- Title: NEPAL: ANTI-KING PROTEST CONTINUE IN NEPAL
- Date: 23rd May 2004
- Summary: (U7) KATHMANDU, NEPAL (MAY23, 2004) (REUTERS) 1. SLV PROTESTERS ON THE STREETS 0.04 2. LAS PROTESTER ADDRESSING THE CROWD 0.08 3. SV OF PROTESTERS STANDING 0.11 4. SV BANNER 0.15 5. SV PROTESTERS RAISING SLOGANS 0.22 6. SV PROTESTERS MARCHING ON THE STREETS (2 SHOTS) 0.38 7. MCU FORMER PRIME MINISTER OF NEPAL, SHER BAHADUR DEUBA ADDRESSING 0.48 8. SLV/SV PROTESTERS CARRYING TORCHES (8 SHOTS) 1.24 9. LV PROTESTERS PELTING STONES ON POLICEMEN 1.30 10. LV/SLV POLICEMEN RUNNING (3 SHOTS) 1.45 11. SLV PROTESTERS RAISING SLOGANS (2 SHOTS) 1.53 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 7th June 2004 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: KATHMANDU, NEPAL
- Country: Nepal
- Reuters ID: LVAARI0VCBCBX3HFMTQX3CLRZWN8
- Story Text: Anti-king protests continue in Nepal.
Nepal's capital Kathmandu continued to be rocked by
protests at the weekend as opposition parties demanded a
government of national unity after the resignation of the
country's royalist prime minister.
Five key political parties have been demanding King
Gyanendra to solve a prolonged political crisis and usher
in multi-party democracy.
But the monarch has ignored weeks of sustained and
often violent street protests.
The parties have been against King Gyanendra since he
sacked an elected government in 2002 for a loyalist cabinet
in the face of a bloody Maoist rebellion.
Officials said Gyanendra was looking for a "clean"
replacement for royalist Prime Minister Surya Bahadur Thapa
who resigned in the first week of May after weeks of
demonstrations against the king.
Political parties say the king must appoint their
nominee as the new leader in the latest crisis to hit
Nepal, already battling to quell an eight-year Maoist
revolt aimed at replacing the monarchy with a communist
state.
More than 9,000 people have died during eight years of
fighting by the Maoists, who want to replace the monarchy
with a communist republic. Peace talks with the rebels have
failed to get off the ground.
The insurgency has wrecked Nepal's desperately poor
economy, which is heavily dependent on tourism and foreign
aid.
The king says he is committed to a constitutional
monarchy and multi-party democracy.
But analysts and diplomats who have met Gyanendra say
he dislikes the opposition parties because he feels they
are corrupt and have failed to address acute poverty since
multi-party democracy was set up in 1990.
Nepal has suffered instability from party infighting
and frequent changes of government and leaders over the
past 14 years. Thapa was the 13th prime minister since 1990.
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