Internationalist

The story of India and Pakistan in the last twelve months is being described by international relief organizations as the greatest disaster in world history. A spokesman for the Consortium of Charities commented: “It is impossible to estimate the total devastation of the area. It is worse than anything on record and it’s not over yet. Famine has already set in. Two U. S. doctors just back from E. Pakistan have estimated that 25 million People may die in the coming famine.”

Since October last year one catastrophe after another has overtaken a people totally unable to defend themselves against an unprecedented sequence of man-made and natural disasters.

DIARY OF DISASTER

October 1970. Cyclone roars into the Ganga delta. 250,000 people die. Thousands of homes destroyed and cattle drowned. Crops almost totally wiped out.

March 25th. W. Pakistan troops flown into East Pakistan. An unknown number dies in civilian massacre. Villages and crops burned. Widespread rape and atrocities reported. Mass exodus of people from East Pakistan.

March-September 1971. Eight and a half million refugees cross border into India. Number may rise to 15 million by end of year. Malnutrition and cholera set in. Cholera spread by dead bodies of the victims being thrown into the flood waters.

July. Monsoon season begins.

September. Monsoon floods ‘some of worst on memory.’ 1,000,000 people lose homes in neighbouring Bihar. Refugees relief effort disrupted. Famine and exposure descend on the area. 1,000,000 children suffering severe malnutrition.

October-November. Winter Begins. Indian Government fears many will freeze to death - calls for 3 million blankets. Indo-Pakistan correspondent of “The Times” reports “tragedy is of such dimension that little or nothing can be done.”

All the indications are that the disaster has not yet reached its peak and the extent of the devastation in East Pakistan is still largely unknown In India, the economic strain of the refugee effort is beginning to tell. Many pro- Bangladesh politicians are already claiming that war with Pakistan would be cheaper than supporting the refugees. Meanwhile, India faces its own internal problems. 800 miles to the south of the disaster area, in the state of Andhra Pradesh, 23 million Indians are threatened by drought or famine. In the Northern states of N. Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Orissa, and West Bengal, thousands of square miles are under water and flood damage already stands at an estimated £220 million.

Oxfam Overseas Aid Director, Ken Bennet, commented “The floods in India alone would normally have resulted in a massive disaster relief effort from the rest of the world. But at the moment the flooding is over shadowed by the refugee problem. Aid from East Pakistan itself is still running at a pitiful level. Only $4 million has so far been given in response to UN Secretary General U Thant’s appeal for $28 million.