59 ংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্রঃ ত্রয়োদশ খন্ড Ireland want to remain part and parcel of the United Kingdom, whereas the outcome of the election which took place in East Pakistan demonstrated that the vast majority wanted autonomy and the right govern themselves. The situations are not parallel. In this House we hear from time to time that the rights of all minorities should be guarded. What is in question in East Pakistan is the right of a majority of the people to say what sort of country they want to live in and under what sort of constitution they want to work. Surely they have the right to be heard in the name of democracy. If this House is to maintain any credibility among world leaders, if people are to look to this House as the defender of rights of both majorities and minorities, surely the Government must take some of the steps proposed by Hon. Members today and show by their attitude that they intend to move in the right direction, in the direction which will help these people in their time of deep and terrible crisis and awful agony. 2. 16 p.m. Mr. Julius Silverman (Birmingham, Aston): May I add my voice to the congratulations which have been extended to my Hon. Friend the Member for Kensington, North (Mr. Douglas-Mann) on raising this important subject? It is one which should concern every Member of this House and everyone in the country. Even if one understands the reluctance of the Government to make any decision condemning another Government, with all the international implications involved, it is important at any rate that this House should express its view on the matter. In this case, the facts about what has happened are stark and clear. A nation of 75 million people has expressed its desire for autonomy, not even for independence or secession. The people have not only expressed their opinion. They did so clearly in an election commonly agreed on both sides to have been a fair one. Probably it did not produce the result that was expected, but it is common ground that it was a fair election. In East Bengal it resulted in an overwhelming decision in favor of autonomy. Immediately there were negotiations. They broke down. But even before they had broken down, the Pakistan Army, consisting almost entirely of West Pakistanis, stepped in and acted in brutal suppression of the party which had only very recently been declared by the people to be their representatives. It may be that there have been exaggerations in the stories which have been told about villages being burnt down and about wholesale massacres. But I should have thought that there is sufficient evidence for us to know that, if even half of what is said is true, what is happening in East Pakistan cannot possibly be forgiven. We have heard reports about the movement of two million people from their homesteads, The Hon. Member for Chigwell (Mr. Biggs-Davison) says that the figure may not be correct. In any event, there is no doubt that a vast number of refugees, most of them Muslims, have poured out from these villages, from the lands and the homes to which they are attached, into an alien country which for many years they have regarded as their enemy. Obviously, this movement would not have taken place without a terrible driving force. That, at any rate, must support a large part of the dreadful stories which we hear about what
