723 ংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্রঃ ত্রয়োদশ খন্ড শিরোনাম সূত্র জেনেভায় সাংবাদিক সম্মেলনে পূর্ব পাকিস্তানের জাতিসংঘ ডকুমেন্টস ৫ মে, ১৯৭১ শরণার্থীদের সম্বন্ধে জাতিসংঘের শরণার্থী বিষয়ক Statement by United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan, about refugees from East Pakistan, at a Press Conference in Geneva, on May 5, 1971 Now, I am sure you must all be extremely interested in the recent developments in that part of the world, and I can tell you that following the influx of uprooted people from East Pakistan into India, which has been widely reported in the press and which believe, was mentioned inter alia by the Secretary-General when he met you a few days ago during his visit to Geneva, we received a request from the Government of India transmitted through the Ministry of Rehabilitation, asking my Office to promote and organize assistance to help these people who have been displaced and who find themselves now in India. In the light of this I immediately decided to send a mission after assessing the request very carefully and discussing it with other UN colleagues, particularly the Secretary-General himself. This mission is leaving to night for New Delhi headed by the Deputy High Commissioner, Mr. Charles Mace, and composed of Mr. Jamleson my Director of Operations who has been to India before quite frequently to deal with the Tibetan refugees, and of my Legal Consultant, Dr. Weis. They will be discussing the problem in Delhi with the Indian authorities to see in what way the Office might be instrumental in seeking some kind of permanent solution in due course to the problem of the uprooted who find themselves in India. I want to stress here, that as in all previous requests and as in all previous action this Office will be stressing very much once more the humanitarian non-political role of UNHCR. This may be a political problem, but the role of my Office here, and I believe I can say this also or the other United Nations humanitarian agencies like Food and Agricultural Organisation, the World Food Programme UNICEF, the World Health Organisation, all these agencies will be dealing with the problem in a humanitarian and non-political spirit. There is a need for coordination here obviously, we know how any kind of relief operation depends largely on co-ordination. We have seen how in countries like Nigeria or even recently in East Pakistan with the natural disaster of the cyclone, lack of co-ordination can be extremely counterproductive and what I hope very much to achieve by sending this team to New Delhi, is better co-ordination of the United Nations system, to try to see what the others are doing and what we can do and assess the problem in a very precise way. We also will be, of course, extremely interested in trying to do what we have always done in any problems of uprooted peoples, i.e. to promote Voluntary repatriation. My Office tries to look towards permanent solutions. We cannot afford to just set up huge feeling programmes and temporary housing which tend to become permanent. We have seen what this has produced another parts of the world. We have to find out quickly what the ultimate solutions will be, and no one has to be a prophet to see that the best solution would be to help these people to return to their homes if and when the situation allows
