Soviet Review

THE main cause of the present military conflict on the Indian subcontinent were the actions of the Pakistani Military Authorities who let loose a bloody terror in the country's eastern wing", says A. Chistyakov in an article in the Red Star.
The sincere friends of the peoples of the Indian subcontinent could not remain indifferent to such dangerous developments, says the article. As early as April of this year, the President of the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet, Nikolai Podgorny, in a message to the President of Pakistan, called for "the adoption of the most urgent measures to stop the bloodshed and repressions against the population in East Pakistan and for turning to methods of a peaceful political settlement."
Last September, speaking at a luncheon in honour of Mrs. Gandhi, the Soviet Prime Minister, Alexei Kosygin, stated: "The peace-loving public of all countries, all friends of India and Pakistan expect from the Pakistani authorities an early political settlement in East Pakistan which would take into account the legitimate interests of its population, would safeguard its normal development and eliminate the threat of further aggravation of Pakistani-Indian relations." That was and remains the stand of the Soviet Union—a sincere friend of the peoples of the Indian subcontinent interested in preserving peace so vital for their economic and social development.
An altogether different attitude to the dangerous developments on the Indian subcontinent, the article says, could be seen in the capitals of certain other states. In fact, neither Washington nor London made any official statement about the events in the Indian subcontinent. Moreover, some press organs there indulged in direct incitement of India and Pakistan to start military operations and all this time the Pentagon continued its arms deliveries to Pakistan. Moreover, the US-controlled International Development and Reconstruction Bank and the International Consortium, where the first fiddle is played also by the US, drastically cut their aid to India. It has now been learned that the United States has stopped military and economic aid to India altogether.
The Peking leadership, the author points out, found itself in the same camp with the US imperialists. Its stand in regard to the developments on the Indian subcontinent is even more sinister. As is known, the Maoists had earlier taken great pains to propagate their pseudo-revolutionary slogans about "surrounding the city by the village", about "power coming through the barrel of a gun", etc., in East Pakistan. Through their left-extremist agents they sought to control the democratic movement in East Pakistan. However, when a mass movement for elementary civic rights and liberties got underway in East Pakistan, the Peking instigators of the so-called "people's war" started making overtures to the Military Administration. Far from condemning the bloody repression in East Pakistan, they supported such actions and gave military aid to the Pakistani authorities.
At present, at the time of armed conflict between India 'and Pakistan, Peking strives to fan up the flames of war still further. In contradiction to well-known facts, it accuses India of "aggression" and states its full support for Pakistan. While discussing the developments on the Indian subcontinent in the Security Council and at the United Nations General Assembly Mao Tse-tung's and US delegates spoke in unison. The tragic events that are taking place these days on the Indian subcontinent, says Chistyakov, make it easy to distinguish between the true friends and the real enemies of the peoples of the subcontinent, between those who wish peace and prosperity for them and those who seek to fan up the conflict to aggravate it. Speaking at the 6th Congress of the Polish United Workers Party, the General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, Leonid Brezhnev, stressed: "The Soviet Union is resolutely in favour of peaceful political settlement of the problems which have arisen there, taking into account the legitimate rights of the peoples, without any interference by external forces, and for the creation of conditions conducive to a durable and just peace in that region."
Only such a position as taken by the Soviet Union, and supported by a great number of peace-loving states, will be in the real interests of the peoples of the Indian subcontinent, Chistyakov says in conclusion.
(December 13, 1971)