Nepalis scorn king's offer
I apologise for talking about this for a third day in a row, but events are reaching a crescendo in Nepal.
For the third day in a row, hundreds of thousands of protestors have defied the King's shoot to kill curfew, and have descended on the city centre of Kathmandu.
They have rejected the King's offer to form an all party government and are demanding a republic.
King Gyanendra loves his people so much that he is prepared to shoot them to ensure that they don't foolishly deny themselves the benificence of his great leadership. No greater love has any man.
What appears clear is that Gyanendra's offer has been rejected by his people. They want an end to his monarchy. The only question now is how long will it take him to realise that the game is over? And that he lost.The fighting has left Kathmandu ragged and smoking. Pavements have been ripped up and telegraph poles toppled; the smoke from burning rubber fills the air. Yesterday, in the suburb of Chabel, police fired tear gas and rubber bullets to scatter protesters. In the neighbourhood of Thapathali, live ammunition was sprayed into a tide of humanity threatening to break through a line of soldiers. More than 100 were hospitalised.
The army deployed water cannon and armoured vehicles with mounted machine guns at intersections into the city centre. Yet protesters broke through to Thamel - a maze of streets lined with backpacker hotels that lies a mile from the royal household - only to be beaten back with shields and canes. It took nature to do what the king and his men could not: for an hour, the heavens opened and the rain emptied the streets, bringing to an end the day's clashes.
And how many more must die or be injured before the Nepalese King will bow to the inevitable?
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2 comments:
Interesting post, just want to clarify a couple of things:
- this is not the third day in a row that people have protested, but the 18/19th.
- shoot to kill curfews are ten a penny in Nepal recently. As an estimate I'd say there have been half a dozen such curfews in the past six months.
- not everyone is demanding a republic. They politicos want to have the constitution changed to limit the king's powers. A recent opinion poll (considered the most representative polls of recent years in Nepal) by Himal Media showed that there was widespread support for a role for the king as head of state. People also think the king, Maoists and opposition parties should work together to solve the problems Nepal faces.
Thank you for posting.
Do you think they want a constitutional monarchy similar to the kind we have here in the UK?
And, if so, is it likely in your opinion that Gyadnera will agree to having his power diminished to that extent?
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