Philippe Alfonsi (Philippe Marc Edouard Alfonsi), a French journalist who came to Bangladesh during the liberation war and covered the news of 1971, has donated his passport to the Liberation War Museum.
He handed over the passport on Saturday, which he used for entering Bangladesh and for covering the news.
The passport dated April 3, 1971, bearing the signature of then Chuadanga’s chief administrator Ashab-ul Haque, contains the first ever issued visa of the independent People’s Republic of Bangladesh.
Philippe was a senior reporter of French TV channel Premiere Information, which was run by Pierre Desgraupes and Pierre Dumayet.
He had stayed in Bangladesh for five weeks in two phases, first for two weeks and then three weeks.
Alfonsi expressed hope saying the passport would remain among the Bangladeshi as a witness of his memories with Bangladesh which he had seen during the Liberation War.
He recollected the emotion and hope of the Bangladeshi people which resulted in the birth of the country after nine-month long war.
He remembered his colleagues who had worked with him during that time.
“There occurred a devastating air attack in Chuadanga. Then I came in Bangladesh. The then independent Bangladesh authority had given me a visa,” Alfonsi recollected his old memories with Bangladesh.
“The people of Bangladesh then understood that it was high time to play their responsibility and duties. They proved it by giving me the visa which they considered as a responsibility,” he added.
The museum Trustee Ziauddin Tariq Ali said: "The museum has 1300 documents on display of the total and 16,000 documents in its preservation. The museum would go to its new location at Agargaon in the capital by the next year."
Kazi Enayet Ullah, president of France-Bangladesh Economic Chamber, France, was present among others in the document receiving ceremony while Mahbubul Alam, general manager of the museum and Trustee Ziauddin Tariq Ali received the passport.
During the war, most of the countries in the west including the United States and France were against the birth of Bangladesh.
