Bhutto- talks go on

FROM IAN YEATS BANGLA DESH leader had 'cordial' talks with Pakistan President Zulfigar Ali Bhutto yesterday.

Released from jail last week and placed under house arrest Mujib is now talking to his former jailers without any mandate from his people.

Bangla Desh has changed completely since the elections last March and there is now little reason to believe the Awami League is as representative of E Bengali opinion as Mujib claims.

With the Pakistan economy in ruins, Bhutto is looking for some form of federation with • Bangla Desh to avoid total economic collapse.

Cautious Nine months ago Mujib would have jumped at the chance, but the war and the passions it unleashed among Bangla Desh workers and peasants may force him to proceed cautiously.

While Mujib struggles to reach a deal with the people who only a few weeks ago were slaughtering Bengalis by the thousand, Indian army units continue to be used to keep the popular movement in check.

Maintaining a so-called 'low profile', Indian troops are simultaneously protecting Pakistani prisoners and Bihari collaborators while moving to disarm the guerrillas.

And new repressive measures-including a national police force and militia, and reconstitution of the freedom army on regular-service lines—have already been announced by the Dacca government.

can Secretary of Defence, told a Pentagon press conference in Washington that the bombing—resumed over Christmas and still continuing — would be prolonged until he was satisfied the remaining Us troops in S Vietnam were adequately protected.

left in the S, Laird said:

we protect Americans. those necessary military ac BHUTTO-the man Mujib is talking to-was once ing forces in S Vietnam.' asked if he was a communist. By way of reply, he Laird has every shot out his shirt cuffs from the sleeves of a suave jacket revealing oversize puppet forces in cufflinks. 'See these?' he asked. "They're solid gold and they're 24 carat-and the liberation forces.

I intend to keep them.

Does that answer your Phnom Penh, question?' Mujib never believed broke the backbone BanglaDesh could go it alone. tator Lon Nol's His initial demand for auto- army earlier this month. nomy dovetails perfectly with Bhutto's notion of federation.

But nine months of brutal war and suffering are not easily forgotten, and while workers and peasants demand an end to all relations with a house of cards'. Pakistan, Mujib is forced to go behind their backs. Catholic hierarchy AS CIVIL war threatens to engulf Ireland, the Roman Catholic church has come to the aid of its class-the bourgeoisie.

In repeated sermons up and down the country the clerics are now attacking the Provisional wing of the IRA.

Cardinal Conway, Primate