Telegram from G.J. Malik, Indian Ambassador to Chile

DATE: November 16, 1973

Tel: SANT/101/3/73

FROM: G.J. Malik, Ambassador to Chile

TO: Kewal Singh, Foreign Secretary, MEA

…As you will see there is a good deal of cooperation between Embassies in this humanitarian activity. Most ambassadors in Santiago are going all out to help refugees and induce the Chilean Government to respect human rights. Since I do not wish to saddle the Government of India with “asylees” – under International Law they have to be maintained by the receiving state and transported out of the country at its expense – I have been counting on the help and benevolence of my colleagues…

…India is unpopular with the Junta because we have accepted protection of interests of USSR and Czechoslovakia and have not recognized the Junta. Conditions in Santiago are abnormal and unusual. The British Ambassador said yesterday that the Vienna Convention may have to be re-written since the activities of the Junta and the Embassies in Santiago have driven a coach and four through the existing one. I am, of course, being careful, as you have advised but the Junta does not always listen to the advice of the Ministry of External Relations and resorts to curious antics.