Nepal

[guerrillaradio]

Anyone been keeping track of this??

Basically, most of the Royal Family was massacred about 3 years ago by what the survivors claim was one of the princes, but it's suspected that the beneficiaries of said massacre (the current King and his unpopular son) were involved in some way. hence, the country went into civil unrest, the government went really corrupt and in 2002 the King suspended Parliament. The 8 year battle with the Maoist guerrillas (based in the Himalayas) intensified and there were huge anti-monarchist protests in the cities led by students. In response to this, the King's just announced that he wants democracy to return but the students have replied by calling a 7 day general strike and the Maoists have been blowing up bridges nearby where he gave this speech.

All in all it's pretty crazy.

[Kez]

any sources for this?

[kingbee]

christ, i was reading something earlier on in the station in the week (sums up all the media for the week in uk)

it was saying how the nepalese communists are, instead of taking foreign tourists hostage, they are asking for donations of say $5. the tourists see this as "unique" and a "tale to tell their friends".

then the article goes on to say how they then use this money to send "terror" across the country, beheading and crucifying (!) those who have been suspected of collaborating witht the goverment.

bollocks, i say.

[guerrillaradio]

This (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=%2Fnews%2F2004%2F02%2F09%2Fwnepal09 .xml&secureRefresh=true&_requestid=28085) is the article I read...but you have to have a Torygraph account to read it.

This (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/3465507.stm) is kinda related news from Friday.

This (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/3451099.stm) is about the anti-monarchist protests from last week.

And this (http://www.bbc.co.uk/cgi-bin/search/results.pl?q=nepal&tab=news&go=homepage&x=54&y=17) should help you attempt to understand the situation as a whole.