COMMENTS:
"Stop helping Yahya. Stop helping kill my innocent people. You have practically forced my people into the lap of the extremists. What is our crime? You must put pressure on Yahya to Stop. You have minimized my population, one million of them are dead. Another nine million have been forced to flee to India and Burma, where they are not wanted. Your have done this with your arms, your money, your food, your transport, your medicines – all of which have been used by Yahya's troops against us. I don't like to speak this way to a representative of my old friend, but you asked me what we expect from the great democratic United States. I hope you don't min if I speak frankly. I have studied your policy. You are not weak. You can tell Yahya 'don't use our arms.' Only you can do that."
--- Khandakar Moshtaque Ahmed, foreign minister, Bangladesh government-in-exile, to U.S. diplomat George Griffin in India in 1971.
"I told Yahya that in making mention of this I wanted him fully to understand that the U.S. government had taken no initiative whatsoever in gathering this information nor was the U.S. government seeking to play a mediatory role between the government of Pakistan and the outlawed Awami League. Conversely, I stated that the U.S. government had consistently maintained a diplomatic stance of noninvolvement and had in no way sought out or solicited contacts with the 'Bangladesh Government' representatives… However, I noted Yahya's many conversations with me during which he emphasized his hope for a return to normalcy and his additional hope that with such a climate he could turn power back to the people. Since the U.S. government was now privy to this information, I thought that in the interests of the much-sought-for peace, I should bring it to his attention."
---- Joseph Farland, U.S. ambassador to Pakistan in 1971.
"I do not want to break Pakistan. But we Bengalis must have autonomy so that we are not treated like a colony of the western wing."
--- Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, 1971.
"Threaten to move forces or move them, Henry, that's what they must do now. Now, government, we're playing our role and that will restrain India….".
--- President Richard Nixon to National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger, 1971.
Myths and Facts - Bangladesh Liberation War
by B Z Khasru
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