Sunday, April 09, 2006 Last Updated 4/8/2006 11:06:15 PM
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World News › News Item 750 pro-democracy protesters arrested in Nepal, government says
| A police officer fires his shotgun as opposition party supporters block a road in Katmandu, Nepal, on Friday. (AP Photo/Saurabh Das)
BINAJ GURUBACHARYA Friday, April 07, 2006 KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) - Police fired tear gas and fought frenzied street battles with protesters Friday on the second day of a strike called by government adversaries of King Gyanendra. More than 750 pro-democracy advocates were arrested, a government minister said. Hundreds of angry students took to Kathmandu's narrow streets, setting fire to a post office in the capital and hurling stones at police, who fought back with tear gas and batons. Students at Kathmandu's Tribhuwan University ransacked the dean's office and briefly held several officers hostage. Of the 751 people arrested, 115 were sent to prison under a tough public safety law that allows authorities to jail people without charge for 90 days, Home Minister Kamal Thapa said. "The government is using minimum force to control the situation," Thapa told a news conference in Kathmandu. "The government has made adequate arrangements to ensure the security of the people. There is no need for people to be scared and we are doing what we can to foil the protest." Clashes also were reported in numerous neighbourhoods where rallies were held by the alliance of seven political parties that called the strike. Gyanendra, who faces mounting opposition since he seized power a year ago, responded to the violence by calling for calm. "Let us all pledge today to devote time for establishing permanent peace," Gyanendra said in a speech broadcast live on national television and radio from Birgunj, about 200 kilometres south of Kathmandu. "It is the need of today to establish permanent peace," the king said. The remarks were the monarch's first public words about the daily protests from pro-democracy activists, major political parties and the escalating violence from communist rebels. But he did not refer to the four-day opposition general strike that began Thursday and that has left streets largely empty in Kathmandu, except for protesters. The strike, running through Sunday, shut down public transport in the city, and hundreds of people walked to work, although many stayed home. Shops and schools were shut, with only ambulances and security vehicles on the roads. Days before the strike, Gyanendra's government banned all forms of public protest in Kathmandu. Authorities said 177 people were arrested for violating the ban on Thursday, the first day of the strike. Protest organizers, however, said 300 people had been arrested and were being held without charge or had been sent to prison. On Friday, students emerged in waves from alleyways in the Patan neighbourhood, shouting slogans and throwing bricks and stones. They burned a post office and motorcycle and forced police to retreat. Gyanendra says he was forced to seize power in February last year because of the growing communist insurgency, which has killed some 13,000 people since 1996. He has been under international pressure to restore democracy. In Washington, the State Department expressed concern about the curbs on civil liberties and human rights, saying they had led to serious unrest, and called for the release of "activists who have been held for voicing their opposition to autocratic rule." "The arrests and harassment of pro-democracy activists violate their fundamental civil rights," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Thursday. Japan, another key ally and aid donor, also said it regrets the arrest of politicians and pro-democracy activists, while calling for them to launch their protests peacefully. "Japan requests that no more arrests be made and those arrested be released as promptly as possible," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement. The European Union condemned the ban on protests, saying "the government's actions further aggravate the atmosphere of confrontation in the country and are not conducive to constructive national dialogue for peace." The general strike is also backed by the rebels, who have fought for a decade to oust the king and establish a communist state. Soldiers, meanwhile, scoured southwestern Nepal for communist rebels who attacked government security bases on Wednesday night. Six policemen, five rebels and two civilians were killed in the attack, the Home Ministry said. The rebels also took 28 hostages, police said. Government troops have regained control of the area, police official Rajan Limbu said. © The Canadian Press, 2006
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