A three-member delegation of the Youth Organization of Bhutan (YOB) has attended a week long ‘World Youth Festival’ held in Attersee, Austria from July 25-31.
According to a press statement, the YOB delegates also met with Werner Faymann, Prime Minister of Austria during his visit at the festival area, on the second day function.
“We talked briefly about the current situation of the country, western countries’ perception of democracy in Bhutan and presented the prepared country report of Bhutan to the Prime Minister of Austria,” reads the statement.
According to Rajen Giri, the YOB group also had an opportunity to meet Party leaders, Hakan Juholt and Sigmar Gabriel, the head of Social Democratic Party of Sweden and the Social Democratic Party of Germany respectively.
It is reported that a series of meetings with other delegations from Europe, Australia and the Asia Pacific regions were organized, where the YOB briefed the current situation on Bhutanese refugee impasse.
“Delegations from Australia, Germany, Finland, Belgium, Denmark have even offered the platform to speak about our issues during their mass programs to raise the awareness on western societies as they said that majority of people in the West who have heard about Bhutan have only known as Happy People,” reads the statement, adding–“Delegation from Australia suggested that it is utmost necessity that people need to know the truth, thereby the movement gets strong solidarity.”
The International Union Socialist Youth (IUSY), a global youth platform organized the festival.
Rajen Giri, Dhan Maya Ale Magar and Aakash Budathoki of YOB, representing Bhutan, attended the festival, which was attended by 2500 plus youths from 114 different countries from across the world.
