Nepal’s PM: King should step down

NEPAL: Nepal’s prime minister said the country’s embattled king should step down, accusing him of helping those trying to “destabilise the country.”

Girija Prasad Koirala said King Gyanendra should have abdicated in the wake of massive protests last April, state-run Nepal Television reported.

“Had the king and crown prince stepped down, a new situation would have been created,” Koirala said.

“Even now a new environment would be created if the king abdicates voluntarily,” he added, in remarks made to reporters from state-run media. The prime minister’s comments mark a turnaround in his position regarding the 238-year-old Shah dynasty.

Until Monday, Koirala was seen as one of the few political leaders who wanted to retain some form of ceremonial monarchy in the impoverished Himalayan nation.

Nepal’s government and former rebel Maoists signed a peace deal that ended a decade-long insurgency late last year. Mainstream political parties and the extreme leftists made a loose alliance in November 2005 after King Gyanendra took direct control earlier that year.

Massive street protests last April, organised by the sidelined political parties and rebel Maoists, forced Gyanendra to end his direct rule and reinstate parliament.

Since Gyanendra’s climbdown the government has stripped him of nearly all his powers, including his role as head of the army. Government institutions have been renamed, and the state bank has decided to remove images of the king from its banknotes.

As part of the peace deal, the government and rebels have agreed to hold elections to a body that will rewrite Nepal’s constitution, and decide the future, if any, of the monarchy in Nepal.

Meanwhile a major ethnic group in southeast Nepal, which is fighting for improved political rights, vowed not to pay taxes or allow imports from India.

Ethnic Mahadeshis from the lowland Terai region bordering India have been protesting for greater representation in national politics by holding strikes in their region, that have left at least 32 dead since January.

The group said it will now end protests in their own region and instead cut off the country’s economic lifeline to India, the source of all fuel and many essential commodities for Nepal.

“All the customs office will be totally shut down from Tuesday and we have called on all Mahadhesi people not to pay tax to the government,” said Yadhav, president of the Mahadhesi Janadhikar (People’s Rights) Forum.

Last week, Nepal’s parliament approved an amendment to the country’s interim constitution to increase parliamentary representation for some ethnic groups in an effort to diffuse tension.

Kathmandu, Tuesday, AFP