5 May 2009
MISSING NEPALI TEENAGER IN HIDING FROM OLYMPIC AUTHORITIES

Missing Nepali teenage ski racer Uttam Rayamajhi has contacted team trainer Richard Morley and other friends through Facebook. This is the first message from him since he vanished from the Team base at Les Arcs in France on 27 April in despair after the Alpine race team was disowned by Nepali Olympic authorities when Morley accused them of corruption to the IOC.

Earlier media reports suggesting that Jehovah’s Witnesses have sheltered Uttam are incorrect. The Church was not involved in his disappearance in any way. As a Hindu, his meetings with the Witnesses illustrated the distress he was suffering.

Uttam has indicated that he is extremely frightened of severe retaliation by powerful Nepali Governing Communist Party politician Jeevan Ram Shrestha who also personally controls the Sports Council, the Olympic Committee and the Ski Association in Nepal. Contract killings by wealthy power groups have been commonplace in Nepal since the outbreak of civil war in 1996 and the continuing political struggle has prolonged the lawlessness there.

In March Morley filed a complaint to the IOC indicting Jeevan Ram Shrestha in a $35,000 corruption scam involving the improper use of international funding intended to assist the athletes. (Full details available by e-mail request)

Uttam, who has no money and knows little French, is believed to be in France or in Berlin. He reports that policemen failed to recognise him when routinely checking his papers but he gave no indication of their nationality. He has a valid Schengen visa.

Despite earnest appeals to him, the 17 year-old has so far failed to telephone any person known to the team or the Facebook campaign group set up by French students to help find him. We consider that he is highly vulnerable and very frightened of forced return to Nepal until the funding row has been resolved. But without money he may be forced into crime or exploitation in order to survive and continue his concealment.

Members of the public, particularly in France and Germany, are urged to be vigilant and report any sightings of him to the police. He has committed no offence and has no reason to fear the European authorities.

All those concerned about his circumstances or wishing to be updated with the very latest news about Uttam are invited to join the public Facebook Group called; HELP US SAVE A MISSING NEPALI BOY SKI RACER AND FRIEND! (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=107145571912)

30 April 2009
Promising Nepali boy ski racer disappears in French Alps

The youngest member of the Nepalese Ski Team that attracted widespread international media attention at their inaugural appearance in the World Ski Championships at Val D’Isere in February has disappeared in the French Alps. Uttam Rayamajhi (17) vanished from the team ski base at Les Arcs on Monday with no money, minimal French and very little clothing. He has not been seen or heard from since and team members fear for his safety.

The youngster was a particularly promising ski racer. In his first full season of training at the Nepal team base he achieved remarkable results and greatly impressed the army of journalists that followed the team in training at the World Championships. Although he did not compete at Val D’Isere he finished 4th in his age group at the Grand Prix du Villaroger in March and displayed immense promise.

Uttam was particularly looking forwards to competing at the 2011 Asian Winter Games in Kazakhstan where his trainer believes he stood an excellent chance of becoming the strongest member of the squad. He was extremely athletic, brave and strong and he learnt the skills of ski racing faster than any athlete previously at the training base. Unfortunately his hopes of future competition and an athletic career were shattered when the team became involved in a bitter funding dispute with the Nepal Olympic Committee after they denied top Nepali ski racer, Shyam Dhakal (27), any benefit from the $29,000 Olympic Solidarity scholarship he was awarded last November.

Former Royal Navy skier Richard Morley (54) who has personally developed, funded and trained the team since 1997, was subsequently dismissed as team manager by the Nepal Olympic Committee when he filed a complaint to the International Olympic Committee concerning the handling of the scholarship. No new manager or sponsor was appointed and the whole team was faced with disintegration after years of work and sacrifice. Over the following five weeks young Uttam became increasingly depressed about his circumstances. He had sacrificed two years of school education to train as a skier after meeting senior Nepali officials in 2006 but the dispute left him feeling abandoned and misled by his sporting authorities.

On 15 April he wrote on Facebook, ‘Life is getting difficult. So many things are happening around me but thinking hopeless in life and moving in the path which is I don’t know but I am waiting for the result. Like this my days are going.’ Shortly afterwards he was approached by Jehovas Witnesses and recruited into their church. The day after attending his first service with the sect he vanished from the team’s mountain chalet home during a heavy rain storm. Despite extensive efforts by the police at Bourg St Maurice, no trace of him has been found.