Three hurt at Nepalese protest

POLICE fired rubber bullets and tear gas on lawyers protesting against the king’s rule yesterday in Nepal’s capital, wounding three of them, as demonstrations and an opposition general strike continued for an eighth day.

Two lawyers were hit with rubber bullets and one with a tear gas canister.

Later, thousands of protesters began marching along the ring road that skirts Kathmandu, calling for the king to resign.

“Hang King Gyananendra!” they chanted.

While demonstrations are prohibited on the road, the large detachment of riot police keeping watch did not interfere.

Meanwhile, the United States cancelled a congressional visit to Nepal and allowed some embassy workers to leave the country after a fourth fatal shooting by security forces during increasingly violent demonstrations.

The demonstration began when 500 lawyers came out of the Nepal Bar Association’s office in Kathmandu waving banners and shouting anti-government slogans in a campaign to get Gyanendra to relinquish control over the government.

The association office is next to a compound containing all government ministries and across from the army headquarters.

The government has banned rallies in Kathmandu, and hundreds of violators have been beaten and arrested by the police since last week, when the country’s alliance of seven main political parties called a general strike to demand that the king restore democracy.

The protesting lawyers managed to march a few metres when they were stopped by police who beat them with bamboo batons, fired a few rounds of tear gas and then opened fire.

The general strike has crippled life across Nepal, keeping schools and many businesses closed.

While some shops opened in Kathmandu so people could buy supplies, highways remained deserted and trucks bringing food and fuel to cities were stranded in southern Nepal.

The strike was initially called for four days last week, but the opposition parties decided to extend it indefinitely, with the backing of the country’s communist rebels. The strike and protests prompted the US embassy to allow family members of staffers and non-emergency American employees to leave.

The king, who seized power 14 months ago, returned to Kathmandu on Wednesday after weeks of vacation in west Nepal.

He has remained relatively silent during the crisis, making one statement which called for calm but did not address protesters’ demands. He is expected to address the country today, New Year’s Day in Nepal.

Gyanendra said he took control to stamp out political corruption and end a communist insurgency that has left nearly 13,000 people dead in the past decade.

Criticism of the king, the government and security forces has been banned, along with independent reporting on the communist rebellion, which wants to replace the monarchy with a communist state.