Editorial
Honouring our foreign friends in 1971
Though belated, it is highly welcome
THE move by the government to officially honour individuals abroad who supported the cause of our freedom during the War of Liberation in 1971 has been a long time coming. Truth be told, it should have been for the authorities in independent Bangladesh to accord formal honour to these friends in the time of our greatest need soon after the war drew to a close and as we set about rebuilding the country. Even so, that such a move has now been taken by the government is commendable and is surely reflective of the fact that for all our travails in these nearly four decades since winning the war, we have not forgotten those whose support overseas gave our cause a huge moral and political boost.
History is replete with instances of individuals coming to the aid of people struggling to free themselves of foreign domination. During the American war of independence in 1776, brave Frenchmen identified themselves with the cause of a people who wished to be free of British rule. In the Second World War, it was a grateful France that honoured the Allied forces liberating it from Nazi occupation. In our particular instance, there were friends aplenty we found around the world loudly raising their voices against the genocide launched by the Pakistan occupation army. Soviet President Nikolai Podgorny denounced the atrocities in a message to General Yahya Khan. In the United States, Senator Edward Kennedy was vociferous in his support for Bangladesh and went visiting the refugee camps in India despite the tilt toward Pakistan the Nixon administration had taken. Peter Shore in Britain did for us a commendable job of arousing public support and bringing to light the plight of our nation. In India, beginning with Mrs. Indira Gandhi, whole sections of society came forward in defence of our cause. The ageing French intellectual Andre Malraux offered to take our side in the war in the interest of morality.
And we cannot, of course, forget the invaluable contributions made by artistes and journalists, apart from others, to our cause in 1971. George Harrison, Bob Dylan and Joan Baez, will forever be the recipient of national gratitude for popularising our struggle through a concert at New York's Madison Square Garden in August 1971. How much we remember Ravi Shankar. Newsmen like Simon Dring, Anthony Mascarhenas and Mark Tully lifted the lid on the truth of Pakistan's atrocities in occupied Bangladesh. Even Ahmed Salim, the young Pakistani poet, dared to raise his voice within his country against the genocide.
These are men and women we must honour. Their support and their encouragement injected dynamism and energy into our battle to free our land of foreign occupation. Let the government move swiftly into making a formal acknowledgement of their contributions and let it all be made part of the history curriculum in our schools.
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