http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/goa/When-a-Goan-recollects-the-Iraqi-invasion/articleshow/51133152.cms
When a Goan recollects the Iraqi invasion TNN | Feb 25, 2016, 10.05 AM IST Panaji: When Iraqi troops invaded Kuwait in the wee hours of August 2, 1990, the strong community of around 25,000 Goans were caught unaware. Overnight they saw their peaceful streets transform into a war zone, their homes broken into and belongings stolen. Many left the country in tears with a single suitcase only to return and find their homes, razed to the ground. Recalling those tense days, A Veronica Fernandes, a freelance writer who moved to Kuwait from Candolim in 1975 never thought he'd make it through. He found himself face to face with Iraqi soldiers and underwent the traumatizing experience of being held at gun point on more than a one occasion. "We switched off the lights in our homes, hid and prayed for the firing to stop. It was a very traumatic experience for everyone," he recalls. On his return to Goa, after the borders were opened, some of the Kuwaiti Goan evacuees were deeply-affected to see the country that gave them employment opportunities being bombed, didn't sit back. Instead, a public meeting was called on November 3, 1990, at Tristao Braganca Cunha Memorial Hall, near Azad Maidan attended by 100 Kuwait evacuee Goans. The Goa-Solidarity Centre came into being and on November 12 they organized a rally on the streets of Panaji in support of Kuwait. "This rally was attended by hundreds of Kuwait evacuee Goans including Kuwaitis where Col Juma Kholifi, a prominent officer in the ministry of interior affairs delivered a very emotional speech. CNN too highlighted our efforts and the news reached the Kuwait embassy in Delhi and the Kuwait government in exile in Taif, Saudi Arabia," Fernandes who initiated the movement told TOI. The group sustained themselves through voluntary contributions refusing to accept outside financial contributions even refusing to align with the Progressive Democratic Front at the time. A number of meetings in the state city in the months leading up to Kuwait's Liberation were held including a night vigil in front of Panaji church on the eve of the start of the war for liberation and a victory rally on March 12, 1991. After the war, the association led by Fernandes started a movement to get Kuwait's Prisoners of War freed, holding regular meetings in Kuwait and even pressuring the Indian government to intervene in Kuwait's support. Fernandes visited Delhi in 1995 and met with K H Khan, chairman of the Indo-Arab Friendship Society and both foreign ministers R L Bhatia and Salman Khurshid presenting them with memorandums. To commemorate the 25th Liberation Day of Kuwait, the Goa-Kuwait Solidarity Centre with Fernandes as its convenor is organizing a meeting at the Goa chamber of commerce and industry conference hall on Thursday where he will also release his autobiography 'From Coconut Trees to Oil Wells' published by Goa 1556. The book, he says, is dedicated to all Goans who brought prosperity home through their sweat and tears in distant Kuwait. ###
