NEPAL: Pro-democracy protests escalate

April 26, 2006
Issue 

Eva Cheng

Police opened fire on April 20 on tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters who defied a dawn-to-dusk curfew to march toward the centre of the Nepalese capital, Kathmandu, according to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights bureau. Doctors at Model hospital in Kathmandu said three people had died and more than 40 were in critical condition, mostly with head injuries from rubber bullets.

The following day, in a broadcast to the nation, King Gyanendra announced an offer to hand over executive power, which was rejected as "meaningless" by opposition parties. Reuters reported that on April 22, more than 100,000 protesters marched in Kathmandu shouting "The royal proclamation is a sham!" and "We want complete democracy!" Police used tear gas and opened fire on the demonstration, injuring more than 100 people.

Following the April 20 protests, UN human rights officials in Nepal called the use of deadly police force against unarmed pro-democracy demonstrators "inexcusable" and said the government had violated agreements by banning the deployment of UN monitoring teams during the curfew.

The curfew was imposed by Gyanendra to suppress street protests accompanying a general strike called for April 6-9 by the alliance of Nepal's seven main political parties. Tens of thousands of people defied the curfew to join demonstrations demanding the restoration of parliamentary government, abolished by the king in February 2005.

Former King Birendra was forced to introduce a parliamentary system of government in 1990 following a wave of similar protests.

Seeking to break the momentum of the protest movement, on April 14 - New Year's Day in Nepal - the king offered to hold an election in 12 months' time. But the seven parties refused to back off from their central demand that he immediately hand over power to a popularly elected government.

On April 16, following a 100,000-strong rally a day earlier and another 50,000-strong protest that day, the seven parties called for a boycott of tax payments, customs duties, interest on loans from state banks and payments to government-run utilities. They have also called on international donors to stop providing funds to Gyanendra's government and for a halt to remittances by overseas Nepalese workers.

The seven-party alliance, formed last year, comprises the Nepali Congress party, the Communist Party of Nepal (United Marxist-Leninist), Nepali Congress (Democratic), Janamorcha Nepal, Nepal Workers and Peasants Party, Nepal Sadbhawana Party and the United Left Front.

The alliance is also supported by the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), which has been leading a guerrilla struggle in the rural areas of Nepal since 1996.

Since the general strike started on April 6, public life and commercial activity in Kathmandu and most other urban centres has been brought to a virtual standstill.

Protest actions have occurred almost every day in at least a dozen locations in the capital alone, with street rallies attracting thousands of protesters. One CPN (UML) activist died on April 5 after being badly beaten by riot police during a demonstration that day.

On April 18 Bloomberg.com reported that at least six protesters had died as a result of police attacks on protests, that a total of 1500 demonstrators had been wounded and at least 1000 people had been arrested since April 6.

On April 9, mass protests were held in five Indian cities by Nepalese migrants and their supporters in solidarity with the pro-democracy movement in Nepal. The rally in New Delhi attracted 20,000 participants.

From Green Left Weekly, April 26, 2006.
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