April 19, 2006 - 0 comments
 
The political turmoil in the neighboring nation - Nepal has finally got an arbiter. To calm down fellow nation’s ten-year old communist insurgency India today decided to send a senior Congress leader and Rajya Sabha member, Dr Karan Singh, to Nepal tomorrow as the Special Envoy of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Karan who not only is a senior parliamentarian but also shoulders ancestral links with the Nepalese Royal family will convey a “firm” message to King Gyanendra for starting a “meaningful” dialogue with the political parties. The country's peace herald will be joined by Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran in Kathmandu (has been India’s Ambassador in Kathmandu earlier).
Today is the 14th day of the protests, launched by the seven-party political alliance stressing the ongoing political regime in the nation for immediate handover of power to the people and elections to a constituent assembly to draft a new constitution. The ongoing talks between the King with three former Nepalese Prime Ministers yesterday have displayed no results too. Nepal's royal Government today declared an 18-hour curfew in the capital in a bid to thwart the protest which is getting fiercer day by day and has which have crippled normal life in the capital bringing it to a standstill. The curfew would begin at 2 am and end at 8 pm tomorrow, officials said.
Thousands of passengers have been stranded with the strike and Nepal’s capital is facing shortages of fresh food, cooking gas and gasoline. The demonstrations in the country have turned violent with security forces firing rubber bullets into crowds and beating protesters. So far, at least six people have died, and there were reports of the police shooting several more in the eastern part of the country on Wednesday.
As said by the spokesman for the U.N. human rights office in Nepal, Kieran Dwyer rights workers have already witnessed several examples of the police using excessive force against protesters. "Police firing rubber bullets into crowds of demonstrators, as well as police using latti charges - latties of course are long sticks. One of the problems particularly with those is, we're seeing police often aiming at the head, and therefore sometimes causing serious injuries. We've also observed a pattern of severe beatings of individuals once they've already been brought under the control of the police." he said.
The protests are the worst unrest Gyanendra has faced since he sacked the government and seized power 14 months ago. The king credited his act as a move to restore political order in the country and end a communist insurgency that has left nearly 13,000 people dead in the past decade and made holding elections impossible. King Gyanendra has promised parliamentary elections next year, which he says will pave the way for a return to democracy.
The opposition however does not seem convinced to end the protest over King’s assuage. Opposition member J.N. Khanal stating that the demonstrators will break through police barriers to demonstrate in the heart of the capital further added, "We will have to encircle the palace, encircle King Gyanendra. And he's not listening to our voice, the people's voice. We have to make him hear." In the western resort town of Pokhara some 250 teachers were rounded up as they defied a daylong curfew imposed in the tourist town. Fresh protests and demonstrations also broke out in the southwestern town of Nepalgunj on Wedensday.
Dr Karan who will be meeting political party leaders at Nepal and discuss the situation there stated that New Delhi does not want to interfere in Nepal's internal affairs, but it also does not want its neighboring country to fall into chaos.
