Nepal: Police in Nepal fired rubber bullets and teargas during clashes with protesters yesterday, killing at least three demonstrators, as thousands marched in defiance of curfews to demand the restoration of democracy.
Television stations broadcast footage of police spraying a crowd with rubber bullets in Kathmandu. The private TV station Kantipur said at least one protester was hit. Police admitted there were scuffles and said they had been ordered to prevent crowds from entering the capital.
Doctors confirmed that a woman succumbed to bullet wounds after security forces fired on massed demonstrators in a town south of the capital, while in the suburbs there were reports of police snatching injured protesters as they bled on the streets.
The national shutdown was called by an alliance of Nepal's main political parties and backed by Maoist guerrillas, who want a communist republic. The opposition parties yesterday declared that the general strike would continue "indefinitely", raising the stakes with the palace.
King Gyanendra seized power 14 months ago, curtailing civil liberties and saying a firmer hand was needed to quash the Maoist rebellion. Yesterday telephone lines were cut and, according to Indian TV, the royal government announced foreign journalists would be temporarily banned. The home minister said Maoists had infiltrated the crowds in Kathmandu to fire on police.
Despite shoot-on-sight orders given to the security forces there were large protests across the country. One of the largest was in the southern town of Bharatpur, where the shooting dead of a demonstrator by security forces a day earlier had angered the local population. In the tourist resort town of Pokhara, 200km west of Kathmandu, thousands of people tried to storm a state hospital where the body of a man shot dead by tro'ops on Saturday had been taken. The UN high commissioner for human rights described the killing as being "in clear violation of international standards for law enforcement".
On the border with India, hundreds of demonstrators stormed government buildings to declare Nepal's Chitwan district the kingdom's "first republic". Troops later drove them out. It has also been reported that students in smaller towns have taken to the streets with the slogan "death to Gyanendra".
The rallies occurred on the 16th anniversary of Nepal's first pro-democracy movement, when the present king's brother and predecessor, Birendra, accepted demands for parliamentary elections. Political activists say the king needs to "understand the public". "The Nepali people want the king to abdicate and he needs to go," said Laxman Pant, a pro-republic campaigner now based in Delhi.
There is some concern in Washington and New Delhi that the Maoists have skilfully exploited the situation, placing them on the verge of political acceptability without having to give up the gun. Both countries have suspended arms shipments to Kathmandu.
Nepal's mainstream parties and the Maoists agreed last December on a roadmap to peace that permits compromise with the monarchy. But in recent weeks political parties say that a pact with left-wing guerrillas is the only route left to end the insurgency.
- (Guardian service)