Posted on 01/31/2005 10:52:47 PM PST by Srirangan
Source: NDTV
Tuesday, February 1, 2005 (Kathmandu):
Nepal's King Gyanendra today dismissed the Sher Bahadur Deuba government and assumed power in the Himalayan Kingdom.
The monarch has accused the Deuba government of failing to restore peace and conducting parliamentary elections in the country.
"I have decided to dissolve the government because it has failed to make necessary arrangements to hold elections by April," the King said in a televised address to the nation.
The King maintained that the Deuba government had failed to protect democracy and sovereignty of the people.
King Gyanendra had appointed Deuba as Prime minister last year and asked him to conduct parliamentary elections and hold peace talks with the Maoist rebels.
Earlier, the King had sacked Deuba in 2002 for failing to hold elections, but asked him to form the government last year as the rebels stepped up insurgency in the Himalayan kingdom.
Nepal king dismisses government
Nepal's King Gyanendra has announced on state television that he has sacked the government led by Sher Bahadur Deuba.
He said he was taking over direct power because the administration had failed to fulfil its mandate.
Mr Deuba had been reappointed Nepal's prime minister last June, two years after King Gyanendra sacked him for failing to contain a Maoist insurgency.
The rebels recently failed to respond to a 13 January deadline set by Mr Deuba to hold peace talks.
The Associated Press reports that soldiers have surrounded the prime minister's residence and the homes of other government leaders.
"I have decided to dissolve the government because it has failed to make necessary arrangements to hold elections by April and protect democracy, the sovereignty of the people and life and property," the king said in his announcement.
The BBC's Charles Haviland in Kathmandu says the announcement has plunged Nepal into uncertainty.
'Selfish'
"A new cabinet will be formed under my leadership," the king said.
"This will restore peace and effective democracy in this country within the next three years."
King Gyanendra also said the government had failed to restore peace with the Maoist rebels.
He accused the country's fractious political parties of behaving selfishly and of giving no thought to the Nepali people and the welfare of the country.
He himself, he added, was committed to democracy and multi-party rule.
Some 10,000 people have been killed in the nine-year-long Maoist insurgency.
Nepal King Sacks Government, Assumes Power
KATHMANDU (Reuters) - Nepali King Gyanendra sacked the government and assumed power himself Tuesday, saying the leadership had failed to hold elections or restore peace amid an escalating civil war with Maoist rebels.
Indian television channel NDTV said the king had taken power for the next three years and placed many politicians under house arrest.
"I have decided to dissolve the government because it has failed to make necessary arrangements to hold elections by April and promote democracy, the sovereignty of the people and life and property," the king said in an address on state radio.
Shortly afterwards telephone and mobile lines were apparently shut down in Kathmandu and communications links closed between the country and the rest of the world.
No further details were available.
The strategic Himalayan nation sandwiched between India and China is locked in a bitter three-way struggle among the king, the Maoist rebels and political parties who are often bitterly divided among themselves.
The king is often accused of overstepping his powers, and reappointed Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba only last June, two years after sacking him for the same reasons he cited this time -- inability to tackle the long-standing revolt against the monarchy and failure to call an election.
In January, Deuba had promised to go ahead with the election despite the civil war and the refusal of the Maoists to come to peace talks by a Jan. 13 deadline.
But many members of Deuba's own cabinet were known to be unhappy with the election plan on grounds it was unrealistic in a country where the rebels control much of the countryside.
The rebels have been fighting since 1996 to replace the monarchy with a communist republic in a revolt that has cost around 11,000 lives.
The king himself had promised that elections would begin by the start of the Nepali new year in mid-April. Indian television said he accused political parties of factional fighting.
This is the fourth time the king has sacked a prime minister in less than three years. Nepal has had no parliament since 2002. Nepal is one of the world's poorest nations and its only Hindu kingdom. Many people still view the king as a reincarnation of the god Vishnu.
But the monarchy's reputation nosedived in 2001 when the crown prince, Dipendra, killed his father, the popular King Birendra, and several other royals in a palace massacre. He then turned the gun on himself.
Gyanendra was crowned king after the massacre, but has never been as popular as his brother Birendra.
Tens of thousands of tourists visit Nepal each year as it has eight of the world's 14 highest mountains, including Mount Everest.
Umm,have you ever heard of the (proposed) policies of the Maoists in Nepal??First it's the usual stuff of finishing off the Monarchy etc & then to distance Nepal from India.The Indian military has opened several lines of credit enabling the RNA to buy Advanced light helicopters,'Lancer' CAS choppers,artillery & other weapons.I find your logic of India abetting the Maoists in Nepal in order to protect itself bizarre to say the least.The Maoists in Nepal are ideologically affiliated to their buddies in Bihar-what makes you think they will stop with Nepal??The US,UK & India have all increased help to Nepal with the express purpose of weakening Chinese expansion to the region,with the UK having given money for 2 MI-17 choppers.
I once met an Indian evangelist working in Nepal who said that it is common knowledge there that the current king & his offspring,Paras engineered the assasinations of King Mahendra & his family in 2001 in order to assume power.Gyanendra was supposedly not in favour of greater democracy,which would dilute the monarchy's power.It was Mahendra,who under Indian pressure,established a democratic government in Nepal.Hence Gyanendra was seen by many intell agencies in India as being against New Delhi & therefore pro-Beijing.
Democracy must be the current buzzword internationally.
I have been amazed at how many, and who began applying the term 'terrorists" to their enemies to justify themselves over the last couple of years.
Now we have the Monarch of a country who has just exercised the ultimate totalitarian authority by disolving everything and putting himself in charge, and claims he is doing so in the name of democracy.
It's all about the terminology. Sheesh.
Didn't Godzilla defeat Gyanendra?
Ah, a Rush fan! Love that album!
This obviously biased Reuters story leads me to believe that th eking is the good guy in all this. Hopefully it plays out well.
Is India supporting him?
India raises alarm, says it’s a setback to democracy
Reuters
Posted online: Tuesday, February 01, 2005 at 1626 hours IST
Updated: Tuesday, February 01, 2005 at 1637 hours IST
New Delhi, February 1: Nepali King Gyanendra's decision to sack the government and assume power was a setback to democracy and would benefit Maoist rebels fighting against the monarchy, India said on Tuesday.
New Delhi's criticism came hours after Gyanendra fired Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, declared a state of emergency and assumed power saying the leadership had failed to hold elections or restore peace shattered by an increasingly violent Maoist revolt.
"These developments constitute a serious setback to the cause of democracy in Nepal and cannot but be a cause of grave concern to India," an Indian foreign ministry statement said.
"The latest developments in Nepal bring the monarchy and the mainstream political parties in direct confrontation with each other," it said.
"This can only benefit the forces that not only wish to undermine democracy but the institution of monarchy as well," it said referring to the Maoists who have been fighting since 1996 to topple the monarchy and establish Communist rule.
India is Nepal's largest trading partner and the two countries have strong religious and cultural links. They also share an open border and tens of thousands of poor Nepalis work in India.
http://www.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=41473
The King is seen as pro China, and till now has favoured peace and talks with Maoists, although he claimed to dismiss the democratic govt due to the "govt's failures" with regard to the Maoist insurgency.
We have an individual like that here in America.
He is known as 'Howard Dean'.
Wow, thanks for the quick info.
All your Himalayan Kingdom are belong to us.
When you ASSUME, you make and ASS of U and ME.
I'm not too fond of Monarchism my own durned self.
This is one of the few examples in history where the transition to a constitutional monarchy was probably an unwise decision.
Nepalese public opinion is notoriously fickle.
The government of India is doing everything within its capacity-and keep in mind, it has to concern itself with jihadi incursions into Kahmir, Qaeda agents being funneled into Bangladesh in order to support the insurgency there, and a host of other internal rebellions-to stop the Maoist terrorists from seizing control of Nepal.
They interdict arms shipments on a routine basis.
It is ludicrous to even suggest that the Indian government-even one controlled by the socialist Congress Party-would want a proxy government, established by PRC-inspired henchman, on their border.
:)
By cutting off the funding source, you are effectively cutting off the oxygen supply that fuels the fire, which means that it will soon be extinguished.
These insurrections/terrorist campaigns are fueled almost exclusively by money and grievance. Once you have a government-as in the cases of the current Sinhalese government in Colombo, or the current British government at 10 Downing Street-that is willing to address the demands of the aggrieved minority in an honest manner, all you need to do is quell the flow of blood money into the center of the conflict.
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