Nepal Maoists step up pressure to abolish monarchy

KATHMANDU: Nepal’s Maoists stepped up demands Monday for the immediate abolition of the Himalayan nation’s monarchy, rejecting a new proposal to replace an unpopular king with a four-year-old prince.Nepal’s prime minister, a political moderate seen as sympathetic to the idea of keeping the throne, said King Gyanendra and his equally unpopular son, Crown Prince Paras, should step aside and make way for young Prince Hridayendra, the next in line. The new infant king would therefore have a strictly ceremonial role, and this could also reconcile ordinary Nepalis with an institution that has been badly damaged by Gyanendra’s failed attempt to cling to absolute power.

The Maoists, however, angrily rejected Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala’s proposal. “Our party will not accept any form of monarchy, whether that is a child king or his grandfather,” Ananta, the deputy commander of the Maoist’s People’s Liberation Army, told AFP. “Our party totally rejects the prime minister’s remarks, and this goes against the spirit of the eight-party alliance,” said the official, who like many of the ultra-leftists only uses one name.Other partners in Nepal’s coalition government were also wary about the proposal. “Koirala’s attempt to save the monarchy is unacceptable for our party,” said Jhala Nath Khanal, a senior leader of Communist Party of Nepal. “Our party has always been in favour of abolition of the monarchy and will not review our decision in the future,” said Khanal whose party, like the Maoists, has 83 MPs in the 330-seat interim parliament. Palace officials refused to comment on the prime minister’s remarks.

Meanwhile, about 300 relatives of people who disappeared during Nepal’s decade-long Maoist conflict protested in Kathmandu on Monday demanding to know the fate of their loved ones. Protesters carrying placards bearing photographs of their relatives sat outside Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala’s official residence demanding the whereabouts of family members detained by troops in the civil war. The International Committee of the Red Cross says it has received reports of 943 people who went missing - presumed kidnapped and murdered - in the war. Nepal’s Supreme Court asked the government this month to pay compensation to dozens of families of the missing people and investigate disappearances. Last week, Human Rights Watch and the International Commission of Jurists said Nepal’s interim government should quickly investigate thousands of disappearances. agencies

Source: The Daily Times, June 19, 2007