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| Friday, 16 April 2004 |
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Leftists take over top Nepal university in new protest against king KTHMANDU, Thursday (AFP) Students demanding an end to royal rule tore down photographs of King Gyanendra at Nepal's most prestigious university, as police rounded up 200 more pro-democracy demonstrators. Activists at Tribhuvan University declared the main campus in Kathmandu off-limits to police, who have dispersed two weeks of anti-monarchy protests across the capital of the Himalayan kingdom. Police tried to enter the campus but were repulsed by students throwing stones, witnesses said. "We are doing this so we can provide aggressive support to the opposition parties' movement to regain the people's rights," said Kalayan Gyawali, leader of the Nepal Students Union. Elsewhere in Kathmandu, police detained some 200 protesters affiliated with opposition parties, some of whom were chanting "Down with Gyanendra!", witnesses said. Authorities have been trying to end two weeks of sometimes violent protests against the king, who infuriated the political establishment in 2002 by dismissing the elected government for "incompetence." The royal-appointed government on Thursday indefinitely banned protests in Kathmandu saying the rallies could be infiltrated by Maoist rebels who are fighting to overthrow the monarchy. Police have rounded up thousands of demonstrators who defied the ban by gathering outside the royal palace, but released most of them within hours. Human rights activists demanded Wednesday that the government release 15 demonstrators who remained in custody following last week's protests. The tenure of Nepal's democratically elected parliament expires at midnight Monday after months of demonstrations to pressure King Gyanendra to reinstate the legislature. The country's five main political parties, which have spearheaded the protests, are now faced with the choice of trying force fresh elections or of joining an all-party government offered by the monarch, analysts said. "The reinstatement of the parliament will have no relevancy as from tomorrow because its five-year tenure is going to expire from Monday midnight (1745 GMT)," said Supreme Court senior advocate Mithilesh Kumar Singh. "The political parties' hopes for a revival of the parliament is like hoping against hope. It will have no meaning," Singh told AFP. |
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