PUTT

By VICTOR MAYEVSKY

Reactionary bourgeois and Peking
Propaganda tries to present the stormy
events on the Indian subcontinent only
as a military conflict between two
states, India and Pakistan. But what
took place on the subcontinent actu-
ally constitutes one of the biggest bat-
tles, in the past decades, of the na-
tional-liberation movement of 75 mil-
lion-strong people of East Bengal sup-
ported by India and the other anti-
imperialist forces against the forces of
Oppression and terror upheld by Ame-
rican imperialism and the Peking
leadership working together with it.

The victory of the anti-imperialist
liberation forces of Bangla Desh, the
Bengal Nation, has major importance
for consolidating the freedom and in-
dependence of the peoples of the Asian
continent.

From the very first years of Pakis-
tan’s existence, the military dictator-
ship established close bonds with
American imperialism within the
CENTO and SEATO- military blocs
knocked together by Dulles, and pur-
sued a policy of discrimination in re-
lation to. East Pakistan.

The culminating point of this policy
was the unprecedented terror launched
against the popular masses in East
Pakistan who fought for their rights
and expressed their will at the 1970
elections. The United States ruling cir-

' cles, guilty of the destruction of mil-

lions of people in Indochina, shut their
eyes to the tragedy of the people of
East Bengal. And this was a terrible
tragedy, an idea of which can be had
from three figures: about one million
inhabitants were killed (latest reports
place the number of killed at three
million—Ed.), 30 million found: them-
selves without shelter, 10 million were
forced to flee to the territory of India.

What position did the Peking lead-
ers take in regard to this problem? The
course of the Chinese leadership has
long been directed towards turning
Pakistan into an instrument of Pek-
ing’s great-power, chauvinist policy in
Asia, and pushing Pakistan into an
armed conflict with India. In so doing
the Maoists were least of all worried
over the interests of the Pakistani peo-
ple. The Peking leadership actually
played a doubly treacherous game.

In East Pakistan the Chinese agents
launched instigating and provocative

= =

Whose side are

_ RECORD OF PEKING LEA

“game.”

Keeping the record straight

Those who egged on the military dictator of Pakistan
Yahya Khan, who is now under house arrest by his own
government and who may be indicted as a war criminal,
to carry out the genocidal suppression of the people of
what is now the independent state of Bangla Desh, keep
muddying the waters, still turning facts upside down and
accusing India of aggression and the Soviet Union of being
an abettor to that “aggression.” It is a tragedy and a
crime that the Maoist leaders of China (and their Cana-
dian apologists) are foremost in that unclean propaganda

In the article we reprint on these pages, Victor Mayevsky,
a political commentator of the Soviet Communist paper
Pravda, sets down the history of the developments in the
Indian subcontinent, the Soviet principled attitude to them
— and the record of the Peking leaders.

activities. A booklet was circulated
there entitled, “To Bengali Revolu-
tionaries,” which contained ‘excerpts
from the works of Mao and Lin Piao,”
calls for struggle against the ‘‘Punjabi
(i.e. West Pakistani) landowners,” etc.
The pro-Chinese elements received
considerable financial assistance and
were actually the instrument of Chi-
na’s interference in the affairs of East
Pakistan.

At the same time the Maoist top
leadership strengthened ties with the
ruling circles of West Pakistan and
rendered them military-economic and
political support for dealing blows at
India. Construction by China of stra-
tegic roads in the direction.of Kash-
mir proceeded at a rapid pace, and in
the border area, according to foreign
press reports, work was conducted by

mixed _ Chinese-Pakistani
teams.
Sided With Oppressors
Describing the events on the Indian
subcontinent the Berliner Zeitung just-
ly writes: “Guided by the interests of
the policy of strength the Chinese lead-
ers took the side of the West Pakistani
military regime which tried to drown
in blood the democratically expressed
striving of the people in East Pakistan
for broad political and economic auto-
nomy, progressive social transforma-
tions and for withdrawal from the
CENTO and SEATO imperialist pacts.
They came out against the 75 million-
strong people of Bangla Desh and
against India.”
What, on this background, is the
worth of the Maoists’ clumsy attempts
to justify their traitorous actions in

building

« 4,
ms

he turned everything upside down.

relation to the Pakistani people ™
slander the policy of the Soviet Unid
India and other countries, which Sf
port. the anti-imperialist nation#
liberation movement?

Attention is drawn to the fact
one of the chief instigators of the al \
Indian and anti-Soviet campaign |
none other than Chou En-lai, Premile.
of the State Council of the People”
Republic of China. In a recent speé

‘|
n
|
.

premier endeavoured to justify @
campaign of terror waged by the ™
tary dictatorship against the people™
East Bengal. He accused India of cots
ducting an “aggressive war,’ 5S
charged “socio-imperialism,” invenlt 4

‘by the Maoists, with trying ‘to est@, \

lish control over India and fight
domination over the South Asian SU). \
continent and the Indian Ocean.”
Recall ‘Biafra’ Stand =. |
The efforts of the Peking leaders)
pose as champions of “state soverele \
ty and territorial integrity,” as fight
against ‘splitting and  subvelsl
action” really look ridiculous. Evé
one recalls, for instance, the St#
adopted by Peking when the Nigel
secessionist, Ojukwu, leaning on ®
assistance of the U.S. and West Eult
ean monopolists, tried to split.
Nigeria and, going against the will@™
the majority of peoples inhabiting © |
eastern provinces, to set up a PUPE
state, “Biafra”. The splitters recelv
the moral and material support of PE
ing, which was not concerned OW}
either the sovereignty or territorial?
tegrity of Nigeria. _
The millions of people of East Fa
istan, who for a long time fought By
their rights and were subjected |
cruel suppression, are called ‘“‘a hand
of national scum” by the Peking PF