Deputy Speaker Jacob Oulanyah has described his first experience in Romania as “fairly bad” after he was forced to walk on foot with his luggage for about one kilometer.
Oulanyah revealed his ordeal while meeting a delegation from Romania led by Romanian Ambassador Daniela Gitman, Large Special Representative for UN Affairs.
Oulanyah, who was chauffeured by a Romanian lady driver said that on his first visit to Romania, he was blocked from accessing his hotel because they were “big people” having a meeting in that hotel.
“You know there is a difference between a politician and a diplomat. Diplomats say things politely while politicians say things directly. I had a fairly bad experience when I arrived in Romania, Bucharest. I had hired a car and they stopped me one kilometer from my hotel. They
[security people]
told me to get out of the car and walk. Police was there and they told me that they were aware about where I am going to stay and that there were big people having a meeting in that hotel. That why is they had stopped all cars from going there,” Oulanyah said.
Oulanyah said that he felt unfairly treated and asked the Romanian delegation to “clean up” their house if the issue of mobility is to be ironed out.
“So I asked to talk to their supervisor and they were so rude to me and I spent about 15 to 20 minutes on the road trying to persuade them to allow me and my car all in vain. My lady driver who was also a Romanian got out and tried to talk to them but they did not allow. I had to push my luggage for about one kilometer, I was unhappy,” he added.
The experience was too much for the Deputy Speaker that he had to raise the matter at the recent council meeting of the European Union Assembly.
“I told them [Assembly] that this is not the way you treat people and I also realized that other people also had different experiences which were not very good. So if we are to talk about mobility then this is something you may need to clean up because people go there for the first time and their experiences are not good,” Oulanyah said.
On behalf of the delegation and her country, Ambassador Gitman apologized to Oulanyah calling it an “error in protocol” rather than an issue of attitude.
“I need to apologize about this and I will follow this up with Bucharest. But I must assure you that this is not something coming from attitude or conduct towards our visitors. Bucharest had hosted over 400 guests for that event and really such mistakes are happen,” Gitman said.
Source: Kampala Post
