STOP NATO: ¡NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------- ListBot Sponsor -------------------------- Start Your Own FREE Email List at http://www.listbot.com/links/joinlb ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [Via... http://www.egroups.com/group/Communist-Internet ] . . ----- Original Message ----- From: Downwithcapitalism <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Saturday, June 02, 2001 4:25 AM Subject: [downwithcapitalism] The story in Nepal Reuters; Associated Press; USA Today; New York Times. 1 & 2 June 2001. Various reports and background material. KATHMANDU In a wholesale killing of royalty not seen since the deaths of the last czar of Russia and his family in 1918, the king and queen of Nepal and several relatives were reported shot to death in their palace in Katmandu over dinner last night. The Associated Press said Crown Prince Dipendra, a 30-year-old graduate of Eton College in England, opened fire, killing his parents, King Birendra Bir Birkram Shah Dev, 55; Queen Aiswarya, 51; a brother, Nirajan, 23; and a sister, Shruti, 25, before shooting himself. Shruti was married and had two children. Nepal News, the regional paper, quoted the interior minister, Ram Chandra Poudel, as saying that while he could not confirm details of the massacre, he regarded the attack as "a national disaster." Later today, Nepal time, Mr. Poudel was reported by Reuters as putting the death toll at 11. The British Broadcasting Corporation reported from Katmandu that the crown prince had quarreled with his mother over his choice of a bride. Queen Aiswarya had long been associated in the minds of Nepali democrats with a rigid, outdated penchant for absolute monarchy and social conservatism. Dipendra had made efforts to appear more open to the Nepali people as the role of his father became more symbolic. Nepal is tormented by multiple crises, and over the coming days any number of explanations for the tragedy may emerge. There is only speculation that some royal family members or servants may have survived to tell their stories. Among the survivors, reports from Katmandu said, was another royal prince, Dhirendra, who was critically wounded. A third prince, Gyanendra, who is the king's brother, was out of the capital, visiting a national park at Chitwan, officials in Katmandu said. The minister, who is also deputy prime minister, said there would be a meeting later of the state council, a constitutional body, to decide who would succeed the king. The Nepalnews.com Web site said a helicopter sent to pick up the king's brother, Prince Gyanendra, to Kathmadu from outside the capital but had to return to the capital due to bad weather. Prince Gyanendra would appear to be next in line for the crown. Nepal, which has been racked by a Maoist insurgency in recent years, is a constitutional monarchy. Katmandu, the capital of 1.5 million, woke up Saturday to news of the shootings. Hundreds of people began walking toward the royal palace in the heart of the city. Police in riot gear surrounded the perimeters of the iron walls that surround the modern, concrete palace, pushing back the crowds. The main street leading to the palace was closed as people began to gather. "Shocking is an understatement, we have been orphaned by this loss," said Janardan Sharma, a vegetable vendor who left his morning rounds to rush to the palace. "This is unbelievable ... one day you hear that the crown prince is getting married soon and the next day he goes on to a shooting rampage and kills everyone in the family," said Shreeram Shrestha. Birendra was crowned king in 1972 to replace his late father, King Mahendra. He was the latest monarch in the Shah dynasty, which has held the throne since the mid-1700s. King Birendra held nearly absolute power until 1990, when seven weeks of demonstrations and riots forced him to give into demands from democracy activists. A parliamentary government was established and the king has since remained a figurehead much like the queen of England, appearing in ceremonies and addressing the Parliament once a year. The turning point in the resistance of the Harvard-education king came on April 6, 1990, when police fired at 200,000 demonstrators marching toward the royal palace. Officials said at least 72 people died, but witnesses put the death toll at more than 300. Friday's shootings come at a time of major political instability in Nepal. Recently, as democratically elected governments of left and right run by a few upper-caste families have stumbled, a powerful leftist movement, usually described as Maoist but not thought to be backed by China, has been on the march in the countryside. The rebels are gradually encircling Katmandu. Regions as far away as the approach to Mount Everest have begun to be affected by the rebellion. The army of Nepal, home to the much- feared Gurkha warriors, has been increasingly critical of the political leadership, saying it was not acting decisively enough to put down the insurrection. At the same time, international human rights groups were criticizing the government for being too tough. Nepal is located in South Asia along the slopes of the Himalayan mountains and is home to eight of the world's 14 peaks above 26,400 feet, the tallest being Mount Everest. It is bordered on the north by China and on the east, south and west by India. It is the size and shape of the state of Tennessee. Cut off from the world until it opened its borders in 1950, Nepal has never quite caught up with other countries. Thousands of trekkers and mountain climbers come every year to marvel at its soaring peaks, its quaint stone and wood villages, its forests of pine and rhododendron. "Pristine poverty," cynics call it. Nothing - tourism, economic liberalization, elected governments, hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign aid - has been able to lift this country from medieval penury. Ninety percent of its people still scratch out a subsistence from the rocky, mountainous countryside. Nepal has only 8,000 miles of roads. In most of the country, supplies are carried in wicker baskets on the backs of men and women over steep, narrow footpaths. Barely any of Nepal has electricity. Drinking water is scarce and fewer than one Nepali in five has a toilet. The 1990 uprising that forced King Birendra to relinquish absolute power raised public expectations of a quick end to their feudalistic existence. But except for raucous politics and an unshackled press, not much has changed. Fewer than one adult in three knows how to read. The United Nations Children's Fund says two-thirds of children are stunted by malnutrition. [Human trafficking is rampant, although saying as much might make one appreciate the militancy of the Maoists...] Nepal's per capita income of just a couple hundred dollars a year is among the lowest in the world. Recently, the added scourge of AIDS has appeared. For many Nepalis, democracy has delivered nothing, and they have been willing conscripts to the Maoist revolutionary cause. * * * * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
