| ashu |
Posted
on 15-May-01 02:41 PM
(What follows was sent by Krishna Shah in Minnesota)
*****************
"Some Maoist units are reported to be forcing returning Gurkha
soldiers
to train local militants in exchange for a promise not to harass
their
families."
NEPAL'S FAMOUS FIGHTERS
http://www.csmonitor.com/durable/2001/05/15/fp7s1-csm.shtml
Returning Gurkha soldiers become misfits in their own land
By Scott Baldauf (baldaufs@csps.com)
Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
POKHARA, NEPAL
Once they've seen London, Singapore, or Hong Kong, how can they be
happy back down on the farm?
That's the Gurkha dilemma.
Best known as the fierce fighters who were sent on impossible
missions
by British commanders for almost two centuries, today there is
dwindling
demand for their services, as the British Army reduces its last
Gurkha
Brigade from 8,000 to 2,500 soldiers. After years of service in
exotic
cosmopolitan locales, the tens of thousands of veterans who return
often
have a tough time adjusting to the dull but stable rhythms of Nepali
rural life.
"Before, they were living on the land, but many of them have already
sold their farmland in the villages when they join the British Army,"
says Om Gurung, an anthropologist at Tribhuvan University in
Kathmandu.
"Their families live abroad and they see new things, a new world. So
they are attracted to an urban life, but they can't afford to live
there. Their most productive years ... are spent serving the British.
After that, it's all downhill."
BRITISH ARMY VET: Capt. Man Bahadur Gurung (ret.) is proud of his
service, but says Gurkha soldiers don't receive the same benefits as
other veterans.
PHOTO BY SCOTT BALDAUF
In one of the world's poorest nations, where agriculture and tourism
are
the main source of jobs, many Gurkhas find themselves pining for
something more rewarding, intellectually and monetarily. Some worry
about their wives and children, who have gotten used to modern
amenities
and rigorous British-style schools. Others fret about unequal
compensation from the British government. The sense of discontent
felt
by many in the Gurkha heartland, deep in the western mountains, is so
strong that they, like other rural Nepalis, are vulnerable to the
pull
of the Maoist insurgency. Some Maoist units are reported to be
forcing
returning Gurkha soldiers to train local militants in exchange for a
promise not to harass their families.
It wasn't always this way. Back in the early 19th century, when the
British empire first started eyeing Nepal as a strategic buffer
between
China and India (or as a Nepalese prince called it, "a yam between
two
boulders") British commanders quickly realized their Indian soldiers
were no match for the fierce Gurkha regiments. In 1815, after a
fortuitous victory against Nepal, the British included a provision
for
recruiting Gurkhas in their peace treaty. Technically, most of these
recruits were not ethnically Gurkha, but they shared their
characteristic Mongolian features, and most important for the
British,
they fought like Gurkhas.
A typical example is Capt. Man Bahadur Gurung, now retired from the
British Army. From 1956 to 1960, Captain Gurung, then a sergeant,
fought
against communist insurgents in the jungle of Malaysia, then called
Malaya.
"I was so strong, I used to carry the 28-pound light machine gun,
plus
two magazines, which each weighed 10 pounds," says Gurung, who is
deputy
mayor of the tourist town of Pokhara. "Our enemies said that in order
to
save ammunition, the Gurkha would chop the neck with his kukri
[curved
sword]. The Argentine soldier was afraid of us, too. They thought
that
even the prisoners of war we would kill." He smiles. "But that's not
true. We must follow the Geneva Convention."
Yet, while Gurung is proud of his service and that of his fellow
Gurkha
recruits, he says Gurkhas have faced discrimination, both during and
after their service in the British Army. "When I became a first
lieutenant, I had been part of the British Army for 15 years,"
recalls
Gurung. "But then a second lieutenant, with just one pip on his
shoulder, comes from British officer training center, and I have to
salute.... This is discrimination."
For its part, the British government argues that its system of
payment
and pension is governed by treaties signed decades ago by the
British,
Indian, and Nepalese governments. Salaries for Gurkhas have been
raised
in the past year to be on an exact par with British-born soldiers,
officials note. The monthly pension of £80 ($114) is still beneath
that of a retiring British soldier, but it goes a long way in a
country
as poor as Nepal.
Yet Gurkhas have one distinct advantage. "A British officer has to
serve
22 years to receive a pension, while a Gurkha soldier only has to
serve
15 years," says Lt. Col. Adrian Griffith, chief of staff British
Gurkha
headquarters in Kathmandu.
All that is hard cheese for Om Gurung, a recently discharged rifleman
(no relation to Om Gurung, the anthropologist). "The British
government
taught us to be fighters, we have no knowledge of civilian jobs,"
says
the 13-year veteran, who served in Hong Kong, Singapore, Britain,
Germany, and the US. "We are thinking only of going abroad. We can't
survive here."
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||// ||)) ((_ Krishna B. Shah
||\\ ||)) _)) shah@visi.com
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