By Ashis Biswas
KOLKATA: In Nepal, educated youths are still joining foreign armies, despite serious efforts made by the Government to stop them. There has been a rekindling of concern in the matter in a somewhat tangential manner, even as Kathmandu-based officials have urged upon Israeli authorities to locate Bipin Joshi (23), a Nepali youth. He who went to Israel in 2023 to study agriculture.
To deal with Bipin’s case first: Israeli authorities recently forwarded to Nepal a 30 second video snap of young Joshi apparently sending off a desperate appeal, addressed to his family/well-wishers. He had been kidnapped .by Hamas operatives (during its Oct 2023 offensive against Israel targeting Gaza and other areas) along with 10 other Nepalis. Unfortunately, he was the only one to have survived, he said, before his byte was stopped abruptly.
Bipin incidentally, had gone on an ‘Earn as you learn’ programme, an Israeli initiative seeking to empower. and train people from Asia and other regions, with its emphasis on using local resources as much as possible to improve seasonal crop yields. The new techniques, it was said, would help avoid high expenses for would be cultivators and small farmers.
Hostilities in the region began somewhat later, even as Bipin had started his work somewhere in Southern Israel. Naturally, there was no reason to worry about his status or whereabouts among his folks back home.
However, the sudden outbreak of hostilities and the intensive bombing, mass killing and sabotage in not only Gaza but some parts of Israel too, began to worry the Joshis. They received co communication from him after the hostilities began.
The steady escalation of the all too destructive shooting war naturally further deepened the anxiety of his family and other relatives in Nepal.
However, their hopes were revived by recent news of hostage -swapping between the Hamas and the Israelis. Earlier all their efforts to secure any official word about Bipin’s whereabouts from either the Israelis or pro-Palestinian sources had failed as the conflict raged on.
Meanwhile, Nepalese authorities themselves faced a breakdown of law and order that led to the unceremonious ouster of pro-Chinese Prime Minister K S R Oli. This added to the troubles that the Nepali authorities faced, as the government took some time for normalcy to return to the capital Kathmandu and the outlying provinces.
As the dust settles down in Gaza, it has been possible for Joshi’s relatives and other families similarly affected, to resume their earnest inquiries about relatives who had been working/studying in the troubled West Asian region.
Nepal’s problems are far from over, even if Israeli and other authorities help them. The task of locating missing Nepalis from Ukraine and parts of Russian, has emerged as a far bigger problem
Until a few months ago, Kathmandu-based officials had reported that about 10 Nepali youths, fighting mostly for Russia against Ukraine, had been killed. Their deaths were confirmed by Russian authorities.
Kathmandu was also keen to bring back another 200 or so youths who were reportedly still involved in the fighting. It had informed Moscow to send back a few youths, whose names and related details were provided to help the Russian authorities, in their search.
At first. Russians said they did not know about foreigners joining their army to fight in Ukraine. But later, they admitted the presence among their troops, a few Nepalis who had volunteered to become soldiers. While they would round up people whose names had been sent by Kathmandu, they were not in a position to do very much about the others.
Most Nepali youths had joined the Russian army lured by the high payments on offer by private recruiters. These people operate internationally especially during the outbreak of large-scale warfare/violence. They avoid involvement with Governments as far as possible, and not all their practices are legal.
The problem of unemployment and lack of job opportunities in Nepal is common knowledge. Thousands of Nepali youths, educated or not, manage to find jobs/work in Asia, Europe, the US and Canada through such agencies, paying a high fee.
Thus, the official negotiations between Russia and Nepal have not succeeded in reducing the exodus of adventurous young Nepalis from taking active part in the Russo-Ukraine war. According to army intelligence sources, their number at present would be around 8,000 or so — in view of the small Nepali population, a very high figure.
A major plus for the lucky youths is that they can save good sums of money back home. But the downside is, news of their deaths too, reach their relatives from time to time. The total figure for Nepalese fatalities must have exceeded a few hundreds already.
Incidentally, some youths from Haryana and Punjab too, have reportedly been involved in action in Ukraine. The Indian government has been in touch with Russia on the matter.
So far, the Russians have not commented on the supposedly high number of Nepali youth fighting for them in Ukraine. Russian officials explain that while they can try to locate youths and recruits if specific details like names and background are provided.
But they cannot do very much in case ‘ youth volunteers’ from different countries to join the war as would- be fighters by contacting different professional recruiting agencies. Thus, they had no idea as to how many Nepalis were currently engaged in the war in Ukraine.
While acknowledging the logic in the Russian explanation, Nepali officials have indicated that they would continue to bring back as many youths from the battlefield as possible. (IPA Service)
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