791 ংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্রঃ ত্রয়োদশ খন্ড the repatriation of the refugees, the High Commissioner made a pertinent comment to his executive committee in Geneva last month. He repeated the same comment today when he said: "In our past experience, if and when a settlement had occurred in the country of origin, a system of mutual co-operation and help was established with the active participation of UNHCR which facilitated repatriation. Until this stage is reached, substantial and well organized repatriation cannot make any sense and the trend is difficult to reverse." We return once again, therefore, to the fundamental cause of the crisis in East Pakistan and the ceaseless flow of refugees. "The basic problem", writes the Secretary-General, "can be solved only if a political solution based in the reconciliation and the respect of humanitarian principles is achieved". The international community is entitled to ask if any solution to the basic issues which accompanied this man-made disaster, is being worked for. We see no effective attempt being made in that direction; on the contrary, much evidence is available that Sophistry and confusion between great right and great wrong are being encouraged to conceal a lack of courage and to justify inaction. Events of the past months with the understandable popular resistance to the discredited regime and its methods which is increasing steadily inside East Pakistan, should now make it clear that a climate of confidence can be created in East Pakistan only through reconciliation with the already elected and accepted leaders of the people of East Bengal. It is less than a year back that the East Pakistanis voted almost to a man for a certain leadership and a well defined programme, and they are 75 million of them-the majority of the population of the whole of Pakistan. Regrettably, the only attempts which have been made by the Government of Pakistan in this direction are propaganda measures to beguile increased international concern for a political solution. This concern was widely and unmistakably expressed during the General Debate of the Assembly. At the same time, military repression continues with the burning of whole villages as reprisals and on wrong information even in areas next to the capital of East Pakistan, and other brutalities are periodically and frequently reported in the Foreign Press. Diverting attention from this main cause of the trouble will not solve the problem before us. To hurl accusations against India and deliberately to create tension through military concentration on the Indian borders, are totally negative and dangerous policies. We deplore these as much as the violation of human rights in East Pakistan. We agree with every word of the distinguished Foreign Minister of Denmark when he said on November 16, 1971, before the first committee: "The Danish Government appeals, as others have done, to the Government of Pakistan for moderation and restraint with a view to bringing to an end the violence in East Pakistan. Only a political settlement based on respect for human rights and the freely expressed will of the people can solve the problem of East Pakistan." Can such an expression of view in the larger interests of the Sub-continent and the world be termed as an act of non-co-operation or of political motivation? No propaganda can change a problem, which is wholly and essentially a problem between the Government of Pakistan and the people of East Pakistan, into one of a dispute between India and Pakistan. The basic problem lies inside East Pakistan and must be solved there itself so that the refugees can go back under credible guarantees for safety of life, property and honor.
