Winter, war and refugee camps: December 1971

Julian Francis

So, what were you doing in December, 1971?” asked a friend the other day. Every year at this time, as well as in the month of March, I remember vividly the birth of Bangladesh in 1971. In charge of OXFAM's refugee relief programme covering 600,000 refugees, I was very worried about the onset of winter as many of the camps in which we were working were in very cold areas of North Bengal as well as Assam, Meghalaya and Tripura. We were having great difficulty in getting supplies of warm clothes and blankets through to the refugee camps because the roads in the border areas had been choked with Indian military supplies in November and early December. Sometimes we used old aircraft and flew supplies from Kolkata to air strips in Cooch Behar and West Dinajpur, but that was quite expensive. At the beginning of December 1971, we were expecting a chartered aircraft from OXFAM-America full of medical supplies worth about US$ 900,000 which were difficult to obtain in India, but at the last moment it was diverted to Madras because of the outbreak of war and we had to clear the supplies through Customs and transport them to Kolkata.

I am sure that there are many Bangladeshis reading this who lived in one of the refugee camps supported by OXFAM. Have they told their stories? It is very important to write all these memories down for the sake of having a true and accurate historical account of the events in 1971.

To help jog the memories of those who may have stayed in these camps, I list below the locations where Oxfam supported refugee relief work in 1971. Eventually, there were, approximately, 120,000 men, 120,000 women and 360,000 children who lived in the camps supported by Oxfam. The locations of some of the refugee camps were:

Agartala
Oxfam supported the work of the 'Relief Coordinating Council' convened by Gandhian Kshirode Sen.

Jalpaiguri
Over 50 volunteers from Gandhi Veddchi, Gujarat and 5 doctors of the Bombay University Medical Team working at Dangi and Sakati camps

Balurghat
Gandhi Smarak Nidhi social workers and 2 locally recruited doctors worked at Hilli block in West Dinajpur; and at Potiram, Kumarganj and two other areas in Raiganj sub-division.

Bongaon

	Archive

Through the Gandhian Abhoy Ashram at Railway Station Camp, Thakurnagar camp, Baghchoro camp, Railgate camp and Chandpara camp.

Also supported the work of Catholic Church, Bongaon under Father Joe D'Souza at 14 different camps.

Barasat
Through Social Welfare Society, Gobardanga, 9 camps: Barasat, Banipur, Puragachi, Maslandapur, Gobardanga, Gaigata, Jaleswar, Hanspur and Kalarsemar.

Also, managed by the Kolkata medical students and 6 Bombay doctors at 4 camps: Amdanga, Jail Compound, Digberia and Sazirhat (New Barrackpore)

While the Government of India supplied the basic rations and shelter, Oxfam supplemented this to a considerable extent. Oxfam supported personnel were involved with medical and sanitation relief work, and supplementary feeding programmes for malnourished children and running make-shift schools and games for the children.

To support all our work we had two warehouses in Kolkata, one for medicines and the other for non-medical items like bleaching powder, clothing, blankets and supplementary foods. We also used the services of a 'buying agent' who was able to arrive at 'value for money' purchases. Our preference was to purchase locally but we accepted donated foreign medicines, clothing and blankets where appropriate and cost effective.

During the Bihar Famine of 1966/7, Oxfam had purchased a high protein food supplement made in Sitapur in Uttar Pradesh in India. In 1971, we contacted the supplier again and purchased the total output of the factory every month. We actually needed more than that and, to our great surprise, we discovered that the Kolkata Municipal Corporation had the equipment to produce the same high protein food. Oxfam then purchased the total output of that facility as well!

Procuring, initially, 120,000 saris, 120,000 lungis and gunjis, 360,000 sets of different size clothes for different age children was a huge challenge and a bit of a nightmare.

Supplying everything to the camps was a big logistical challenge. During the monsoon, the roads were often flooded and at other times were full of military convoys. Sometimes it took trucks over 10 days to reach the Tripura refugee camps. Sometimes we transported urgently needed supplies by chartered ex-World War II Dakota DC-3 and DC-6 planes.

To administer and supervise all the work, I had a most dedicated staff of 36. Many of them had come to India as refugees and therefore were particularly dedicated. We had a fleet of 13 vehicles made up of landrovers, jeeps and a mobile clinic. These were driven by a remarkable group of drivers who regarded their vehicles as though they were bars of gold on wheels, so well did they care for them!

After a few days of war, I remember sitting one evening on the lawn of the New Kenilworth Hotel, trying to relax after a long day's work and get the Pakistan Radio's English News. The propaganda machine said that the Pakistan Air Force had scored a direct hit on the Kolkata telephone exchange and that the Howrah Bridge was floating down the Hooghly! I remember it was on 7th December, 1971 that we learnt with horror that President Nixon had ordered the US 7th Fleet to the Bay of Bengal in an effort to prevent the Indian and Mukti Bahini forces from defeating the Pakistanis. Officially, this super flotilla 'the most powerful force in the world' was said to be going to evacuate a few American citizens from Dhaka, but the intention was clear. I remember how a well-known American doctor, working closely with us in the refugee camps, Dr Jon Rohde, broke down in tears when he heard the reports about the 7th Fleet coming to the Bay of Bengal.

As the fighting intensified, my main concern was not only to keep relief supplies moving to the refugee camps but to ensure the safety of all our staff. The young doctors from the Kolkata and Bombay medical colleges and the Gandhian workers from Orissa and Gujarat had to be withdrawn for their safety.

We were sure in those early days of the war that it would be over very soon and that Bangladesh would be free, but we were very aware of the great relief and rehabilitation needs for the future and so we were already calculating what sort of assistance OXFAM could provide and through which organizations we might be able to work. I see from a telex which I sent in December 1971 that it was estimated by some that Bangladesh would need half a million tons of rice per month and that there was an immediate need of 1,000 trucks, 500 buses and that “most shelter materials such as bamboos had been destroyed by the Pakistani Army.”

We were also able to procure 3 truck-carrying ferries and to assist the repair of many others. I remember that the Bangladesh Inland Waterways authority wanted to name the ferries after Liberation War martyrs but after our experiences of getting to know the flora and fauna of Bangladesh and how they are part of the country's poetry and music, we requested that the vessels be named after flowers. And thus Kamini, Kosturi and Korobi were so named and they continue to ply across the river at Goalondo to this day, even 40 years later.

As soon as Bangladesh was free and the refugees started streaming back home, we had to close down our work in an orderly way. One day in early February 1972, I was called out of the OXFAM office and there in the garden were about 300 people. I was worried that they had come with some grievance, but soon the reason for their visit was clear. From some waste wool and some wire these people, from a camp called Digberia, had fashioned some 'woolen flowers'. These were presented to me in a roughly made bamboo vase as a token of their thanks to OXFAM. They had come to say goodbye. It was such a moving moment.

The writer, who has had an association with Bangladesh since the Liberation War, is currently working as an adviser to a number of development and disability organizations in Bangladesh. He was awarded the 'Friends of Liberation War Honour' in March 2012 by the Government of Bangladesh.