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Kathmandu Friday July 07, 2000 Ahsad 23, 2057.
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Humiliating experience
On June 15 last month, a two member team
representing Gorkha Army Ex- Servicemen Organization (GAESO) was on the way to attend the
first international preparatory meeting for the fifteenth world festival of youth and
students in Havana which was held between June 18-22, 2000. The Foreign Ministry did not
suggest, when asked, that we had to have transit visa in France. Neither did the Nepali
Mission in Paris help us. We were detained by the French immigration authority at Charles
De Gaulle airport and put in police custody along with political refugees from
Afghanistan, Africa and India in a congested room. When I reached the chief administration
officer Mr Halim Awad of WFDY in Hungary through telephone, he was shocked to hear the way
we were treated by the French immigration authority. He managed to call the Cuban
government and French immigration authority on June 17, 2000. We were taken to immigration
office and issued French visas. On the 18th of June there was no flight from Madrid to
Havana. We reached Havana on the 19th of June but our baggage was not sent in the same
plane we were travelling. We were left without papers and with the same pair of clothes
for three days. In fact, the way we were treated by French and Spanish authorities on the
way shows that our government and missions abroad have no value and do not help Nepalese.
They are just there to spend time. The Royal Nepal Embassy in Paris could have helped us
had it intended to do so. This shows that Nepali Missions abroad are not fulfilling their
tasks. How long will the government keep such missions abroad?
Yam Bahadur Gurung
General Secretary, GAESO |
