Posted on 09/01/2004 7:48:14 AM PDT by Alouette
KATHMANDU (AFP) - Thousands of people rampaged through Kathmandu, setting fire to a mosque and Arab targets and ransacking employment agencies after 12 Nepalese hostages were murdered in Iraq.
Two men were shot and slightly wounded by security guards when they tried to storm the Egyptian embassy, which represents Iraqi interests in the Himalayan kingdom, police and a doctor said.
The streets returned to normal after the government clamped an indefinite curfew and declared a national day of mourning Thursday for the victims of the worst hostage massacre in Iraq since the US-led invasion.
Demonstrators, some chanting "Punish the Muslims!", swept through Kathmandu early Wednesday, throwing stones and ransacking any targets with Arabic-language script.
Protesters climbed on top of and set fire to the Jama Masjid mosque, the largest shrine of the city's small Muslim minority, after pulling out its furniture and electrical equipment for a sidewalk bonfire.
Riot police used batons to push the crowd of some 5,000 people out of a sensitive central area which includes King Gyanendra's Narayanhity Palace, a police officer said.
The mosque suffered only minor damage but many of its contents were destroyed.
The protests erupted late Tuesday after news that the 12, who left the impoverished nation in search of jobs, were murdered by militants who abducted them about 10 days ago.
The kidnappers accused them of cooperating with US forces.
A mob made up mainly of youths broke windows of more than a dozen employment agencies blamed for sending Nepalese to Iraq and set fire to their vehicles, furniture and computers, police said.
An employee at Qatar Airways, one of the main airlines used by Nepalese seeking jobs in the Middle East, said dozens of angry people stormed into their premises and smashed furniture before setting the building on fire.
The employee estimated damage in the tens of thousands of dollars.
Many protesters also demanded the resignation of Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, saying he should take responsibility for the failure to free the hostages.
The government had repeatedly stressed that Nepal, which is fighting a bloody Maoist rebellion, was not part of the US-led coalition in Iraq.
Deuba appealed for calm in an address to the nation Wednesday.
"The terrorists who committed this gruesome act don't have any religion or principles. I call upon all citizens of Nepal to have patience," he said.
"We made honest efforts to save them but the militants never spelt out their conditions," Deuba said. "We are now trying our best to bring back the bodies of the victims."
His government announced compensation of one million rupees (14,400 dollars) for the families of each of the 12 slain hostages, a major sum in the one of the world's poorest countries.
The Himalayan capital's skies were patrolled by army helicopters, which were last called out last week when Maoist rebels fighting to overthrow the monarchy ordered a halt to traffic to and from the city of 1.5 million people.
Hindus make up more than 86 percent of the population in Nepal, the world's only officially Hindu state. But the kingdom has experienced little of the inter-religious violence that has scarred neighbouring India.
Muslims account for 3.8 percent of the 27 million population. Some 7.8 percent adhere to Buddhism in Nepal, which is the birthplace of the Buddha, with smaller religions comprising 2.2 percent.
Spontaneous protest strikes were called in the towns of Pokhara, Gorkha and Biratnagar with youths taking to the streets to stop vehicles.
A statement announcing the killings was posted on an Islamist website by an Al-Qaeda-linked group called the Army of Ansar al-Sunna.
It was accompanied by pictures of the grisly beheading of a blindfolded hostage, including one where his bloodied head was held up like a trophy by a hooded captor. A video showed the other Nepalese being shot.
Yeah møøselimbs are only the combatants in 20 of the 22 active conflicts on earth. Not all of them.
Just 90%...
One of my nieces is married to an English PhD living in Houston. He has a relative who teaches English to members of the Royal Gurkha Rifles somewhere in England and was still doing so within the last six months so I assume they are still around.
By Gopal Sharma
KATHMANDU (Reuters) - Nepali police shot dead two men on Wednesday after crowds attacked a mosque in Kathmandu and charged through the streets chanting "Down with Islam" to protest against the killing of 12 Nepalis in Iraq.
Protesters stormed inside the city's main mosque, set furniture and carpets on fire and tore up a copy of the Koran, before police drove them out.
Authorities clamped an indefinite curfew on the capital and later fired on a group who gathered in downtown Kathmandu despite the ban, killing one man, an official said.
Another man was killed and three wounded when police fired to break a mob trying to storm the Egyptian Embassy in Kathmandu before the curfew was imposed, the interior ministry said.
Calm gradually returned after the curfew took effect at 2 p.m. (0815 GMT) and most of the capital's streets emptied.
King Gyanendra urged people of different faiths to stay calm in the Hindu nation already torn by a Maoist revolt.
"We must ensure this tragic incident does not weaken the age-old fraternal ties, unity and mutual tolerance that exists among the Nepalese people," the royal palace said in a statement.
A militant Iraqi group said on Tuesday it had killed the 12 Nepali hostages, who went to Iraq to work as cooks and cleaners for a Jordanian firm. It showed pictures of one being beheaded and the others with bullet wounds to the head and back.
Earlier, crowds of people burst into the offices of Saudi Arabian Airlines and Qatar Airways, smashing windows and taking papers and furniture on to the street to burn.
Police lobbed teargas shells and fired water cannon at about 3,000 demonstrators burning tyres at a main intersection near the Jama Masjid mosque in the heart of the city.
For much of the day, a pall of smoke hung over the kingdom's capital after tyres were set on fire on most major street corner. Crowds fed the flames with logs and firewood.
Protesters shouted "Down with Islam", "Long live the memories of the 12 Nepalis", and called for the government to resign for doing too little to protect the victims.
There is no history of significant anti-Muslim protests or riots in Nepal, which is overwhelmingly Hindu but has a small Muslim minority. But there have been widespread and sustained anti-government protests this year.
About 3.5 percent of Nepal's 27 million people are Muslim.
THICK CLOUDS OF SMOKE
Riot police cordoned off the mosque, which the smoke obscured from view.
"Demonstrators entered the mosque, threw stones and partially damaged it," police official Binod Singh said. "They tried to set the building on fire but police intervened and prevented them."
Offices of manpower companies which recruit Nepalis to work abroad were also attacked and their contents burned on the streets. A media company which runs a television station and publishes newspapers was also attacked.
Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba declared Thursday a national day of mourning "to show unity against terrorism". He promised victims' families would be given one million rupees ($14,000).
Protests erupted in other parts of the Himalayan state.
"The government did not do enough to get their release," said Sudarshan Khadka, the brother of victim Ramesh Khadka, in his village about 25 km outside Kathmandu.
Poor Nepal does not allow its nationals to travel or work in Iraq because of security concerns but many go to the country from other nations in the Middle East, where about 200,000 Nepalis work as labourers, drivers, guards, cleaners and cooks.
The roughly 800,000 Nepalis working abroad send about $800 million home to their families a year, a major income source in one of the world's 10 poorest countries.
"This inhuman act is against Islam," a Nepali Islamic group said in a statement on the killing of the 12, the largest number of foreign captives killed at one time by militants in Iraq.
($=72.00 Nepali rupees).
Nepal has bigger problems that muslims. Sorry to break the news to you.
I have read what you wrote. I assume you prefer that we turn the other cheek so that it may be likewise struck. How many strikes must we endure?
An over here Ping also.
Oh. Gosh. I didn't know that. That makes it all better doesn't it?
Everyone should see that video to see what where dealing with.
Erh, eh, I think "peaceful" Muslims need to start speaking out more against the terrorists (a lot more, and start turning people in too). If they don't they will see more of this, and deservedly so. Especially in countries "less tolerant" than the US.
Look at what we had to do to Germany and Japan first.
Once the "eminence front" gets peeled back it ain't a pretty view.
But, like it or not, it's very real.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.