Nepali protesters continue to defy curfew

Protesters gather around a barrier at Kalanki in Kathmandu. Picture / Reuters

KATHMANDU - Thousands of protesters defied a daytime curfew in the Nepali capital today to chant slogans against the king, but the demonstrations seemed less intense and more peaceful than in recent days.

Nevertheless, at least 23 people were injured in clashes between police and protesters in different parts of the city, some hit by rubber bullets, according to an official at a private hospital.

King Gyanendra's offer on Saturday to hand over power to an alliance of seven political parties has failed to quell protests against his rule, which entered an 18th day today.

Instead, a movement which started out with the aim of restoring democracy has, for some of its participants at least, now more radical goals.

"Police and soldiers, you are our brothers -- shoot Gyanendra," one group chanted at rows of padded and helmeted riot police wielding sticks and shields.

Behind the police, soldiers in green camouflage uniforms gripped submachine guns and automatic rifles, with orders to shoot to kill if the crowd broke through.

"We will burn the crown and we will run the country," the crowds chanted. "Gyanendra, thief, leave the country."

Today's protests were largely confined to the ring road surrounding the capital. Although the road lies within the curfew zone, large stretches are in the hands of the protesters, with burning logs and tyres blocking access to security forces.

In the north of the city, a group of protesters carried a wooden stretcher with an effigy of a dead Gyanendra, ostensibly on its way to cremation.

Others hung a rat from electricity wires, a banner hanging from its body saying "Gyanendra is dead, God is great". In a country where many people traditionally revered the monarch as a Hindu god, the sentiments break a centuries-old taboo.

In the interior of Kathmandu, streets were devoid of traffic and shops shuttered, but tension appeared to have considerably eased. Children played football and badminton on the street and people came out of their houses, chatting in small groups.

Elsewhere in the country, about 200,000 people took part in a rally in Dang, a government-held town in western Nepal. Tens of thousands also marched in the southern town of Narayanghat, which has seen some of the largest protests against the king.

Another major rally is planned for Kathmandu on Wednesday, activists said, with party leaders vowing to take to the streets themselves for the first time since the latest protests began.

Yesterday more than 100,000 people broke into Kathmandu's city centre and police opened fire in at least two places to beat them back.

At least 150 people were wounded in the police action and a stampede that broke out when the marchers were dispersed, witnesses and political activists said.

The seven-party alliance which has led the protests has rejected Gyanendra's offer to hand over executive power to a prime minister of their choosing.

The parties do not trust the king, and want the constitution to be changed to curb his powers. That is also a key demand of Maoist rebels who control much of the countryside and entered a loose alliance with the parties last year against the king.

"The king is misleading the people," said Akkala Gurung, 36, a finance company worker and protests regular who wants Nepal to become a "democratic republic". "We are not afraid to die, we have to die one day anyway," she said.

The king sacked the government and took full powers in February 2005, vowing to crush a decade-long Maoist revolt in which more than 13,000 people have died.

Given the mood on the streets, the parties are wary of being seen to compromise with the monarch. They want parliament, dissolved in 2002, to be revived and the army -- which is loyal to the king -- put under its control.

The invisible hand of the Maoists may also be fuelling and radicalising the protests, analysts say.

The alliance has been agitating since April 6 to force Gyanendra to restore multi-party democracy. At least 12 people have been killed and thousands wounded in protests since then.

- REUTERS