Speech #920122068

Mr. President. earlier today I released excerpts from a report I am filing with the Senate on the crisis in South Asia. The report consists of findings and recommendations based on my visit to India in August and public hearings before the Judiciary Subcommittee on Refugees. which I serve as chairman. The report documents in considerable detail the deteriorating situation in South Asia. especially as it concerns the people of the area. I shall not burden the record with lengthy comment at this timebut I do want to underscore the urgent need that the Congress--and the administrationact immediately to provide a reasonable contribution to the international relief effort currently underway. The distressing condition among the growing number of Bengali refugees in India is best symbolized in the fact that the mortality rate is at least five times greater than among other migrant populations in India. The number of children dying from malnutrition is by far the largest category. No accurate count is available. But the descriptive terms used by experts to describe the situation from the earliest days of the refugee influx. has escalated from hundreds. to thousands. to 1.500 per day. to 4.300 per day. Unless emergency measures are taken now. up to 200.000 young children will have died by the end of 1971. Little information is available about the condition of the people remaining in East Bengal. But the record is clear that severe food shortages and the threat of famine continues in many areas. In fact. recent field reports to the subcommittee on refugees indicate growing edema rates among new refugees in India coming out of the northern districts of East Bengal. The Congress. no more than the administration. can shirk its responsibility to act. It is imperative we do so at an early datenot only because of urgent human need. but to lend credibility to our national commitment before the aid consortium in Paris last week. and to our traditional leadership in humanitarian affairs.