Rage swells in the streets of Katmandu
By Tilak P. Pokharel and Somini Sengupta The New York Times
MONDAY, APRIL 10, 2006
KATMANDU, Nepal Pro-democracy protests grew more violent Sunday as demonstrators defied curfews and poured out onto the streets for the fourth day in a row, storming a government hospital, burning government buildings and defiantly calling for the ouster of the king.
At least three people were reported to have been killed.
The coalition of seven political parties that called the strike, originally set to end Sunday, promised to continue the agitation "indefinitely." And Maoist rebels released a statement Sunday pledging to remove signs and statues representing the monarchy and threatening to have its guerrilla army take control of the nation's highways.
Also, the capital was plunged into darkness for 15 minutes Sunday night, as citizens heeded a call for a "blackout" protest.
King Gyanendra's government on Sunday threatened stricter enforcement of the curfew on Monday and accused the rebels of having infiltrated the political protests, although the Kamal Thapa, the home minister, offered to start talks with the political parties if they severed ties with the rebels.
The government imposed curfews on Saturday and Sunday in the capital and several other towns. It has banned political rallies in Katmandu and given security forces shoot-to-kill orders.
"As we write this on Sunday noon, public anger is boiling over," Kunda Dixit, editor of the Nepali Times, posted on the weekly magazine's Web site. "This is a surprising uprising: Even without the parties, neighborhoods have got together to set up road barricades, stoning police and pouring out into the streets to defy curfews. Each day that passes, the pro-democracy chariot is picking up momentum."
As the demonstrations intensified Sunday, one protester was killed in Banepa, on the eastern outskirts of Katmandu, when the police fired into a crowd that was protesting a previous killing.
On Saturday, a woman sitting on her terrace was shot by soldiers amid protests in the southern city of Narayanghat; she died of her wounds early Sunday.
Also on Saturday, soldiers posted on the roof of a building in the Himalayan resort town of Pokhara shot at a crowd of demonstrators, killing one person and wounding at least one other. The Royal Nepalese Army said late Saturday that its troops had fired in self-defense after demonstrators threw bricks and stones at soldiers guarding a telecommunications office. On Sunday, protesters stormed the main town hospital, demanding the body of the slain protester.
The protests this week, marking the 16-year-anniversary of democracy in Nepal, are by far the most strident public demonstrations against Gyanendra, who seized control of the government 14 months ago on the grounds that politicians had failed to stop a Maoist rebellion.
The Maoists, who have terrorized parliamentary politicians for nearly a decade, lately have linked arms with the country's seven largest political parties in a joint bid to restore democratic rule. They promised to avoid violence in the capital, however.
Already 13,000 Nepalis have died in the conflict, and the country, much of which has always been mired in poverty, has virtually ground to a halt, with economic growth in 2005 slowing to a paltry 2.5 percent, according to the Asian Development Bank.
The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Nepal on Sunday expressed its growing concern at the mounting violence, including "the continued use of what appears to be excessive force" by security forces. It already had voiced "grave concern" about the troops firing on demonstrators in Pokhara on Saturday.
In Katmandu, the crowds Sunday appeared to be the largest and most violent. "Burn the crown," the protesters chanted. They poured out of the city's narrow alleys in small groups, shouting slogans and unfurling party flags. Each time, the riot police charged at the protesters, whipping batons and firing tear gas and rubber bullets. The most able- bodied scattered, while others were captured by the police, beaten and taken away in vans. Soldiers were posted at key street corners, as were armored personnel carriers with machine guns.
The UN human rights agency, whose monitors have fanned out across the country over the last four days, confirmed Sunday that several demonstrators had been hospitalized with head injuries after encounters with the baton- wielding police.
"If the movement goes ahead like this, the inevitable will happen very soon," said Lok Raj Baral, head of the Nepal Center for Contemporary Studies, a research organization in Katmandu. "The anger everywhere is against the king."
Tilak P. Pokharel reported from Katmandu and Somini Sengupta from New Delhi.