Refugee camps flooded

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32635, 17 June 1971, Page 11

Refugee camps flooded

(By

PETER HAZELHURST,

of "Tht Times," through N.Z.P.A.)

CALCUTTA, June 16. Prince Sadruddin Agha Khan, the United Nation* High Commissioner for Refugees, arrived in Calcutta yesterday, made a hurried tour of some of the betterorganised camps nearby, and left for New Delhi again last night. Before his departure, he brushed journalists aside when asked whether he would describe the plight of the refugees as serious. "I am afraid I am not going to say anything," he replied. However, journalists who have toured the refugee camps and the boards areas extensively in recent weeks are convinced that the High Commissioner could not have appreciated fully the enormity of the problem. He had completed a short tour of the Bongaon border area, about B 0 miles northwest of Calcutta, end, in all, he must have seen about 100,000 refugees. Most of the displaced men, women and children are already accommodated In comparatively well-organised camps, and many of the homeless people who recently swarmed into towns and villages in this area have been dispersed to newly-con-structed camps. CHILDREN STARVING But the situation Is far wore* than the Prince could to the north, In the region of West Dinajpur, the number of refugees has nearly surpassed the local population of L 8 million, Administration in outlying districts, such as Krishnagar, has been paralysed by an overwhel ming influx of 400,000 displaced people; children are starving to death as their parents wait in the long queues for food. Nearly half a million people have swarmed into the district of Cooeh Behar, in the

extreme north. Another half million have overcrowded the small villages and towns in southern Assam, and the 1.5 million population of the small eastern state of Tripura has increased by 50 per cent TEAR INFECTIOUS' Asked what he thought President Yahya had meant when he said recently that Pakistan would welcome back “good Pakistanis,” the Prince said he thought that this was a genuine statement made in good faith; but he did not elaborate. Asked why East Pakistanis were still fleeing to India if the situation in East Pakistan was improving, the High Commissioner said that the situation in East Pakistan was very complicated. “Fear is an infectious thing," he added. As the High Commissioner left for New Delhi a Government spokesman said that after a lull of two days, the inflow of refugees had begun Shis would indicate that the Pakistanis have failed to seal the 1300-milc border efIndian trains and American and Russian aircraft mean.

while continue to shuttle between border regions and adjoining states where refugees are to be accommodated in huge communal camps. Two Soviet Union Anl2 transport aircraft yesterday began to take refugees to newly-prepared camps near Rajpur, in Madhya Pradesh, but there was some delay when hundreds of terrified peasants fled on hearing that they were to be transported out af Bengal by air. About 10,000 people can now be dispersed every 24 hours. At this rate it will take six months to move to high land the estimated two million people now living on low-lying land before the monsoon inundates the entire area. Several camps are already flooded. Indian officials are at present trying to move about 40,000 people out of the flooded regions of Siliguri, in the north.