Strand One Profiles and Interviews - Mr. Michael Barnes

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Mr. Michael Barnes

Interview date: 23 _ Feb _ 06

Interviewed by: Jamil Iqbal and Ansar Ahmed Ullah

Mr.Michael Barnes was a Labour MP (1966-1974) for Brentford and Chiswick in West London. He went to Bangladesh during the Pakistani crackdown. During the war the Pakistani cricket team was due to come to England for a tour and he thought this was most inappropriate. He tabled a motion in the House of Commons saying words to the effect that the Pakistani team should not come. In the parliament he gave a clear picture of the genocide that was happening in Bangladesh.

Mr. Michael Barnes
My name is Michael Barnes. I was a Labour MP (1966-1974) for Brentford and Chiswick in West London. I went to Bangladesh on three occasions in 1971, 1972 and 1973. In 1971 of course was during the Pakistani crackdown. My involvement in this, the way that it started was that I have of course, a number of Bengali friends and constituents in my constituency but the thing that I thought was really most inappropriate was after the crackdown by the end of March 1971 and all the reports coming through with killings, rape and all the rest of it. The Pakistani cricket team was due to come to England for a tour and I thought this most inappropriate. They should not come at this time. So I tabled a motion in the House of Commons saying words to the effect that the Pakistani Team should not come. I remember being summoned by the Pakistani High Commissioner, that he was very concerned

Mr Michael Barnes in Dhaka, Bangladesh, 1972

Various Members of Parliaments went to West Bengal during April. The first to go was Bruce Douglas-Mann, if I remember right. I can’t remember when John Stonehouse went, he may have gone later. Bruce Douglas-Mann certainly went in April 1971. Now I was connected with War on Want, the overseas aid charity. I knew the chairman, Donald Chesworth, very well and he decided to organise a trip by War on Want. Now War on Want is a charity so it had to be careful that it did not get involved in politics. So although in one sense the purpose of our visit was humanitarian and we also visited some of the areas that have been affected by the cyclone in previous autumn with view to aid. We went to places like Swandip in Chittagong. This visit took place in May 1971, four of us went on it, Donald Chesworth, Chairman of War on Want, later he was the Warden of Toynbee Hall, Bruce Kent, chairman of CND, and although at that time he was a Roman Catholic priest, John Horgan, an Irish Senator who was also a journalist and worked for the Irish Times. First of all we went to India. We went to Bombay and then we went to Delhi. In Delhi we had various briefings because the Indian government at that time was extremely concerned of what was happening because literally millions of refugees were trying to cross the border into West Bengal and I think (into) Tripura as well. So we had a meeting with the Indian Foreign Minister, Mr Jaswant Singh at that time in Delhi. Then we went on to Calcutta (Kolkata) and then again a briefing from the British Deputy High Commissioner, Mr Stephen Miles, who was very helpful and as a diplomat he was very supportive of the Bangladesh movement. We also met members of the Bangladesh Government in exile—Mr Tajuddin Ahmed and others and we met them in the Sunderbans. I think we met them in East Bengal or Bangladesh territory, just over the border. We also met at that time Barrister Amirul Islam. He went to become the Junior Minister in Mujib’s Government. He was very active in Calcutta at that time. A lot was going on at that time. The Mukti Bahinis (freedom fighters) were trained; arrangements were being made to provide them with weapons. Various people were organising this in Calcutta and West Bengal. We visited a very big refugee camp by the Dum Dum airport in Calcutta .We then went to Northern West Bengal up to Raiganj because a huge number of refugee were coming through that area. From Raiganj we went to Agartala. We met General Osmani (then he was a Colonel) with his Mukti Bahini in Agartala. We also met M.R. Siddique, who later went to become Commerce Minister in Mujib’s Government. He was a big businessman.

Michael Barnes meeting Col Osmani 1972

When the delegation came back to the UK, what we were going to do was to draw the attention of the British people and particularly the government and parliament. There are various debates which took place in parliament. One of the debates was on 14th of May 1971 (session 1970-71, volume 817 p 753). There was another debate on the 9th of June 1971 (session 1970-710, Volume 818 column no 1066). I gave a clear picture of what was going on. In the parliament this is what I quoted “In New Delhi on the 21st of May, 1971 the Indian government had a clear picture of the situation, 3.3 million refugees from East Pakistan. They were crossing the border at 1,00,000 a day to West Bengal. The vast majority were in West Bengal. In Tripura there were 6,00,000 and 3,00,000 in Assam and Meghaleya and few hundred thousands in Bihar”. By the end of the war I guess there were nearly 10 million refugees in India.

There are few Bengalis who ought to be remembered by the young Bangladeshis. One is M.M. Talukder, he used to publish a English and a Bengali paper. The Bengali paper was named “Jagaran”. He did a great deal at that time. The other person is Tasadduq Ahmed, the owner of Ganges Restaurant in Soho. Before we went on this War on Want visit in 1971, we had a meeting in his restaurant with Tasadduq. John Pilger, the journalist, was also there.

There was a group of us in the parliament who during the crackdown could see that there was no diplomatic solution to this. The only possible solution, the lasting solution was, for there to be a independent Bangladesh. The question was how do you get that? I think the Indian government at that time, Mrs Ghandi, had a very clear idea and the only way to solve this problem was to kick the Pakistani Army out. But India could not invade in May 1971, June 1971 or July 1971. The Indian government knew and those of us in the British Parliament knew that India had to prepare public opinion or world opinion because there would have been a great “hoo haa”. So there was a need to prepare world opinion. So those of us who were involved in this issue, in the House of Commons, we tried to do that. We would keep asking questions and I remember tabling a question myself to the foreign secretary and I said “Would the foreign secretary not agree, the only possible solution is for India to invade”. Now the foreign secretary couldn’t say ‘yes’ but he didn’t say “no”. Reginald Prentice, who was a Labour Minister and knew a lot about the Indian Sub-continent, said the same thing and gradually the Indian opinion and the world opinion got ground. The Indian government handled this really skilfully because they waited and when they were confident that world opinion would accept this and then their army launched the invasion. We of the Labour Party did not only held this view, it was a cross party thing and there were certainly some from the Conservatives who were very supportive of the Bangladesh issue.

Excerpts from parliamentary debate
“Despite our efforts and those of other powers, as India and Pakistan have been driven to the calamity of war; our immediate concern must now be to try to stop the fighting, and to contribute to a sane and civilized solution, and take account of the wishes of people affected. When we heard the first reports of attacks and fighting on the border of India and West Pakistan on third December, it started on 3rd December 1971, my right honourable friend and prime minister appealed to President Yahya Khan and Mrs Gandhi to do all within their part to prevent the spread of the conflict. We are also in touch with other governments”.

British government didn’t want a war between India and Pakistan, and then when the war started, they were talking about ceasing hostility and so on. In fact, privately I think, they had came to terms (with it), the British Government, probably by October or so; although they couldn’t say so, but they saw the only out come of the war and they were very careful not to criticise India, when it happened they just talked to Pakistan of ceasing hostility and getting the best solution for the people concerned and so on. This was because there were atrocities been carried out by the Pakistan army.

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, when he was released, by the Pakistanis, he came to London on his way to Bangladesh, wrong direction, never mind, but he came to London first of all; and stayed in Claridges hotel.

Sheikh Mujibur then went back to Bangladesh became Prime Minister. David Frost interviewed Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in Dhaka, in an open vehicle, it may be a bicycle rickshaw, they were travelling around Dhaka and talking to each other.

I met him (Sheikh Mujibur Rahman) in February 1972. I went with another member of the parliament. My company was a senior Conservative Member, name H. Frasier. Two of us went on a sort of courtesy visit. My colleague was the chairman of the British-Bangladesh Parliamentary Group. I was the Vice Chairman, so we went to Bangladesh and we met Sheikh Mujibur then. And at that time it was very difficult to travel around Bangladesh, so many bridges were down, and travel was very difficult. So we just made one visit out of Dhaka, we flew to Dinajpur; and were able to see something of what was happening of there in Dinajpur. We saw some of the destruction.

It was my first visit to the Bangladesh proper, after independence, although I think that we had been over the border in May 1971, in the Sunderbans and in Agartala; where General Osmani (then Colonel) was operating. So we met Sheikh Mujib at that time, and Gen. Osmani and the president Abu Sayeed Chowdhury, who was here during the crack down.

Q: Any memory of Sheikh Mujib?
Yes, he had a very great charisma, a very impressive gentleman. He spoke quite slowly and quite softly, and he would speak about his love for the people of Bangladesh, and also their love for him. He was a very great man. He had people like Nurul Islam, he had good people in his government, and people like Kamal Hossain. But I mean the task, the problems I think, possibly I am just repeating what was said about Sheikh Mujib, and he was only there for three years. But I think he found it very difficult to (run the government); if people wanted to see him, he would see them; and if you are the prime minister or the president; you have to draw the line somewhere. But I think in those days, at first to begin with, that literally there was queue of people, who wanted to see him with their problems, so it is very difficult.

Q: Did Bangladesh government ever thank you formally for your support for the country?
We certainly were thanked, in speeches, during our visit to Bangladesh. Possibly they did not formally and documentarily thank us. But I am sure there are records, of what we did at that time. And then again we saw Sheikh Mujib during the parliamentary visit, on November 1973, 21 months later of the first visit.

Q: How were things then?
There have been a lot of progress, because there have been a lot of re-construction, you could travel around the country, we travelled to Sylhet then. We went to Chittagong, we visited the paper mill there. We went to Khulna.

Q: Its 35 years now after independence what is your link with Bangladesh these days, and do you still have link with the UK Bengali community?
My link with the UK Bengali community is partly through my time at UKIAS, the United Kingdom Immigrants Advisory Service. I was the chief executive of IAS, from 1984 to 1990. And we had quite a few Bengalis on our staff, because we needed to. So that was one link, a link through to the Bengali community and the family reunification difficulties, they were facing at that time.

The other link was that; I had a link with the Awami League people in London. I have one photograph of speaking in a big meeting in West London in presence of Sheikh Hasina. The Awami League founded a society here called the Bangabandhu Society. The first chairman of it was Sean McBride, who had defended Sheikh Mujib in one of the trials. I don’t know which one. That was the connection; Sean McBride was very eminent person. He was a former Irish Minister for External Affairs; he was a great nationalist figure, because he was against the British. He was the first president of Bangabandhu Society, and I was the vice chairman. I used to have to arrange and use to speak over the phone, I spoke on phone to him a lot and get him to come over to London and then we had meeting in the Brady Centre. And he was followed as chairman by Tom (Thomas) Williams; he was a labour MP and QC, who had also defended Mujib in the Agartala case. Tom Williams was succeeded as chairman by MP Peter Shore. The organisation still exists, but it is not very active now a day. Occasionally I get asked to go to meetings, like on the anniversary of Sheikh Mujib’s assassination. I went to another meeting recently, about the bombings in Bangladesh. Although, Bangladesh government would do very little about it.

Q: What is your view now about the situation of Bangladesh?
Bangladesh has a great future, I am sure, it has gas reserves, which have to be exploited, I don’t know to what extent they have the gas reserves and the possible oil reserves, but they certainly have gas. It’s an incredibly fertile country.
But the big threat to its future, if scientists are right, is global warming. Because if the sea level rise, what will happen?
I think the really important is that there should be free and fair elections, without intimidation, fraud and so on. Because, when you get the things like bombings and other things, the real true democracy can’t flourish. I must confess that I am not terribly well informed up to the minute, because unfortunately there are not a lot of coverage in the British press; I mean only if some thing very significant occurs, like that one in August 2004, when Sheikh Hasina herself was injured and lot of her comrades were killed in the bomb attack on the meeting. Her hearing was badly affected. When something like that happens, it tends to get into the headlines.