932 ংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্রঃ ত্রয়োদশ খন্ড Within the geographical context of East Pakistan, as a result of the repression by the military authorities, a crisis emerged in East Pakistan and this became, as it progressed, a source of tension throughout the whole of the subcontinent. From the very emergence of the serious political crisis in East Pakistan and the subsequent tragic events, the Soviet Union maintained a consistent policy designed to eliminate by political means, without the use of force, the problems that have arisen in East Pakistan. The Soviet Union and its Government on several occasions have appealed to the Government of Pakistan to adopt the most immediate measures to put an end to the repression against the population of East Pakistan and to avert any further complication and exacerbation of the situation. The continuation of the repressive actions and bloodshed in East Pakistan, as was to be expected, merely complicated and rendered more difficult the solution of the problems that had emerged there. In connexion with the events in East Pakistan, the President of the Presidium of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union, Mr. Podgorny, addressed to the President of Pakistan, President Yahya Khan, in April of this year, an "earnest appeal to take the most urgent measures to put an end to the bloodshed and repression directed against the population of East Pakistan, and to turn instead to methods of peaceful political settlement". That same letter said: "We are convinced that this would be in accord with the interests of the entire Pakistani people; that it would promote the cause of the maintenance of peace in that region and would bring a peaceful solution to the most important problems. It would be welcomed with satisfaction by the whole of the Soviet people." Unfortunately, however, events in East Pakistan took an entirely different turn. The Government of India, for its part, similarly addressed numerous appeals on various occasions to the United Nations and to different States of the world concerning measures that should be adopted to solve the problem of East Bengal. But in spite of all such appeals, no measures were adopted for resolving this problem. On the contrary, certain allies of Pakistan in their military bloc insisted on placing Pakistan and India on the same footing and viewing them in the same light, insisted on placing equal responsibility on the country where the internal crisis had occurred and on the one which subsequently became the victim of that crisis. Therein lies the root-cause of the fact that on appropriate measures were undertaken. It was precisely those who approach this problem from that sort of position who prevented the adoption of timely and equitable measures and held back eVentS The Government of Pakistan, on its part, likewise took no action whatsoever to resolve the problems that had emerged in East Pakistan. As a result, the population of East Pakistan have continued to be persecuted and to live in fear and uncertainty for the future. This can be seen from the continuing flow of East Pakistani refugees into India. At the beginning of this meeting, I called attention, for the benefit of Members of the Council, to this, Let each one of us visualize the position of India onto the territory of which has come this flood of foreigners-10 million people. Ten million people are a whole State. A population was transferred from one State into another, on a gigantic
