The mass assassination two weeks ago of Nepal's King Birendra and seven
other members of the royal family is seen by a majority of the Nepalese
people (including a large community here in the U.S.) as an unparalleled
tragedy. The King enjoyed great popularity among the populace as a force
that held the country together. His murder, allegedly at the hands of his
own son, Prince Dipendra, leaves many unanswered questions. With no
thorough forensics investigation of the crime scene and no autopsy of the
bodies, these questions may remain unanswered.

The panel investigating the killings released its findings
today. With only seven days to gather data, no access to the already
cremated remains of the victims, and a loss of one third of its membership
(with the resignation of nominee Medhav Nepal), the panel was unlikely to
produce answers that will satisfy a very skeptical Nepalese citizenry. Many are seriously question the reconstruction of events on that night.

In addition to the concerns over half-truths and obfuscation by the
authorities, fears of a possible right-wing crack down were fueled last
week with the arrest of Yubaraj Ghimire, editor of the nation's largest
daily (over 800,000 circulation) for treason. Ghimire and two colleagues
were taken into custody last Thursday after the paper published a guest
editorial asserting that the killings might be part of a conspiracy. Held
together in a small cell, the three journalists have been denied permission
to give interviews and were not even questioned by officials until
Wednesday. They are scheduled to be formally charged before a judge today. The case has drawn the attention of Amnesty International, the Committee to Protect Journalists, and even U.S. State Department spokesperson Richard Boucher, all of whom have condemned this as
an attack on freedom of the press.

The dramatic events catapulted Nepal into the headlines of newspapers
across the globe, but a real tragedy for the Nepali people is that no one
has paid any notice to their day-to-day reality before now.

Under great pressure from a popular pro-democracy uprising in 1990, King
Birendra presided over the change from a one-party "panchayat" system to a
multiparty parliamentary government. While this shift created many new
openings for democratic institutions, it fell short of a full revision of
the constitution with popular input. Many of the social and economic
inequalities remained unaddressed, and globalization has led to land speculation, the selling off of lucrative industries, closure of 600 factories and it has hastened an increasing disparity between rich and poor. Some leaders of the 1990
movement now say they feel these shortcomings have set the stage for
today's conflicts.

Since February of 1996, the Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist has undertaken
what they call a "Peoples War". Among their stated goals is to "put an end
to bureaucratic capitalism and a state of semi-feudalism" in which 70% of
the population lives below the poverty line, and 10% are the landlords of
65% of the arable land.

The insurgency has so far claimed over 1700 lives and brought about
massive repression from the government. Journalists are particularly
targeted, and one reporter was jailed for merely interviewing a
Maoist leader. Meanwhile, support for the Maoists in rural Nepal has grown
by leaps and bounds, in part due to the population's hatred for the police
and the economic desperation in the agricultural sector. Maoist units have
set up local governments in some communities and are now offering
previously unavailable social services and security to the residents.

The "Peoples War" has also brought about increasing pressure on the
government. With a great deal of territory now under Maoist control, IMF
and World Bank officials are said to be pushing for a negotiated
settlement. On March 6, Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala did concede to
one Maoist demand by publicly releasing a list of names of people who
had been disappeared. But of the 83 cited by Maoist negotiators as
unaccounted for, only three showed up on this official list, leading many
to call it woefully incomplete. It is estimated that about 1000 people are
currently in jail for political reasons, many being held under detention
without trial.

This small step was seen by some as opening the possibility of dialogue
between the government and the guerillas, but since then the Prime Minister
has steadfastly refused to engage in further negotiations. Koirala, has instead moved to deploy the army, under the guise of development, into several rural districts. The Army, currently suffering under across-the-board budget cuts, and having not engaged in combat for over two hundred years, is loath to enter into a campaign they may clearly lose.

Meanwhile, the Nepali government is facing serious challenges within its
own ranks. Parliament has been brought to a standstill for over two months
due to a corruption scandal called the "Lauda Air Deal" in which Prime
Minister Koirala has been accused of massive siphoning of funds from the
leasing of over-priced Boeing jets. The Commission for Investigation of
Abuse of Authority (CIAA) ruled last week that, while the Prime Minister
was not directly implicated, it did occur under his administration and
further questions were warranted.

The business of government in Nepal has ground to a complete halt, and
issues of national import like passing the country's budget are delayed
indefinitely. On May 27, the six left parties in Parliament called a 3-day
General Strike (or "bandh") which shut down the entire country. Leaders of
the CPN-UML, largest of the opposition parties, have called the bandh a
success for its complete shutdown of the country, even though it did not
achieve its key objective - the immediate resignation of the Prime Minister.

Over 45 members of Prime Minister Koirala's own Congress Party are also
calling for his resignation, including two close allies the Deputy Prime
Minister and Foreign Minister. Signatures are being gathered for a no
confidence vote within the party, a move Koirala has survived in the
past. But the opposition coalition, too, is planning additional
actions including a mobilization of 400-500,000 Nepalis to come to the
capital and occupy the streets of Kathmandu. One activist in Nepal says that preemptive arrests are already beginning in an attempt to head off this occupation, and all plans seem to be on hold in the wake of the royal killings.

The land, which is known to most of the world as the home of Mt. Everest,
truly has a mountain of internal problems and contradictions that threaten
to unravel the constitutional government. The assassination of King
Birendra may be the last bit of precipitation that triggers the landslide.

By Norman Stockwell
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Stockwell is a freelance journalist based in Madison, Wisconsin. He has reported for various publications from Nicaragua, Mexico, Cuba and El Salvador. In 1990 he covered the pro-democracy movement in Nepal for WORT Community Radio in Madison.
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