### Nepal troops impose curfew as more protests planned

Staff and agencies
23 April, 2006

51 minutes ago

KATHMANDU - Nepali soldiers and police enforced a daytime curfew in the capital Kathmandu on Sunday, with orders to shoot to kill to prevent a planned march by anti-monarchy protesters to the palace of King Gyanendra.

Riot police carrying shields and batons fanned out across the city, backed by troops wielding submachineguns and automatic rifles, and people rushed home through streets littered with burned tires and smoldering logs placed to block the troops.

Small groups of protesters gathered on the outskirts of the city before the curfew took effect, and political parties said they planned to defy the curfew and march toward the center later, on the 18th consecutive day of protests.

Over 100,000 people broke the curfew to enter the capital from the outskirts on Saturday and police opened fire in at least two places to beat them back. Just a kilometer (half a mile) from the palace, they repeatedly fired teargas at protesters.

At least 150 people were wounded in the police action and a stampede that broke out when the marchers were dispersed, witnesses and political activists said.

Sunday‘s curfew -- the latest in a string of restrictions to try to halt protests -- began at 9 a.m. (0315 GMT) and would last until 8 p.m. (1415 GMT), state radio and television announced.

On Friday, King Gyanendra offered to hand over executive power to a seven-party alliance that has led more than two weeks of protests, but the parties rejected the overture.

He did not address a key demand of the parties and protesters -- that the constitution be changed to curb his powers. That is also a demand of Maoist rebels who control vast swathes of the countryside and entered a loose alliance with political parties last year to curb the monarch‘s power.

"The king is looking for a safe landing, but what he has offered is not enough," said Naresh Thapa, a 30-year-old driver wearing a blue baseball cap and standing with a group of protesters in western Kathmandu before the curfew took effect.

Using a special constitutional provision, the king sacked the government and took full powers in February 2005, vowing to crush a decade-long Maoist revolt in which more than 13,000 people have died.

Political parties also want parliament, dissolved in 2002, to be revived and the army -- which is loyal to the king -- put under its control.

The seven-party alliance has been agitating since April 6 to force Gyanendra to restore multi-party democracy. At least 12 people have been killed and hundreds wounded in police action against protesters since then.

The impoverished kingdom has been virtually at a standstill with the movement of goods and people blocked by a general strike and crippling street protests across the nation.

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