Trouble in Nepal

mandalay

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...ment_dismissed

Looks like the King of Nepal has sacked his Parliment and has declared a state of emergency.

Is there anyone in Nepal at them moment? Although seeing as phone line are down you probably won't be able to read this if you are. I'm supposed to be going there in the next couple of months. Up to now I've not been worried about the sporadic troubles but now things do not look good.

kailash35

Check also : http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4224855.stm

Airport shut and phone lines seem to be cut

electrotrash

i'm supposed to be in nepal in twelve days.

going anyway. don't care!

Peyompian

Flights in and out of Kathmandu canceled. Perhaps they'll be operational in 12 days?

mandalay

I wouldn't advise that at all. You're probably better off staying away from any political issue's over there. Carrying a communist handbook is probably not the best idea in Nepal.

Yetijuice

The bholi parsi, tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, next year, year after that political fiasco continues in Nepal!

I was in Kulu Valley on June 1st, 2001 when King Birendra was allegedly assassinated by his son, Crown Prince Dipendra (Dippy goes postal!). I stuck to my schedule and showed up at Indira Gandhi International Airport on June 8th, 2001 for a RNAC flight to Kathmandu. At the airport I learned that all of rhe Delhi to Kathmandu flights for the previous four days had been cancelled. There were no more than 15 passengers on my flight. Only two Westerners, myself included, disembarked in Kathmandu. Three other Westerners stayed at the Kathmandu Airport transit lounge enroute to further destinations.

In Kathmandu I met a father and son from Chicago who flew into Kathmandu on a Thai International flight on June 3rd. They learned about King Birendra's assassination at the Don Muang Airport in Bangkok as they were checking in for their flight. Their flight was allowed to land in Kathmandu.

Today's (February 1st, 2005) Thai International flight to Kathmandu was forbidden to land and had to return to Bangkok. Travellers should put off visits to Nepal for the next week because the situation is so iffy.

It is more difficult for overlanders. They might be stuck at the border for a few days to a week. A poster above mentioned arriving in Kathmandu 12 days from now. I can confirm the warmer spring weather in Kathmandu Valley starts about February 20th. The airport and borders should be open well before then.

Rob_The_Pom

You are joking right?
The current regime might be bad, but the idea that Maoists are liberators?

__________________
There is no God but Dawkins and Hitchens is his prophet.

machadinha

See also:

http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/6...1300980000.htm
Full Coverage: Nepal's Quest for Democracy

http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/7...9,00050002.htm
Nepal King unveils new Cabinet
Agence France-Presse
Kathmandu, February 1, 2005
"In an announcement carried by state television and radio, the monarch named Rames Nath Pandey as foreign minister in a Cabinet that also included a Communist member, Radha Krishna Mainali, at sports and education."

http://www.indianexpress.com/full_st...ent_id=6388 5
Long night in Kathmandu as king sacks Govt

http://www.hindu.com/2005/02/02/stor...0206700100.htm
Nepal's King dismisses Government, assumes power

Many Nepalese news sites appear to be down, The Himalayan Times seems to have frozen somehere on Jan. 31st ... http://www.onlinenewspapers.com/nepal.htm

machadinha

+ see Getting word to Nepal:
Getting word to Nepal

Alan D

I know someone who is supposed to be flying into Kathmandu in a few days time.

Any news from Nepal seems hard to come by at the moment.

Does anyone know if Kathmandu airport is still closed?

Rob_The_Pom

It may not be a political forum, but if you're going to say a Maoist government is liberation then I have every right to tell you that I think otherwise.
A Maoist government will mean oppression and murder on a grand scale.
The Nepali people are being exploited undoubtedly, but Maoism will make things even worse. Maoism is not about equality and freedom, it is about persecution, murder and oppression.
The king is abusing human rights I agree, but Maoism by its very nature - no democracy, secret police, etc - is an extreme abuse of human rights. These people have quite happily murdered in the name of revolution, how is that different to any other evil communist regime?
If there is a Marxist revolution the situation in Nepal will go from terrible to appalling.
You say the Cultural Revolution and invasion of Tibet were 'mistakes' - some mistakes.
I'm sure the families of those slaugthered will agree with you.

RTP

Rob_The_Pom

Your rhetoric is empty, baseless and typical of supporters of this sort of regime.
If you want to live a Maoist fantasyland you are very welcome to it. I just hope that neither I or the people of Nepal don't have to.

Rob_The_Pom

Well I suppose it was a waste of a post because I haven't come around to your way of thinking.
You describe it as liberation and then ask where you said you would support them. Doesn't sound much like an unsubstantiated inference to me.
I have every right to disagree with you (as you have the right to disagree with me), simple as that. It's called freedom of speech something you won't find in a Maoist state of any description.

Oh well...

Rob_The_Pom

Hmmm, what's my point?
Maoism is evil rubbish and isn't liberation in any shape or form.

Childish war of words? Interesting, I thought all I did was disagree with you.

Don't try and claim some moral higher ground, you said that the genocidal slaughter of hundreds of thousands of people was a 'mistake'.

Yetijuice

Nepal might turn out to be the next Cambodia. Is Comrade Prachanda any better than Pol Pot or "I'm Sorry" Ieng Sary? This past year I read five books by William Shawcross. That included "Sideshow: Kissinger, Nixon, and the Destruction of Cambodia" and "The Quality of Mercy," two grim accounts of what went on in Cambodia in the Seventies.

Nepal exists today because India and China do NOT want to have a war over it. Nepal serves as a buffer for these two Asian powers. As a geographer, I say that the Himalayan range should be the de facto border between India and China should Nepal cease to exist. Back in the '80's villagers on the trail in Nepal would speak of a trip to Kathmandu as "going to Nepal." For the majority of the rural population in Nepal it does not matter who is in charge in Kathmandu.

That does not make them Maoists. The Maoist-forced kidnapping conscription efforts of young men and woman is despicable. The Maoists do NOT have a volunteer army. The Royal Nepal Army is a volunteer army. True, the higher your rank the higher the percentage of your time is spent inside Kathmandu Valley in relative safety.

King Birendra had a more loyal following than King Gyanendra. Birendra's failing was NOT showing tough love to Paras Shah. Three times Paras Shah was involved in drunk driving accidents that killed people. Most recently, in I believe August 2000, Paras Shah was driving a 4WD Pajero, ran over a motorcyclist and killed him. Praveen Gurung, a noted musician, was the victim.

I believe it was October 1999 when Paras Shah was stopped at a police road block in Patan. Paras got out of his vehicle and struck a policeman in the face, blinding him in one eye. In the USA, the policeman's partner would have the right to shoot Paras Shah. In Nepal he was recognized as a Royal personage and let go. If a Nepalese policeman had justifiably killed Paras Shah, Royal retaliation almost certainly would have been taken out against that policeman and his family.

The only checks and balance system to reign in Paras Shah was held by King Birendra. For Paras Shah's reckless and fatal behavior Birendra should have jailed him, banished him out of the country in exile, or at the very least taken his driver's license and car keys away from him. If Birendra had done that he very well might be alive today!

King Birendra was too much of a pacifist. Birendra was so concerned about his next reincarnation that he forfeited his nuclear family's current incarnation. Only one King in the Royal family lived past the age of 61. Birendra would be about 60 if he was alive today. King Gyanendra, the tobacco King, is now 54. If you think the situation is bad in Nepal now, wait about 6 years when Crown Prince Paras Shah is elevated to King. Gyanendra should take measures to abolish the monarchy, pack his golden parachute, and skydive on Bhutan or Fiji. Nepal could then become the next state in India.