28 August 2018, Kathmandu
A former Maoist child soldier was stopped from travelling to Bangkok, capital of Thailand, on 24th August, 2018 at Tribhuvan International Airport(TIA) in Kathmandu.
Lenin Bista, now a 27-year old youth, and a campaigner and an activist for justice for former Maoist child guerrillas, was travelling to Bangkok to participate in a five-day workshop on “Youth in Conflict Areas: Healing and Peace Building Through Social Engagement” organized by Asian Resource Good Governance.
Bista was recruited in 2002 as a child soldier by Maoists during their decade long insurgency. Then Bista was merely a tender 11 year old boy.
Bista was carrying all the travel documents and had a valid Nepalese passport and Thai visa. His trip was sponsored by the organizers of the workshop.
Interestingly, Bista was barred from boarding a Nepal Airlines morning flight to Bangkok, after he had already been cleared by the immigration at TIA and after already being issued a boarding pass for the airplane as well.
Therefore, it was a bolt from the blue for Bista as he was stopped from proceeding further and was told that he can not travel. When Bista asked for the reason, he was verbally told that he had been “partially blacklisted” by the government that very morning.
Bista spoke at length to Pariwartankhabar. He contemptously ridiculed the terminology “partial blacklisting” and argued : “Either you are blacklisted or not. It is as simple as that. There is nothing called partial blacklisting.”
At TIA, Bista demanded the reason for being barred from travelling in writing. Then, he was handed over a letter from Home Ministry, Immigration Department, with a one line statement, which stated that Bista has not been granted permission or recommendation from any wing of Nepal government, and therefore his departure has been barred.
There is no law which stipulates that a Nepalese citizen needs any such prior approval from any government wing to participate in a workshop in a foreign country.
Bista avowed that the actual reason why he was stopped is that the government feared that he will spill the beans about the issue and use of child soldiers during the decade-long Maoist insurgency at an international forum. He asserted that the act of barring from travel was an attempt to “silence” his voice, and suppress the issue of child combatants. The number of former Maoist child soldiers is more than four thousand.
Bista further pointed out that there was not any legal provision for stopping a Nepalese citizen from travelling abroad, who has a valid passport and a valid visa. He affiermed : “It is simply ridiculous”.
Therefore, subsequently he lodged a complaint with the National Human Rights Commission as it was an “attack on his right to travel freely”.
Bista divulged that earlier Surya Subedi, an adviser to the Home Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa Badal, had demanded that Bista must show Subedi the content of the presentation that would be made at the workshop. Subedi had threatened that else he will stop Bista from travelling. And, “Subedi fulfilled his threat”, lamented Bista.
Video of an interview with Lenin Bista and the letter from Home Ministry, Immigration Department, stating the reason for barring Bista’s departure have been posted here along with the news item.
