inform French public opinion on the situation in East Bengal and ensure a liaison between all those who refuse to succumb too easily to a feeling of powerlessness.
