Illness keeps Nepal prime minister from celebrations

NEPAL’S newly-appointed prime minister was forced to miss a victory rally yesterday because of an illness which may keep him away from the reopened parliament.

The king formally named Girija Prasad Koirala as the strife-torn country’s new prime minister, just minutes after a spokesman said the veteran politician was on oxygen because of a lung ailment.

An unspecified illness kept Mr Koirala, 84, from a victory rally in Kathmandu hours earlier, and marred a day that began with communist rebels announcing a three-month ceasefire.

As the rally got under way, the crowd cheerfully demanded to hear from Mr Koirala, and angrily threw rocks, bottles and sticks at the speakers when they heard he was not well and at resting at home.

Politicians quickly calmed the crowd by offering assurances that Mr Koirala was genuinely ill.

The temporary truce lifted a key burden on the new government, poised to take control after weeks of protests in which 15 people were killed by soldiers and police.

The protests forced the king, who had seized control last year, to reinstate parliament.

Mr Koirala was the choice for prime minister of the alliance of political parties behind the protests — which were also backed by the communist insurgents.

Spokesman Krishna Sitaula said Mr Koirala, who is taking his fifth turn as prime minister, would be examined by doctors before deciding whether to attend Parliament.