New violence as Nepal anti-king protests unabated

KATHMANDU, Apr 11: Nepali troops opened fire and baton-charged protesters who burned tyres, chanted slogans and clashed with government forces today before a fresh curfew took hold on the sixth day of mass protests against the king.

Today's protests came as international pressure increased on King Gyanendra to end his crackdown, which has killed three people and wounded hundreds of demonstrators.

The street campaign is the most intense since 58-year-old Gyanendra sacked the government and grabbed power 14 months ago.

Some analysts say it is only a matter of time before the king runs out of options. They say five days of protests and clashes, in many places where shoot-on-sight curfews were in force, showed more ordinary people were coming out openly against him.

But sources close to the palace said the king, whom some analysts describe as a stubborn ruler, was unlikely to relent.

Riot police opened fire at a meeting called in the western tourist resort town of Pokhara to mourn a protester shot dead by the army there on Saturday, wounding two people, witnesses said.

In a Kathmandu suburb, about 500 youths burned tyres on the road, chanting ''We want Democracy'' and ''Gyanendra leave the country''. Riot police charged at them with batons and beat them up, wounding at least two people before the crowd was dispersed.

But groups of protesters gathered in another suburb nearby.

The situation was tense there before a fresh, five-hour curfew was due to take hold from 12 pm 1145 hrs ist.

The latest series of demonstrations and a nationwide general strike began last Thursday in an attempt to force Gyanendra to step down and hand power to an all-party government.

The campaign, backed by Maoist insurgents, had been due to end on Sunday but was extended indefinitely as stringent security measures prevented big rallies against the king.

US REBUKE

So far, more than 300 people have been wounded and about 1,500 protesters detained during protests, the parties said. Paris-based media watchdog Reporters Without Borders said 97 journalists had been detained and 24 wounded across the country.

While the mass campaign has plunged the nation deeper into turmoil, the king has stayed away from the capital for nearly two months, making an extended tour of the countryside.

The king says he was forced to take absolute power after politicians failed to quell a violent Maoist revolt aimed at toppling the monarchy, which has killed more than 13,000 people in the impoverished Himalayan country.

The revolt has also wrecked the economy of one of the poorest countries in the world which lives off aid and tourism.

The U.S. State Department issued a sharp rebuke to the king on Monday for his handling of the protests, saying the decision to impose palace rule had failed ''in every regard''.

''The king's continuing failure to bring the parties back into a process to restore democracy has compounded the problem,'' spokesman Sean McCormack said in Washington. ''The United States calls upon the king to restore democracy immediately.'' Rights group Amnesty International urged the royalist government to rein in the security forces, saying it feared an increase in violence in the coming days.

''Restricting peaceful demonstrations by ban orders and curfews and arbitrarily arresting hundreds of people only inflames an already volatile situation,'' it said in a statement.

But the state-run newspaper Rising Nepal said the campaign was not peaceful and Maoist rebels had infiltrated the protests to create trouble, a charge the political parties have denied.

''The seven political parties would be responsible for any unfortunate event that may occur during their protests,'' it said in an editorial today.

REUTERS