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| Tuesday, 6 April 2004 |
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Maoist rebels storm police post in Nepal, kill nine KATHMANDU, Monday (Reuters, AFP) Hundreds of Maoist rebels stormed a police post in eastern Nepal overnight and killed at least nine police officers, officials said on Monday. Police said they had lost contact with another 26 policemen after the attack in the village of Yadukuwa, about 300 km (200 miles) east of the capital, Kathmandu, and had rushed reinforcements to the area. Rebel casualties were not known. "Telephone and electric lines have been snapped and the area is out of contact," one official said. "Details of the fighting are sketchy." Two weeks ago thousands of Maoist rebels overran a district capital in west Nepal in an attack in which at least 250 people, mostly rebels, were killed. On Saturday night rebels set fire to more than a dozen trucks waiting at a border post in western Nepal to pick up gasoline supplies from India. The Maoists, fighting to install a communist republic in place of a constitutional monarchy in the world's only Hindu kingdom, have stepped up attacks on government installations and security posts after they walked out of peace talks last August. Meanwhile King Gyanendra is facing a new challenge to his bid to reshape Nepal as anti-monarchy protests turn violent in the capital, until now a relative oasis of calm in a kingdom ravaged by Maoist rebels, observers say. An alliance of five political parties, out of power since 2002 when the king dismissed the elected government, has managed to bring tens of thousands of people to the streets since Thursday demanding the restoration of democracy. The king had largely ignored the alliance, whose months of protests against him had turned into a daily ritual, saying his priorities were to crush the Maoists and root out corruption left over from the parties' rule. But another top priority is development. And with international donors set to meet here May 5 to discuss Nepal's aid package for the next two years, observers say the king will be forced to show Kathmandu to be calm. One widely speculated option for the king would be to dismiss his prime minister, Surya Bahadur Thapa. But a purely symbolic move may not mollify the parties. Their renewed protests came just days after the king ostensibly agreed to an alliance demand by saying elections would be held by April 2005. The alliance demands an election be held under a government that includes all parties to ensure it is fair. On Friday, the first day the protesters tried to break down the barricade to the palace, baton-wielding police injured more than 200 demonstrators, by tally of local human rights groups. A growing number of activists are now calling for the outright abolition of the monarchy, said Dev Prakash Tripathy, a leading columnist and television commentator. "The majority of the students and youths affiliated with this movement are pressuring their leaders to give up on negotiations with the king and go for a republican system," Tripathy said. Adding salt to the wounds, the king has been far from earshot of the demonstrations. As protesters hurled verbal abuse at him in Kathmandu, Gyanendra visited western Nepal for warm receptions by villagers, including victims of Maoist attacks and traditionalists who regard the king as an incarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu. "Looking at how he's touring the country so nonchalantly, even those who would have supported him have now begun to criticise him," human rights activist Kapil Shrestha said. Added to the equation are the Maoists, whose insurgency has left more than 9,500 people dead since 1996. The rebels are sworn enemies of the king, calling for the world's only Hindu kingdom to become a communist republic. The Maoists' elusive leader Pushpa Kamal Dahal, better known as Prachanda, or "The Fierce", has offered moral support to the five-party alliance, saying they share a common cause against the "feudal forces". |
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