Vers le 40e anniversaire de l’indépendance du Bangladesh.
«Souvenirs : Malraux, Shore et le Bangladesh», par Seyd Muazzem Ali, ancien ministre des Affaires étrangères du Bangladesh. Article paru le 26 mars 2010 dans The News Today de Dacca.
As the nation celebrates its independence day today, I would like to remember Andre Malraux and Peter Shore, great friends who stood by us in the critical hours of our nationhood. They were thousands of miles away, yet they keenly followed developments in our country and extended their full support to our cause.
Andre Malraux, a renowned French intellectual, statesman, and a great humanist, was one of our staunchest supporters in France during our war of independence. He not only sensitized his government and people about the ongoing genocide in Bangladesh in 1971, he publicly volunteered on September 18, 1971 to fight for our cause.
Why would an elderly French statesman make such an offer? Malraux gave the explanation himself: that it was not only because we were “most cruelly decimated, the most threatened” but also because we belonged to a civilization which he thought has been the “civilization spirit” for the last three thousand years. He was a great admirer of our region's civilization, culture and history. After our independence, Malraux continued to work for recognition of Bangladesh and greater international assistance for our war-ravaged country.
Why would an elderly French statesman make such an offer? Malraux gave the explanation himself: that it was not only because we were “most cruelly decimated, the most threatened” but also because we belonged to a civilization which he thought has been the “civilization spirit” for the last three thousand years. He was a great admirer of our region's civilization, culture and history. After our independence, Malraux continued to work for recognition of Bangladesh and greater international assistance for our war-ravaged country.
Lire la suite : télécharger l’article, suivi d’une traduction française par Anne Huguenin.
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