পাতা:বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্র (ত্রয়োদশ খণ্ড).pdf/৭৫২

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724 ংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্রঃ ত্রয়োদশ খন্ড this to take place. It seems to me that the various sources of good-will should try to initiate measures which provide people with an incentive to return to their homes rather than to suffer all the terrible tragedy of being permanently uprooted living in temporary housing, make-shift arrangements, camps or what have you, for too long. There is a demographic problem on both sides of that border and if people can return home then that should certainly be encouraged. My Office can play a role here as we have in so many other situations, like in the case of the return of the Nigerians particularly the Nigerian children after the end of the conflict in Nigeria. The role of the Office would be here most valuable in trying to initiate a dialogue, to be an intermediary of good-will. We should try to encourage conditions in East Pakistan to return to normal, possibly initiate some sort of arrangement where people who want to come home can do so and be received in such a way that they are given the necessary relief that they require, even in their own homeland. These are all measures which obviously can only be assessed on the spot. Now I am in very close contact with both Governments concerned here and certainly with all my other UN colleagues, executive heads of the various agencies, and I will certainly keep you informed of the results of this mission. These are the main points which I wanted to raise with you today and once more I would like to thank you for your understanding and your constant support in a job which could not be done if you did not assist us in getting public opinion to understand the problem and help us to solve it. I would like now to open the floor to discussions, Voice of America: Have you an idea of how many refugees there are? What sort of coordinating role will you be playing? High Commissioner: Well, first of all in answer to the first point, I think in any refugee problem, whether it happens to be in this situation or in any other situation like those we faced in Africa, it is extremely hard to have a very precise estimate of the figures involved. I know that the Indian authorities are now in the process of distributing identity cards to people; that presumably is going to give them a chance to have more of a precise census. One also has to be extremely careful I think, to distinguish what particular groups we speak of when we say refugees. You know that there has always been a huge problem of displaced persons in both India and Pakistan, going back to the days of partition of India when Britain granted Independence to the sub-continent. The refugees are something that both countries have learned to live with now for more than 2 decades and therefore when we speak of refugees we must find out whether we mean people who came a long time ago, people who came during all the disturbances during the recent elections, people who came since the developments in March. It is very difficult to establish a head count because most people are living in the same areas and anybody who had been to India and particularly to the area of Calcutta, will know that many people there are still refugees in the sense that they have not been permanently resettled. The question is, when did they come? So I think in terms of the figure, I have heard many different estimates, the one you referred to, the one mentioned on the BBC, I think yesterday which was 600,000. It is very hard to assess and especially from Geneva. This is way I am sending a mission to India. Now, on the second point, I know through this coordination which has been established, that the Indian Government has appealed to individual U.N. agencies. The Food and Agricultural Organization, the World Food Programme, have been approached. I know that IJNICEF has an office in Delhi, and they