Nepal police fire on protestors, PM offers more seats

NEPAL: Police opened fire on protesters from ethnic Madhesi groups demanding autonomy in southeast Nepal on Wednesday, killing two people, officials and witnesses said.

At least 21 people were wounded when thousands of protesters defied a curfew at Biratnagar, 200 km southeast of Kathmandu and tried to storm a jail, prompting police to open fire, town official Mod Raj Dotel said.

In a move to defuse protests by ethnic Madhesis in which 21 people have died, Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala vowed to increase electoral seats in the southern plains for this year’s constituent assembly elections.

He also pledged to provide for an equal number of seats for the region on the basis of proportional representation in the assembly that is meant to map out the country’s political future, including that of the king.

“People from all sections including Madhesis, Dalits (lower caste), women and those from underprivileged regions will be proportionately represented,” he said.

Koirala’s announcement on state television came hours after police opened fire on the protesters.

“There are bloodstains on the ground where the shooting took place. People are scared and it is tense,” local journalist Bikram Niraula said from Biratnagar, Koirala’s home town.

Officials say hundreds have been injured in clashes over the last month between protesters and police in the fertile southern plains or the Terai region, home to most Madhesis.

The protests led by the Madhesi People’s Rights Forum (MPRF) have cast a shadow over a peace deal last November between the government and Maoists which ended a decade-old conflict which has killed more than 13,000 people.

The MPRF says ruling elites dominated by people from Nepal’s mountains have denied them a fair share of jobs in the government, police and army, and representation in parliament.

Louise Arbour, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, called the flare-up “deeply disturbing” and said protesters and police must refrain from using excessive force.

The government says it is ready for talks but protest leaders insist Home Minister Krishna Prasad Sitaula, whom they accuse of using excessive force, must resign first.

Kathmandu, Thursday, Reuters