Soldiers escort bus, truck convoy toward Nepal's capital

NEPAL: Armoured military vehicles on Tuesday escorted a convoy of trucks and buses carrying the first supplies and passengers to head for Katmandu after nearly two weeks of unrest in the Nepalese capital.

Protesters had tried to halt the convoy but soldiers opened fire, wounding at least five people. An army statement said the action was necessary because the mob had tried to torch fuel trucks and attack bus passengers.

A general strike, called by the country's seven main opposition political parties to protest King Gyanendra's absolute rule, has cut off fresh food and fuel supplies to the capital since April 6. A Katmandu-bound convoy of 23 buses and trucks, guarded by armed soldiers, spent Monday night inside an army camp in Bharatpur, 140 kilometers (90 miles) south of Katmandu.

The buses carried a number of passengers who had been stranded in southern Nepal for days. Thirteen days of often-bloody pro-democracy demonstrations and a general strike have emptied Nepal's highways. Katmandu and other cities are low on fresh food and fuel.

On Monday, security forces fatally shot a protester - the fifth in the past few days - amid growing nationwide demonstrations demanding a return to democracy.

Meanwhile, Maoist rebel leaders issued a statement saying the protest by the opposition political parties, which the rebels fully support, will continue until their final goal is achieved. "The movement should not be and cannot be ended or stopped," said the statement signed by rebel leaders Prachanda and Baburam Bhattarai. "The ongoing movement is not for minor changes in government."

"The current movement is no more limited to the seven party alliance, Maoists, civil society or any particular group, but it has already become a collective movement of entire, real democratic forces which have been betrayed frequently by the monarchy," the statement posted on their Nepali language Web site said.

Katmandu, Tuesday, AP