What is your assessment of the situation in the Indian subcontinent? A. Let me summarize our position: As a result of civil strife in East Pakistan there has been a large exodus of refugees to India. This has created major problems for India in terms of communal tensions. economic dislocations and human suffering. The U.S. has great sympathy for the problems this has caused. Our policy has had four aspects: (1) Refugee aid. The U.S. has contributed more than the rest of the world combineda total of $90 millionto alleviate the conditions of the refugees in India. (2) Famine relief in East Pakistan to prevent the outflow of more refugees. The U.S. has earmarked $250 million for this purpose. This program is now jeopardized by the military operations launched from India territory. (3) Political progress. We have done our best to use our influence to promote a political solution. With our encouragement President Yahya has taken the following steps: (a) Replaced the military governor of East Pakistan by a civilian. (b) Offered an amnesty to refugees. (c) Invited UN teams to supervise refugee repatriation and food distribution. (4) Deescalate tensions. We have used our influence to reduce the danger of conflict: (a) We proposed a mutual pullback from the borders. This was accepted by Pakistan and rejected by India. (b) We proposed a unilateral withdrawal to Pakistan as a first step.
Keywords matched
Refugee refugee refugees