State of emergency declared
From correspondents in Kathmandu
01feb05

NEPAL's King Gyanendra has declared a state of emergency after dismissing the government and taking charge of the country, which is fighting a Maoist insurgency, state media announced.

"A state of emergency has been enforced across the country," suspending all fundamental rights of citizens, state run radio and television said.
Political leaders accused the king of staging a coup.

"I have exercised the rights given to the crown under the present constitution and dissolved the government in the larger interests of the people," the king said in an address on nationwide television.

King Gyanendra, who sacked Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba for the second time in two years, said he would head the new government and form a council of ministers.









He promised to "restore democracy and law and order in the country in the next three years".

"For the larger interest of the Nepalese general public, the nation and democracy and people's fundamental rights, we have decided to form a new government under my own chairmanship."

Opposition leaders said King Gyanendra, who ascended the throne after a palace massacre in 2001, had staged a new coup.

Residents of Kathmandu, reached by telephone said outgoing landline telephone and mobile phone links had been cut.

"The king has staged a coup and taken over the country's administration and other powers into his own hands," Sujata Koirala, leader of the women's wing of the Nepali Congress and daughter of a former prime minister, said.

The King also had Kathmandu's airport shut down, and flights to Nepal were turned back, airline officials said. "We are told that Kathmandu is shut down today due to a general strike after the king fired the government," an official of state-run Indian Airlines said.

It was not immediately known when air links would be restored.

Of four daily flights between New Delhi and Kathmandu, operated by different airlines, three were not allowed to land while the fourth, leaving later in the day, was cancelled.

Road links between India and landlocked Nepal were, however, open, an Indian customs official said.

"The border is open. Trade is taking place and there is movement of people," a customs inspector said from the border town of Jogbani in the eastern Indian state of Bihar.

"So far there is no problem. Everything looks normal."

Troops and armed police patrolled the streets of Kathmandu and surrounded the palace and other key sites such as government buildings.

State radio said the king had suspended some articles of the 1991 constitution but did not say which.

Several key leaders including those of the Nepal Communist Party-United Marxist and Leninist, the main partners in the former coalition government, were under house arrest, party sources said.

Security forces were barring entry to Mr Deuba's residence, witnesses said.

The king accused political parties of "indulging in factional fighting".

"All the democratic forces and political leaders should have united to protect the country's democracy," King Gyanendra said in his half-hour speech.

"Innocent children were found massacred and the government could not achieve any important and effective results.

"The crown traditionally is held responsible for the protection of national sovereignty, democracy and people's right to live peacefully."

The king summoned Mr Deuba last night to discuss the "law-and-order situation and the proposed elections", a former cabinet minister and Deuba confidant said.

Mr Deuba had promised to hold long-postponed elections after the rebels, fighting to topple the monarchy and set up a communist republic, failed to respond to his mid-January ultimatum to agree to peace talks.

But he had not set a date and his coalition partners opposed holding elections before negotiations resumed with the rebels, who had vowed to sabotage the polls.

The Maoist conflict which has claimed more than 11,000 lives since 1996, has become increasingly bloody in the past couple of years.

The king first sacked Mr Deuba in 2002 and branded him incompetent for failing to hold elections and fight the Maoist revolt. He also dissolved the parliament.

But King Gyanendra recalled the veteran politician last year, ordering him to hold elections and resume talks with Maoists after international and domestic pressure grew on him to restore democracy.

Last week, the king of nearby Bhutan warned of a "real threat" that the Maoist revolt in Nepal could escalate out of control with negative implications India and his own tiny Himalayan kingdom.

"We sincerely hope ... some initiatives will be taken by the political parties in Nepal to resolve the Maoist problem," King Jigme Singye Wangchuk said.

Gyanendra became king in June 2001 after his brother King Birendra and most of the royal family were shot dead by the former crown prince, who was high on drink and drugs.

The crown prince also killed himself.


http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/st...255E401,00.html