Nepalese King warned: 'Go, or else'

Nepal’s main political parties vowed today that they would continue to hold protest rallies until King Gyanendra steps down as absolute ruler.

“Our struggle will continue until the king gives up all the power and restores people’s rule. There will be no break in the struggle for democracy,” said Madhav Kumar Nepal, general secretary of Communist Party of Nepal.

According to the Central People’s Movement Co-ordination Committee there would be demonstrations from today until Tuesday in major cities across Nepal, followed by a nationwide strike on Thursday.

The committee, which has representatives from all the seven major opposition political parties has been co-ordinating protests across Nepal.

Hundreds of police yesterday fired tear gas and beat pro-democracy activists who defied a ban on rallies in Katmandu.

Police arrested at least 300 of the protesters, who chanted “Down with autocracy, we want democracy!” At least 50 demonstrators were injured in the clashes, which continued for several hours.

Many of the demonstrators hurled stones and scuffled with police, who used bamboo batons to beat the protesters. About six police officers were also wounded.

Security officials had orders to enforce a ban on rallies in the capital.

Police initially cleared the demonstrators from a square in central Kathmandu and sealed it after two hours of battling with the protesters, who moved to nearby streets and alleys. They burned tires on the streets and waived the flags of political parties.

Soldiers armed with automatic weapons closely watched the protest, but did not intervene.

The crackdown on the protest followed a series of raids in recent days in which security forces detained senior politicians, student leaders and rights activists.

On Friday, several opposition leaders were placed under house arrest and more than 200 activists were detained in an attempt to thwart any protests against King Gyanendra, who sacked the government and seized power last February.

The royal government has claimed it must prevent rallies because of intelligence suggesting that communist rebels planned to use them to launch attacks. The guerrillas are fighting to replace the constitutional monarchy with a socialist government.

However, the rebels, who reached an agreement last year with the political parties to jointly pressure the king to restore democracy, said they would not disrupt the demonstration.

The king said he seized power because the previous administration had failed to fight corruption or contain the long-running communist insurgency.