The Hindu : Front Page : Gyanendra yields, restores Parliament

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Apr 25, 2006

Front Page

Front Page

Gyanendra yields, restores Parliament

KATHMANDU: Nepal's embattled King Gyanendra on Monday reinstated the lower house of Parliament and offered solace for those killed in weeks of pro-democracy protests, hoping to avoid a bloody showdown between his security forces and demonstrators.

``We extend our heartfelt condolences to all those who have lost their lives in the people's movement,'' Gyanendra said in the address, broadcast on state television and radio.

The sound of celebratory shouting and whistling could be heard in Kathmandu just minutes after the speech, which he made at 11:30 p.m. local time (1730 GMT).

Nepal's largest opposition party welcomed the speech.

Gyanendra ``has addressed the spirit of the people's movement'' and met the demands of the main opposition seven-party alliance, said Ram Chandra Poudel, general secretary of the Nepali Congress.

The reinstatement of Parliament was a key demand of the alliance, which has been leading weeks of pro-democracy protests that have brought Nepal to the brink of chaos.

Parliament's lower house holds real elected power in the country's constitution. The upper house is largely symbolic.

The speech came one day before what was planned to be the largest protest yet.

``We are confident the nation will forge ahead toward sustainable peace, progress, full-fledged democracy and national unity,'' Gyanendra said in the brief address.

Nation paralysed by protests

Protests have rocked Kathmandu and many other towns for nearly three weeks, and police have clashed repeatedly with demonstrators demanding Gyanendra relinquish the absolute power he seized 14 months ago when he dismissed an interim government, saying he needed to bring order to the country's chaotic political situation and crush a Maoist insurgency.

The protests and general strike have paralysed the country, with the capital locked down by repeated curfews, roads blocked by protesters and food and fuel increasingly scarce.

Nepal's main political parties and the Maoist insurgents, who have seized much of the countryside in a decade of violence, launched the campaign on April 6.

On Monday, pro-democracy protesters again faced off against security forces in Kathmandu.

Protests were also held in dozens of towns across Nepal, according to local news reports, with demonstrators blocking roads with barricades of chopped-down trees and burning tires.

In the western resort town of Pokhara, 10,000 protesters marched through the heart of the town, including many government workers.

Six killed in clash

Also Monday, Nepalese security forces in a mountain town fought back an attack by Maoist guerrillas that left six people dead.

Five Maoist rebels and a government soldier died after the guerrillas attacked security bases and government buildings overnight in the north-central town of Chautara, sparking gunbattles that lasted into Monday morning, said a statement from Defense Ministry spokesman Indiresh Dahal.

U.S. directive to embassy staff

Amid the increasing chaos, the U.S. State Department earlier Monday ordered all non-emergency embassy staff and family members to leave Nepal, according to an embassy spokesman, Robert Hugins. He said about half of the mission's staff would leave.

Ambassador James F. Moriarty also recommended that all Americans in Nepal should consider leaving ``because of the uncertain security conditions,'' an embassy statement said. China, Australia and Denmark are among the countries that have also warned people against traveling to the kingdom.

Meanwhile, police fired tear gas and rubber bullets Monday at a group of protesters marching along the northern edge of the Ring Road, which circles the city. At least seven people were injured, independent Kantipur radio reported.

Opposition parties said they expected hundreds of thousands of people at Tuesday's planned protests.

- AP

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