Mr. President. this morning. as the Senates subcommittee to investigate Problems connected with refugees and escapees begins a new series of hearings on the crisis in Pakistan. I rise to emphasize the urgency of the plight of the Bengali people. The desperate needs of the Bengali refugees are so severe as to defy description. The distinguished senior Senator from Massachusetts has already described the misery and cruelty that has been inflicted upon a helpless population. The tragedy of that suffering people cries out for attention and relief. Some 8 million men. women. and children have been uprooted from their homes in East Pakistan.-and driven to seek shelter in refugee camps in India. Some 200.000 Pakistanis have been killed by their own army. And millions of reople continue to live in terror. dreading their fellow countrymen and their brutal methods of repression. Since last March. when the Pakistani Army unleashed its fury upon the Bengalis. of East Pakistan. the world has gradually become the horrified witness to one of the worst examples of genocide CXVII- 2145Part 26 in human history. Officially and publicly. the United States has remained all but silent. limiting its comments to expressions of sympathy for the refugees and practicing tokenism even at the highest levels of government. Anything but official silence concerning the genocide is said by the administration to be "counterproductive."But it is our official policy which is "counterproductive." It has not produced peace. it has not produced even a semblance of justice. it has not produced a realistic promise of heading off the impending starvation. All that it has produced is cruelty. bloodshed and horror.
Keywords matched
refugee refugees