The Gurkha Army Ex-Servicemen's Organisation (GAESO) has filed a lawsuit against the British Army's area welfare office challenging its decision to prevent GAESO members from entering its premises. In another lawsuit, the ex-servicemen are seeking an order to get the home and defence ministries to begin talks with the British government on its longstanding demand for pension parity.

GAESO says its members will begin filing lawsuits against the British government in UK courts demanding parity in pension and other welfare privileges. GAESO president Padam Bahadur Gurung said many individual soldiers were preparing cases against the British government claiming they have been discriminated on the basis of race. GAESO already has a discrimination complaint against the British government at the International Labour Organisation (ILO), which comes up for investigation in November and will be decided by March 2002. It is also putting together information on Gurkhas killed, wounded and missing in World Wars I and II from the International
Red Cross.