Phurbu Thinley
Chairman of the exile Tibetan Assembly Mr Karma Choephel says he could not attend the Fifth International Conference of Tibet Support Groups held in Brussels in May this year because he was denied of his onward flight by the German airport authorities during his transit at Frankfurt International Airport on the stated ground that he had no valid visa for Germany before continuing his flight to Belgium.
Dharamsala, May 06: Chairman of the Tibetan Assembly in exile, Mr Karma Choephel today said that he was earlier in May denied boarding pass during a transit at the Frankfurt International Airport by the German airport authorities saying that he had had no valid Visa to enter Germany in order to fly to Belgium.
Mr Karma told this to Tibetan media during a press conference held at the conference room of the exile Tibetan Assembly here this morning.
Mr Karma Choephel, along with eight other government and non-governmental staff, and three Tibet supporters of Indian nationals were on their way to the Belgian capital, Brussels to attend the Fifth International Tibet Support Groups Conference held from May 11 to 14.
They were on board Frankfurt-bound Lufthansa Flight No. LH 761, from Delhi on May 11. From the Frankfurt airport, the group was scheduled to take another connecting flight to Brussels after a wait of about one and a half hours.
Mr Karma said that the group had one-time entry visa to Belgium and their travel was jointly arranged by Department of Information and International Relations (DIIR), of the Tibetan Government-in-Exile and Germany based Friedrich Naumann Foundation.
However, according to Mr Karma Choephel, while reporting for the connecting flight, he was single handedly detained by a female authority at the counter on the ground that he had no valid Visa to visit Germany.
Interestingly, none of the other traveling mates were with him at the time of the incident at the counter if the Chairman’s words were to be digested.
The truth now is Mr. Karma could not make it to the Brussels conference after all. He was instead deported back to Delhi after almost five hours of detention involving exchanged disagreements with the airport officials and a recorded statement of protest to German Authorities made by Mr Karma according to the detail statement provided by him during the morning press conference here.
The female staff asked Mr Karma to follow her to a separate room where he was met by another authority. After going through Mr Karma’s documents; the authority informed him that he may not catch his flight to Belgium stating similar reasons. At the end, the matter was further consulted to a senior authority, but Mr Karma’s probability of leaving for Belgium stood no chance. The supposedly competent authority too expressed similar problem in not letting him board the next flight to Belgium and issued him the “Refusal of Entry at the Border” letter in which of the nine possible reasons for refusing entry into Germany, the admission authority has ticked mark – (C) has no valid visa or residential permit. .
Mr Karma said that he could not understand the background motive for single handedly stopping him at the transit, while the others traveling with him did not face any such hurdle. At the press conference here today he said that he was aware that there is no need of a separate visa for Germany for his transit flight to Belgium.
However, when enquired about the possibility of lodging a formal legal complaint against the German airport authorities or seeking an official explanation for the distasteful experience, Mr Karma said that this is being resisted taking into consideration the long standing German sympathy for Tibetan cause.
Karma Choephel also mentioned that there is every possibility or reason to believe that China’s diplomatic pressure on German authorities might be at work in forcing the airport authorities to take such an inconsiderate and discretionary move on him.
Meanwhile, an entirely different story pointing at Mr Karma of his failure to attend the important Tibet summit in Brussels at the behest of his own negligent personal misconduct during the transit has also reached the ears of a section of Tibetans here. He, however, snubs away the allegations as being simply baseless and untoward rumours constructed against him with ill-will.
