Battle On Home Front

Illawarra Mercury

Wednesday August 23, 2000

By BINAJ GURUBACHARYA

KATMANDU.- Ananta Hang Limbu was just 16 when he left his village in the Himalayan foothills to join the British army. Now 39, he is retired and living on a pension.

Mr Limbu is one of the thousands of former Gurkha soldiers from Nepal who have returned after serving Britain to face a different battle - readjusting to life at home.

``The part of life most people spend settling down we spend serving the British crown, learning to adjust to the British army life. And when we return home we become aliens in our own land," he said.

Gurkhas spend 15 to 25 years in the British military. Most of them join in their late teens, so when they retire they are only in their 30s.

Some return to their villages in the mountains, investing their savings in farms, small hotels and businesses. The majority, already used to urban life, opt to settle in the cities so they can live an easier life and their children can get an education.

Living in the city has its own price, though. Most of the retired Gurkhas use their savings to buy a house so they can avoid paying rent.

``By the time we buy a house, we would have used most of our savings, leaving us no choice but to find employment again," Gurkha Ex-Army Servicemen's Organisation general secretary Yam Bahadur Gurung said.

Finding civilian jobs is not easy in Nepal. Unemployment is high in the cities, and about 42 per cent of Nepal's 21million inhabitants live in extreme poverty. Some former Gurkhas find work as security guards at foreign embassies or banks, but most remain unemployed.

For the past four years, Mr Gurung's organisation has been demanding that the British Government increase Gurkhas' pensions and give them and their children the right to live and study in Britain or its territories.

Last December, Britain more than doubled the pensions it pays retired Gurkhas, but the Gurkhas are still seeking pensions equal to their British counterparts. Even with the boost, a retired Gurkha rifleman gets a monthly pension of $A155. That compares to $A1230 for a retired British soldier.