From: The Rt. Hon. Lord Ennals
HOUSE
OF
LORDS
3rd February, 1989
Mr. Malcolm Rogers
British Refugee Council,
Bondway House,
3/9 Bondway,
London SW3 IEJ
Dear Malcolm,
Is seems
I am enclosing a copy of the Report published by International Alert on the problems of the Stranded Pakistanis in Bangladesh (Biharis). The Working Party established by the Conference at in the House of Lords on Wednesday, February 1st and brought themselves up-to-date with the current situation concerning the resettlement of the Stranded Pakistanis. that the Pakistan Government have orally confirmed that they abide by the Agreement reached with the Moslem World League, so warmly welcomed by the Resolution on page 4 of the Report but (a) no published statement has been made setting out the programme for the movement of Biharis and (b) the Pakistan Government has not yet appointed its representatives to the Trust established by that Agreement. Thus, the Stranded Pakistanie are greatly concerned that no progress is being made.
The Meeting on Wednesday decided that a delegation should be sent to Islamabad to meet Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and I am writing to ask whether your organisation would be prepared to be associated with this delegation in order that it may be seen to represent a broad spectrum of concerned opinion.
The idea would be to send a delegation in March or April at a time convenient to the Frime Minister and to seek to persuade her and the Government that there should be no further delay in bringing into effect the historic Agreement reached last year. The basis of the delegation will be Mr. Gurur Hoda, the Secretary of International Alert's Working Party, and myself.
3.m
In view of the interest which the Asian Committee of BRC has shown, wondering if you feel it would be possible for the delegation to include the support of BRO. We have a Meeting which could confirm this on March 14th. Do you also think it possible that the ERC could make some modest contribution toward the coete?
Yours sincerely,
Justevens
Lord Ennals
(This letter was dictated by Lord Ennals prior to his departure for India on February 3rd)