Fresh curfew imposed in Kathmandu as protests continue

Nepal yesterday imposed a fresh 12-hour curfew in a bid to quell widespread protests in the Kathmandu valley and other parts of the Kingdom as public anger continued to boil over following the killing on Friday of 10 royals, including King Birendra.

Police resorted to baton charge and firing, resulting in dozens being injured, of whom three were children. Unconfirmed reports said the death toll in yesterday's police and army firings climbed to nine.

In an apparent attempt to appease popular demands for justice, the country's new monarch, King Gyanendra announced an inquiry into the massacre at the royal palace. The king set up a three-member committee headed by the chief justice, with the parliament speaker and leader of the Opposition as the other two members. The committee is to submit its report in three days. He pledged to make the findings public. In the same royal proclamation, the King also expressed his commitment to multi-party parliamentary democracy and the constitutional monarchy.

But the move swiftly ran into trouble as one of the people named to the committee, main opposition leader Madhav Kumar Nepal, refused to participate, saying the committee was formed by the King without the Cabinet's recommendation. His Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) standing committee argued that, constitutionally, the proposal should have come from the prime minister rather than the king.

Observers said the opposition leader had made a politically astute move, having recognised that a seat on the panel could be a poisoned chalice, given the public's expectations.

But the spokesperson of the ruling Nepali Congress said that the main opposition party "should have displayed responsibility instead of precipitating the whole situation by backing out of the committee".

Despite the 12-hour curfew with "shoot at sight" orders that began at 12 noon yesterday, people were out on the streets shouting slogans against the new King and his son and pelting stones.

In the absence of any credible official explanation to the massacre, the people were convinced that the former Crown Prince Dipendra could not have killed his own mother and sister whom he loved deeply. There are also questions about the curious happenstance of the entire family of the new King surviving the massacre.