NEPAL: Bullets Fire Up Opposition to King’s Rule

By Marty Logan Reprint | | Print |

Marty Logan

KATHMANDU, Apr 9 2006 (IPS) - The shooting deaths of three protesters in two days appears to have finally sparked mass support for the opposition movement against the direct rule of King Gyanendra.

The shooting deaths of three protesters in two days appears to have finally sparked mass support for the opposition movement against the direct rule of King Gyanendra.

Led by cadres from the youth wings of an alliance of political parties, protesters Sunday flouted curfews in the capital and other cities that began hours earlier than expected as authorities struggled to curb crowds who have torched government property, declared republican zones and been joined by government employees wearing black armbands.

“Everyone is supporting the movement. Even staff of government offices came to the protest yesterday,” the head of a local non-governmental organisation (NGO) told IPS from Ilam in the far east of this South Asian country wedged between India and China.

“People think that if this continues, it could become the same as in 1990,” he added from the tea-producing area where only some government workers were at their desks Sunday, a working day in Nepal.

In 1990, months of sporadic protests led, then king, Birendra to restore multi-party democracy. He was killed in the horrific 2001 “palace massacre” and replaced by his brother, King Gyanendra.

Across the nation of 25 million people dozens were injured in clashes with police Sunday and it is likely that those arrested will number in the hundreds by day’s end.

In Chitwan, 150 km south of Kathmandu near the border with India, Tulasi Chhetri, 32, hit by an errant police bullet as she watched protests a day earlier died Sunday. That seemed to tap citizens’ anger as thousands swarmed the streets of the dusty plains town despite a curfew that started at 10 am.

A soldier’s killing of protester Bhimsen Dahal in the western tourist town of Pokhara on Saturday also seemed to energise opposition there. Protests were launched early in the morning despite a 9 am to 9 pm curfew and local media reported that two people were injured when police opened fire on a rally around 10 am.

“The political parties are on the streets,” one hotel employee told IPS by telephone in the afternoon. “They hide and then suddenly they appear and attack police,” he said adding, “no one else is outside.”

Another protestor was killed and two injured when police opened fire on crowds mourning Dahal’s death in his home district of Kavre, adjacent to Kathmandu, where a curfew was declared from 5pm to 4am. Four people were also injured when police opened fire to stop a protest in central Nawalparasi district.

As security forces struggle to stamp out the swelling movement, they must also be vigilant against Maoist attacks. The rebels are said to control 80 percent of the countryside and since January have targeted urban centres, even attacking police posts on the edge of the tightly guarded Kathmandu Valley.

On Friday, two soldiers and a policeman, along with two civilians, were killed when thousands of rebels attacked security bases and government offices in two southwestern districts, according to the government. Fourteen Maoists died in the assaults.

While police and soldiers appear to have fired rubber bullets or blanks to stop some weekend protests, others used live ammunition. On Saturday the United Nations human rights office in Nepal condemned Saturday’s killing in Pokhara.

“The shooting by a soldier from the top of a building at demonstrators throwing stones at police in the street below, killing one person on the spot, is in clear violation of international standards for law enforcement,” said a statement.

“From (our) investigations, it is clear that the soldier resorted to excessive force in a situation where there was no direct threat to life,” it added.

On Thursday, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan warned Nepal’s leaders they should not deny citizens the right to peaceful protest. Governments, including India, the United States, European Union and Japan, also condemned preventive arrests, curfew and a ban on protests.

On Sunday, two dozen rights activists and journalists were injured when police beat them with batons while they were monitoring protest programmes in far west Doti district.

One Kathmandu hospital on Sunday reported that it was treating about a dozen people who appeared to have been injured by rubber bullets. Protesters there challenged the curfew from early morning in at least 10 locations and the Nepal Medical Association announced that it would hold daily one-hour demonstrations.

On Friday, employees at the Central Bank and telecommunications offices downed pens and took to the streets to support the protests, the first civil servants to dare such a move after being warned by their bosses to not abide by the general strike that has kept almost all vehicles off the streets.

No curfew has yet been declared for Monday in the capital and, in a statement, the seven-party alliance called on its members to continue organising local protests.