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Blasts as Nepal set to ban monarchy

King Gyanendra expected to leave palace in Kathmandu after vote by special assembly.

Nepal king
Gyanendra is expected to vacate his palace in  Kathmandu soon after the vote [AFP]
Published On 28 May 2008
Five bombs have exploded over the past three days, as tensions mount ahead of the vote.
 
“This is an epoch-making day, a historic day that is at the height of the years of struggle by the Nepalese people since the 1950s,” said Prachanda, leader of the Maoists, referring to a decade-long campaign that began in 1996 in which more than 13,000 people died.
 
“It has come after struggle and sacrifice by thousands of martyrs.”
 
Abolishing the 239-year-old monarchy was a key part of the peace deal with former Maoist fighters, who emerged as the largest political party in elections in April.
 
Rallies banned
 
Thousands of anti-monarchists have vowed to take to the streets to celebrate the end of the monarchy, despite a ban on rallies near the assembly venue and other royal sites.
 
The government said on Tuesday that it could use force to throw Gyanendra out of the palace if he refuses to leave.

“The king must leave the palace immediately and move to the Nirmal Niwas,” Ram Chandra Poudel, peace and reconstruction minister, said, referring to Gyanendra’s private home.

“If he does not leave the palace, then the government might have to use force to [make him] vacate the palace. This will not be good for him.”

Mystique broken

Nepal’s kings are believed by many of their people to be reincarnated gods.

But Nepalis say much of the mystique of the royal family was broken after the 2001 palace massacre in which Birendra, the popular king, and eight other royals were killed by then Crown Prince Dipendra, who later turned the gun on himself.

That image was further tarnished after Gyanendra fired the government and assumed absolute powers in 2005, only to be humbled by weeks of anti-royalist protests a year later.

King Gyanendra, widely viewed as unpopular, is expected to leave his palace in the Kathmandu soon after the vote, although he has made no comment on his plans.

Already his face has been erased from Nepal’s currency, and his portraits removed from the walls.

All state allowances and benefits for Gyanendra will be stopped from Wednesday.

Lok Raj Baral, of the Nepal Centre for Contemporary Studies, said: “This is the demand of the time and we have to move according to that demand.

“That is why I think even if we will have a worse, very turbulent phase, we have no other option but to go through it.”

Source: News Agencies