Nepali king faces mass protests

Agencies
Friday April 21, 2006

The number of pro-democracy demonstrators killed by security forces in Nepal rose to 14 as the country's royal government imposed a new 11-hour curfew in the capital, Kathmandu, today.

The latest casualty of the fight for political control of the Himalayan kingdom died in hospital today after being wounded during protests against King Gyanendra, who seized power with military backing last year.

The victim was among 26 people shot in Gulariya, 500km (310 miles) south-west of Kathmandu, yesterday.

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They came in their tens of thousands, ordinary Nepalis who defied a curfew and shoot-to-kill warnings, and marched through their capital to demand the King give up his power and restore democracy. And he greeted them with bullets. Soldiers and police opened fire on the protesters, shooting them down in the streets.

At least three were killed, and more than 40 were in critical condition last night. A young man, one of the subjects who King Gyanendra claims to rule over, lay dead on the street yesterday, his head in a pool of his own blood.

And still the protesters came, refusing to be cowed. "These are not protests any more. This is a revolution," said Harish Dhal, a demonstrator. "We don't want a monarchy. We want real democracy."

King Gyanendra remained hidden in his palace while on the streets his people were dying. There were more than 100,000 people protesting in Kathmandu, despite warnings that anyone violating the curfew would be shot on sight.

"We are not afraid," said Mr Dhal, a young man who had come into the city from the countryside to demand democracy. "The King is not strong enough to stop us. If he does not give up power, we will march into the centre of Kathmandu and take him from his palace," added Mr Dhal.

Tourists were confined to their hotels as the protests raged. "Death to the King", the demonstrators chanted. "Cut off the heads of Gyanendra and his son."

The opposition parties that organised the protests are demanding that King Gyanendra gives up the absolute powers he seized last year and restores democracy. But most of the protesters on the streets want to go further, and are calling for the monarchy to be abolished.

In a desperate attempt to stop the outside world seeing what is going on in the country, security forces tried to keep diplomats and journalists off the streets and warned they would be shot as well.

In a ghoulish development, police stormed the hospital last night where the bodies of the three dead protesters were being held and took them away. But there were plenty of witnesses.

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KATHMANDU (Reuters) - Nepal's King Gyanendra will address the nation at 7 p.m. (9:15 a.m. EDT) on Friday, state television said, amid widespread speculation that he would hand over political power to an all-party government.

After more than two weeks of violent street protests demanding he restore democracy, the embattled monarch has come under tremendous international pressure to relent.

At least 12 people have been killed and hundreds wounded in the pro-democracy campaign, which was launched on April 6.

On Friday, protesters burned tires and threw logs and barbed wire across the streets of the capital, Kathmandu, as a curfew imposed to prevent a march on the palace came into force.

Black smoke rose from several places in the city of 1.5 million people as protesters, angry at the king's sacking of the government last year, tried to block movement of police and troops.

Protesters burned a government revenue office on the outskirts of the capital and fought street battles with police elsewhere in the city. There was no word of serious casualties.

The 11-hour curfew in Kathmandu began at 9 a.m. (11 p.m. EDT), but was only being enforced within the city limits. On the ring road outside, tens of thousands marched, waved party flags and chanted slogans demanding the king leave the country.

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Tens of thousands of peaceful protesters against the autocratic rule of King Gyanendra continued to fill the streets of Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu, and cities and towns throughout the country this week despite brutal government repressive measures, including a daytime curfew and orders to shoot on sight. Attacks by government forces have killed several demonstrators and injured hundreds of others. Thousands of protesters have been arrested.

In one report April 11, the online news service E-Kantipur said police “launched an unrestrained attack” on protesters in Kathmandu, firing tear gas shells and rubber bullets into a crowd that included women and children. “Protesters were severely beaten as large numbers of armed police personnel baton-charged the agitators in the surrounding streets,” the news service said. The director of a nearby hospital reported that 90 percent of demonstrators treated there had suffered head injuries.

A general strike demanding restoration of parliamentary democracy was launched April 6 by the Seven Party Alliance (SPA), comprised of the seven major parliamentary parties including the Communist Party of Nepal (United Marxist-Leninist), the trade unions, women’s groups and other people’s organizations. It has now spread even to remote villages in the Himalayan mountains.

The GEFONT trade union federation reported that workers and their unions had closed down the country’s factories, while government, telecommunications and bank workers challenged the king’s Essential Services Act by joining the general strike. GEFONT said lawyers, artists, teachers, doctors, businesspeople and disabled people had joined the protests.

On April 15, thousands of women, students and local residents participated in a peaceful rally in Kirtipur, initiated by women’s organizations linked to the SPA.

Meanwhile, villagers in Butwal decided not to send vegetables, milk and other foods to urban areas, saying city dwellers weren’t protesting vigorously enough against the monarchy. Reuters reported April 18 that food and fuel was running short in Kathmandu and that popular anger against Gyanendra was mounting. It quoted an unnamed diplomat: “We could see him toppled if he doesn’t do something in the next few weeks or days. I am very afraid we are moving into a revolutionary situation.”

The SPA has been waging a struggle to return to democratic government since Gyanendra dismissed the constitutionally elected government in October 2002 and took over absolute power in February 2005. In recent months the alliance has negotiated an agreement with Maoist rebels who had conducted a decade-long armed struggle.

Last week senior UN human rights commissioner Louise Arbour said she was “shocked by the excessive use of force by security forces in Nepal, as well as the arbitrary use of detention.”

Even before the current protest began, the head of the CPN(UML), Madhav Kumar Nepal, had been under house arrest since January. On March 23 police ransacked his home, arrested him and sentenced him to three months’ detention.

GEFONT said over 30 trade union leaders had been arrested since the general strike started. In an April 12 statement, the International Confederation of Free Trade Unionists protested the jailing of “a long list of trade unionists” and other activists, and called on the Nepalese government to release them and to end the use of violence against peaceful demonstrations.

On April 14 Democracy Now featured an interview with E-Kantipur’s editor, Nepali journalist Akhliesh Tripathi, who described the severe beating he and colleagues received at the hands of Kathmandu police as they sought to cover a protest earlier in the general strike.

On April 12, the U.S. ambassador, John Moriarty, told SPA leaders, “We support the parties’ peaceful movement for democracy.” But speaking on Democracy Now, Ashok Gurung, head of the New School University’s India China Institute, said the Bush administration has provided the Nepali Army with financial support and weapons. In an April 12 statement, the SPA called for intensification of the movement to restore democracy. It urged medical providers to treat injured protesters and called on security forces not to suppress the people’s movement, saying a new democratic government would compensate hospitals and doctors, and would be prepared to “take strong action” against leaders of security forces attacking the protests.

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