1971-12-11
By Benjamin Welles
Page: 12
WASHINGTON, Dec. 10—The White House indirectly urged India today to comply immediately with the United Nations General Assembly's resolution of last Tuesday calling for an immediate cease‐fire in the India‐Pakistan war.
India has rejected the United, Nation appeal, which the world organization considers advisory and nonbinding. Pakistan yesterday said that she would accept, provided India did likewise. The Assembly vote calls for an immediate withdrawal of the troops of both countries behind their respective borders.
Ronald L. Ziegler, President Nixon's press secretary, said today that “we continue to urge immediate compliance with the resolution,” which passed by 104 votes to 11, with 10 abstentions. In a pointed allusion to India, Mr. Ziegler added:
“We think it is imperative that [the resolution] be implemented on all fronts.”
Meanwhile, Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, called for a ceasefire and negotiations between India and Pakistan, and for “immediate and simultaneous” negotiations between the Pakistan Government and its “Bengali opposition under the leadership of Sheik Mujib.”
Sheik Mujibur Rahman was arrested when Pakistan forces set out to crush the autonomy movement in East Pakistan last March. Sheik Mujib has since been reported to be “on trial.”
Mr. Kennedy, who is chairman of the Senate Juduciary subcommittee on refugees, criticized as “counterproductive and dishonest” recent administration moves to blame India for the outbreak of warfare. He cited an “unusual flurry of briefings by nameless ‘highlevel spokesmen’ within both the Department of State and the White House.”
“Despite these briefings and off‐the‐record statements,” Mr. Kennedy said, “our nation's policy toward the eight‐month‐old crisis remains unclear and as contradictory as it has been from the beginning.”
Mr. Kennedy charged that the Administration had consistently sought to “minimize” the gravity of the situation over the last eight months.
He said also that White House spokesmen had recently “deliberately misrepresented” facts in asserting that the Pakistan Government had agreed “in principle” to negotiate with Bangla Desh (Bengal Nation) representatives and that the United States had offered India a “plan” to avoid war and provide negotiations.