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EO i152AGS:SUBJECT:

A C T I O N :

PFOR, BAIA,ORSMILI,G, USConve rsation w ith G eneral ZiaecstateW AS D Cmembassy

Amembassy NEW DEL HI

General Zia and I wore able to have several minutesof private conversation at a dinner Saturday night.s oUppermost on his mind, evidently, was a desire for us tonderstand

that they had registered our concern thata really effective attack on Bangladesh's population problemwas long over due also sprinkled the conversation withsuggestions for further A m eric an aid; he evinced som econfidence about the prospect for continued calm in thecountry; shrugged off rumors about any imminent t -levelchanges in the Government; and reflected the usual

DECLASSIFIED

A/ISS/IPS, Department of State

E.O. 12958, as amended

October 11, 2007

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apprehension about India but without any sense ofimmediate concern. END SUMMARY2. Zia opened our conversation by referring to thepoints Senator McGovern had made to him last week aboutBangladesh's urgent population problem and said he wantedus to know that they understood this was their top priority.They realized that they could make no real progress insolving their other problems as long as they made no proprogress in bringing down the rate . of pop ulation growth. He saidthey had now designated Sattar, one of their best and mosteffective people, as the Secretary in charge

and expected this prog ram to get moving. They wouldalso assign more and better people to this work, and w o u lalso bring in more women. I said I was pleased to hearas both here a n d i n W a s h i n g t o n d u r i n g m y r e c e n t c o n s u I t a t io n

had been hearing mor nd more expressions of concernwhat had been considered, quite frankly, an unsatisfactory:record in this area. Questions were being raised aboutpurpose of the normous amounts of aid we are putting inBangladesh if there were so little to show in thewayofchecking the population growth.3 Here and there in the conversation the G e n e r a l r e t u r n e dto suggestions about merican assistance. At one pointasked if we could help meet one of their pr essing p robllemsin the education area by making it possible f o r t e m t o b u i l d

DECLASSIFIED

A/ISS/IPS, Department of State

E.O. 12958, as amended

October 11, 2007

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problem which he thoughtserious one in Bagladesh. hoped we could help thembuild a mplex of swimmingls , gmnasiums, and otherfacilities forport and recreation. Whe Iried to tiaside by inting out that it was one thing for us

g o to the ongress for fertilizer, foodgrainsnd c o n t r a c e p t i v e sbut qu ite ano th ero suggest that we build

swimm ing pools , the G eneral pe rsisted and ask ed u s toconsider providing ateast theoreign exchange o m p o n e n tw ith th e m B an g ladesh Government taking careofhe local

t a k i n g c a r e o f t h e l o c a l c u r r e n c y n e e d s . I t o l d h i m M r . G a r d i n e r , A s s i s t a n t A d m i n i s t r a t o rin AID for Ban g ladesh and other ountries in this areaarriving on Su nday and that I would d iscu ss this matterhim. also m ntioned that during the McGovern visit h ehad discussed w ith the S enator and Charg eChesIaw theossibilityf our provid ing police t aininge s id hewouldike to send a group of their policeto N ew Y o r k C i ty (where our m ethod s of combatting crime would be helpful tBngadeshse a l i n gour supplying them with light equipm entuc h as rifleand communicat ions g earfor thor police. I said Ihisequest, w h i c h w e h ad c o n v e y e d t o W ashin gton , but th eould know fro m our previous conversations that w e w e r e

DECLASSIFIED

A/ISS/IPS, Department of State

E.O. 12958, as amended

October 11, 2007

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primarily interested in using ouresources to help themin agriculturerural developm ent, and family planningthe crucial reas where we could help best. I said inthis connection that we were working right now on thequestion of the further foodgr ain deliveries we w ould makefor the rest of the year. W e also discussed the recentrequest DACCA's 0300) for $50 million in budget s u p p o r

optimistic about this possibility. I told hint that Iunderstood he had also suggested that we should have amilitary attache in the mbassy; I said that thisunder review and that perhaps I would have something more tosay about it before long.

4. (With resp ec t to G eneral Zia's requ est for policetraining and equipm ent, British H igh Comm issioner Smallmantold m e on Su nday that Zia also raised this question w ithhim at the sam e dinner, pu rsuing low er level requestsw hich the British had already received from the BDG .Sm allm an says he told Zia that there m ight be a s s i b l i t yof the British doing something about training but discouragedhim from think ing that the British w ou ld be able to p rvideany further com m unications equipm ent beyond that whichhad sup plied under an earlier program . He said they w erealso under p ressure from m m o d ore K han for naval aid butthat he had told the Com m odore that any such aid wo uldhave to be on a salesbass

DECLASSIFIED

A/ISS/IPS, Department of State

E.O. 12958, as amended

October 11, 2007

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5. Zia made the inevitable ctitical reference to Indiabut did not dw ell on the subject or sh ow acute concernabout thepresentstate of lations cknowledging in factthat they were now a little better than they had been.

about Bangladesh was printed in the Indian press n d a l s osurp rising how this could happ en under the emergency powersthere. referred to the robbing of a Hindu temple (theIndian igh Commissioner had mentioned this same case to

about it. When they had looked into it they had found thatthe temple had been looted by seven thieves, four of whomwere M oslem and three of whom were H indu, so that it was justa case of ordinary thievery of the kind they were w a y srunning into He said that in fact they had had not onesingle real incident of communal difficulties since thechange in Government. I commented that this was obviouslya crucial issue for New Delhi and we had been pleased tosee the pecial concern shown for it here.6. With respect to his domestic affairs, Zia made thepoints that he had been trying to bring about more

d e centralization of government, to encourage thework of private enterprise, and to continue to holdsmuggling under more effective control. In answer tomyquestions,Zia expressed confidence about the outlook for

DECLASSIFIED

A/ISS/IPS, Department of State

E.O. 12958, as amended

October 11, 2007

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continued calm the country and said that disciplinein the arm ed forces w as not a problem at present. When Im entioned that I had heard rum ors that im po rtant changesmight be about to take place at the top, he said theserum ors had been circu lating for a m onth now and shruggedthem off. (The rum ors w e have beard in the last few dayshave it that President Sayem has resigned w itharlyeffective date and that form er Chief Ju stice S iddiqi wil l

b ome President)7. CO MM ENT. This was, in view of my home leave, my firsemergencem eeting w ith Zia since his em ergence as theffectivein charge of Bang ladesh. I fou nd him as relaxed, soft-spoken, and friendly as ever and show ing no signs o f straunder his new responsibilties. He looks and acts, ifanything, as thought he is enjoyingH is alm ost naive app roach to the possibil it ies o A m ericanaid area rem inder, how ever, that he has-- quite u n d e r s t a n d a b l

in viewof his youth and back ground- - -som elimitations of perspective. I told h im that I w ou ld l ik eto bring in Assistant AID Administrator Gardiner to seeshould hahim this week, which he readily agreed to, so we should haveoccasion later this week to report further on his views.OSTER

DECLASSIFIED

A/ISS/IPS, Department of State

E.O. 12958, as amended

October 11, 2007