An open letter from Nepal

[ THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 03, 2005 11:14:38 PM ]India Times.



This is an open letter send by a journalist in Nepal who is currently in hiding. It is the first piece of communication from the totally cut-off Nepal. His identity has been kept secret since it's a highly sensitive issue.

Dear friends and well-wishers,


I am using email after three days, currently under cover in Nepal. As all the telephone lines, Internet and other communication facilities have been cut off, we are experiencing the Stone Age in the 21st century.

This has been a complete hell for journalists. We are not allowed to talk to anyone. Political leaders are either under house arrest or have been detained. There are Armymen patrolling the streets. Even if there is emergency situation in a house, there is no way of communicating with others.

In the eyes of a foreign journalist, everything would seem calm and normal on the streets. But the weight of the undercurrent is unfathomable.

Ours is one of the biggest media houses in Nepal. Since the king addressed the nation on Tuesday morning, dictatorial rule has been imposed on media as well.

The Army officers scan all the contents before it goes to the printing or on air.

I won't be able to check emails for the next several days or may be months. So don't reply.

Our life is in threat and an eerie silence is lingering in every corner of Nepal. Speaking anything against the monarch or the rulers is directly inviting death, or being behind the bars, not less.

I hope my friends outside Nepal help us in this hour of difficulty. Please circulate this email among your friends' circle, and please try to exert pressure on your government to bail my country out of the trouble and hardships we are going through.

Thank you.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1010698.cms

Army shoots Nepali students

REUTERS[ FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 04, 2005 11:53:13 AM ]
Indiatimes

NEW DELHI: The Nepali army, under direct control of the king after he sacked the government and assumed power, fired from helicopters at student protesters, wounding at least 15, an Indian newspaper reported on Friday.


It is the first report of violence from the Himalayan kingdom since the king's February 1 move, which has drawn widespread global condemnation.

The report, published in an English daily, said the shooting took place in the town of Pokhara hours after King Gyanendra fired the prime minister, declared a state of emergency and took charge of the country himself for the next three years.

Immediately after the royal proclamation, students at Pokhara's Prithvi Narayan College came out in protest and prevented soldiers from entering the campus to halt the demonstration, the daily said, quoting unidentified sources in a despatch from Kathmandu.

Held at bay on the ground, the army responded with helicopters, firing at the protesters from the air, it said.

About 15 students were shot and then moved to army barracks rather than hospital, it added.

The detained students were being tortured and it was not known if any had died of their wounds, the daily said, calling the incident Nepal's "own version of Tiananmen Square" after the 1989 Chinese military crackdown in which hundreds were killed in Beijing.

Pokhara, a tourist resort about 200 km west of Kathmandu, is a famous tourist destination.

"We have information that there was such an incident from very reliable sources," the report quoted Kedar Prasad Poudyal, secretary of Nepal's National Human Rights Commission, as saying.

Nepal has been largely cut off from the world as Gyanendra has shut down all communications and Internet services and imposed strict media censorship, banning reports critical of the monarch's decisions.

Several political leaders have been placed under house arrest or jailed to prevent street protests against the king.

I am still wondering how Ashu and Nepe are not in discussion on the recent happening. Are they joining hands. Are they like the Maoist and other Political party. Nepe (CPNM) calling Ashu (the Remaining Parties) to join hands and throw Gyane, but Ashu still not sure what to do.

Is Ashu going to change sides and become a Republican like Nepe predicted or will he go after vajan-kritan of the Maharaja for some Gorkha Daxin Bahu? Just like the situation in Nepal, things will have to wait for them to unfold.


Now don't forget to petition against the king

- http://www.petitiononline.com/CoupKing/petition.html

My appeal to students in Nepal (though they will see it only after few days):


Dont support the corrupt leaders. Join hands with the king to make our nation a better one. So, do not protest as this would encourage the maoists.

And urge others too to join hands to move forward.......tally ho.

don't support the corrupt leaders, so don't support the king.

if you think you are making the maoists strong, protest them too.