1971-05-07
By Benjamin Welles
Page: 0
WASHINGTON.-The Senate Foreign Relations Committee called unanimously today for an immediate suspension of American military aid and arms sales to Pakistan until the civic conflict there is resolved and the distribution of relief supplies is resumed.
By a voice vote the committee approved a resolution sponsored by Senators Clifford P. Case, Republican of New Jersey; Waiter F. Mondale, Democrat of Minnesota, and 14 other Senators. In so doing it overrode State Department objections that the language of the resolution was too imprecise to be applicable.
The resolution, which now goes to the Senate, has no force in law. However, if approved, it would reflect growing concern in Congress over the protracted fighting in East Pakistan during which, the State Department has conceded, United States arms have been used. A similar resolution will be introduced soon in the House of Representatives.
Defense Department sources said that the effect of the Senate panel's action would be mainly symbolic. There have been no deliveries ~ United States arms or ammunition to Pakistan since March 25, when the fighting began, they said.
From 1954 until 1966, other sources said, the United States delivered $1-billion in arms to Pakistan for defense against Communist aggression, primarily within the context of the Central Treaty Organization. However, they said, the original United States-Pakistani agreements permitted use of these arms for "Internal security." Therefore, they said, the United States has virtually no control over Pakistan's current use of United States arms,
In 1966, at the time of the Pakistani-Indian war, the United States embargoed all arms grants and sales to Pakistan. In April, 1937, the embargo was eased, officials said, to permit commercial sales of what were termed "nonlethal-end Items" to keep United States- supplied equipment functioning. These items were described repeatedly by officials here as transport and communications equipment.
However, on April 13, in response to newsmen's questions, officials conceded that the sales had been averaging $10-million yearly and that, of this, $2.6- million yearly in ammunition had been sold to Pakistan as a "nonlethal-end item."
"Ammunition is lethal," one official explained today, "but at the Pentagon it is not considered an 'end item'."
Officials insisted that ail shipments had been cut off with the outbreak of fighting in East Pakistan on March 26. They said also that Pakistan's financial difficulties had prevented her from buying 300 armored personnel carriers and up to 24 bombers and jet fighters authorized by President Nixon last autumn as a "once only" exception to the 1966 embargo.
On March 26 the Pakistani Government began to use force against a movement for political autonomy among the overwhelmingly Bengali people of East Pakistan. With continued strife in the area, the Government has barred any international humanitarian relief effort despite repeated urging by the United States, Britain and other governments. it has been reported that Secretary of State William P. Rogers and the British Foreign Secretary, Sir Alec Douglas Home, sent an urgent plea to Secretary General Thant of the United Nations asking him to continue his attempts to intercede with the Pakistan regime headed by President Agha Mohammad Yahya Khan.
Agha Hilaly, Pakistan Ambassador here, sent a protest to nine Senators, including Senators Mondale and Case, who asked Mr. Rogers Tuesday for greater United States efforts to get a relief program started.
Mr. Hilaly described the statement of the Senators-which urged no further United States foreign-exchange aid to Pakistan until such a relief program was begun-as "tantamount to the use of threats" and "interference" in Pakistan's internal affairs.
Meanwhile, it was reported that M. M. Ahmed, an economics adviser to President Yahya would arrive here Monday to seek a fresh "rehabilitation and reconstruction" aid package for Pakistan, whose economy has been severely strained by the fighting.