Le Monde (Weekly English Edition)

DACCA.-"They should kill all the Bengalis. They're traitors who wanted to secede," exclaimed a Pakistani girl who seemed normal in every respect. Most West Pakistanis feel the same way about the government's ruthless efforts, since March 25, to suppress the rebellion in Bengal.

"They (the Pakistani soldiers) are gunning us down like dogs," a trembling Bengali muttered after glancing around to make sure no one was listening. "People are picked up off the streets as soon as it grows dark. The army needs plasma for blood transfusions, it takes massive doses of their blood and abandons them half-dead in the street."

A witness claimed that forty people were burned alive with a flame-thrower in reprisal for the death of a soldier. Bengali officials are being arrested in their homes; some are freed, but others are never seen again. The army, it Is said, does not like to take prisoners. Dacca, once a teeming, lively capital, is a ghost city. Half the population has fled. There are Pakistani flags flying, but not as many as the Bangla Desh flags seen here last March .

Well before the midnight curfew the streets of Dacca are empty. About one in every six shops is open, but shopkeepers pull down their shutters at dusk. They are afraid of being looted by "Yahya's hordes."

Order has been restored in Bengal, but East Pakistan is an occupied land where an atmosphere of terror reigns More havoc was wrought by the dreadful civil war than by the cyclone that ravaged the delta area last autumn. The most conservative estimates place the number of dead at 250,000,

All along the roads are whole areas, hamlets and farms, which have been razed. What were once solidly built houses have been reduced to piles of charred beams, and broken pots-the sad traces of so many My Lais and Oradours .

Military spokesmen interviewed by this reporter insisted that the fascists were on the other side. As they see it, "antisocial elements" and "infiltrators from India," "miscreants" as they call them, upset the tranquillity of a "peace-loving people."

Reporters being escorted around the countryside were repeatedly told that the Pakistan Army for the most part fired in the air, fighting back only in self-defense. "We didn't intend to kill anybody," was the bland comment of a brigadier-general in charge of civilian affairs. But he added: "When an army is carrying out an operation, it uses its own methods."

Accompanying civilian and army officials oozed oriental charm in an effort to convince reporters that the army was lily-white and its intervention justified. Most of the destruction, they explained, was the result of racial clashes. There is no question that Biharis and Bengalis tangled especially in Khulna and Chittagong. A frightful massacre occurred at Awami League headquarters in the latter city.

Nevertheless the officials mentioned only crimes committed by Bengalis in the period after the army unleashed its repressive measures in Dacca on March 25. Twenty thousand people are reported to have died at the hands of soldiers there.

There is no doubt that the sturdy Pathan, Baluchi and Punjabi soldiers are not merely good fighters but convinced they are fighting for a just political and religious cause. They see their mission as a sort of crusade to defend the unity of the most populous Moslem state in the world. The local commanders radiate self- confidence. To them Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's Awami League is controlled by India and dominated by Hindus. Hindus and Indians are synonymous in their eyes.

Before the army moved in, about 10 million Hindus were living in East Bengal. They were Bengalis and backed Sheikh Mujibur's nationalist campaign. Today, however, "Crush India" is the only slogan to be heard in the province. A young man related how the army massacred all the Hindu inhabitants of his village. One of the army's primary targets in Dacca was a small group of Hindu homes in the center of the racetrack. Hindu butchers in the old part of the city were decapitated with their own meat cleavers in their stalls.

"Militarily, we have the upper hand," one Pakistani official said confidently. "All we have to do now is gain economic and political control ."

Life in East Bengal is indeed gradually returning to "normal." The fact that most businesses are headed by West Pakistanis should make it easier to get industry moving again. Nevertheless only a few factories have reopened thus far.

But the question remains whether the army's action has really ensured political peace in Bengal for any length of time, as some of its leaders claim. All the city councils have been dissolved, and "peace committees" composed of Biharis, members of the Muslim League, representatives of the Bihari community and a few social workers set up in their place. Three Muslim League "peace committee" members were assassinated recently by "miscreants."

Several foreign governments have been urging President Yahya Khan to seek a political solution in Bengal. Two weeks ago he announced in Karachi that he was ready to grant an amnesty to "all those who were deceived ." "There can be no political solution without those who were not involved in treason," says Nurul Amin, a former chief minister of East Pakistan and leader of the Pakistan Democratic Party. He is one of the only two deputies out of 162-who does not belong to the Awami League. A wily and experienced politician, Mr. Amin has been approached by army authorities, but insisted he was not interested in becoming prime minister and does not approve of all the army has done.

"But there was no other alternative," he added. "Now the Bengalis must be given a feeling of security. They must get used to living with the army, which had never been among the people before."

Only about a dozen Awami League leaders have come out in favour of the central government thus far. "The army will be here for a long time yet," a spokesman declared. "There's no other solution."