Policemen remove a roadblock set up by opposition party supporters in Katmandu, Nepal, Tuesday April 11, 2006. Although most parts of Katmandu remained peaceful opposition party supporters clashed with policemen in isolated pockets.

(AP Photo/Binod Joshi) Sphere: Related Content

Left endorses US stand on Nepal as it asks PM to push it forward

Ananda Majumdar
Posted online: Wednesday, April 12, 2006 at 0000 hrs

NEW DELHI, April 11: Despite its strong anti-American stand on Indo-US engagement, the Left parties find themselves on the same platform as the US on the question of restoration of democracy in Nepal as they push the UPA Government to mobilise international opinion to bring popular rule to the Himalayan Kingdom.

So much so that when US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack issued a statement that King Gyanendra’s decision to impose direct palace rule had failed in every regard and he must now restore democracy immediately and begin talks with political parties, the Left endorsed that as a “strong statement.”

One difference between the US and the Left is that while Washington does not recognise the Maoists, the Left—despite their strong battle with the Maoists in India—have brought them into the negotiations on Nepal’s future.

Using the US statement as a sign of growing international opinion against Nepal’s monarchy, CPM’s Sitaram Yechury and Nationalist Congress Party’s D P Tripathy met the Prime Minister today. The two, part of India’s 12-party Nepal solidarity committee, made two specific suggestions to Manmohan Singh: India use its good offices to mobilise international opinion and be sympathetic to Nepalese who flee from repression.

The PM responded that India wanted establishment of multiparty democracy in Nepal, and had suspended arms supply."

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Nepal King Orders Protesters Shot on Sight

Nepalese policemen during a protest rally. Nepal's government slapped a daytime curfew on the capital and warned violators could be shot in a bid to thwart anti-royal protests as the army said clashes with Maoist rebels left at least 12 dead in the west of the country.

(AFP/Devendra Man Singh) Sphere: Related Content

Unrest shuts down Nepal, leaves 22 dead - World - smh.com.au

april 7, 2006

KATHMANDU: At least 22 people were killed when Maoist guerillas attacked a district town hours before a strike against the monarchy shut down Nepal yesterday.

Roads across the country of 26 million people were deserted as the strike, called by opponents of King Gyanendra, began. Businesses and schools were shut despite the Government's call on people not to heed the strike call.

In the capital, Kathmandu, the centre of the campaign, hundreds of riot police and soldiers, some of them in armoured vehicles, patrolled deserted streets, while activists burnt tyres on roads to enforce the closure.

The leftist rebels struck Malangwa, a town 350 kilometres south-east of Kathmandu, on Wednesday.

They stormed through the town, firing at soldiers guarding government offices and security posts and attacked a local jail and freed more than 100 inmates, among them some of their comrades, before fleeing.

Six policemen, six guerillas and two civilians were killed in the fighting, police said.

An army helicopter carrying troops to the area crashed near Malangwa, killing eight of the 10 soldiers on board, an army officer said. The other two men were missing.

The seven main political parties had called for the strike, defying a government ban on protests. Although the guerillas, who are fighting to establish a communist state, are supporting the political groups as part of a pact against the king, they are not taking part in the protests.

Activists and politicians were detained on the eve of the strike in an effort to scuttle it, and a curfew was imposed to prevent Maoists infiltrating the protests. Sphere: Related Content