Page 29 - All About History - Issue 18-14

Eye Witness

ROYAL MASSACRE, NEPAL, 1 JUNE 2001

Written by Tom Farrell

TOM FARRELL
Tom Farrell
isafreelance
journalist who
has made ‘‘ Dipendra was guilty of
numerous
visits to Asia.
His articles have appeared in
The Guardian, The Irish Times treason, but the constitution
and The New Statesman. He
was travelling in Nepal in May
and June 2001 to take part
in an international workshop put the monarchy above
hosted by the United Nations
University in Geneva. After
it had finished, he remained
in Kathmandu and was there the law
when the massacre occurred. ’’

t was 10pm on Friday 1 June when I parted the had done little to alleviate some of the worst levels of
curtain in my budget hotel and gazed across the poverty and illiteracy in Asia. In the mountainous west, a
streets of Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal. Most of group of insurgents, inspired by China’s Chairman Mao,
the population had retreated for the night and the was gaining more and more territory with the aim to set
Icity lights flickered in the blackness. I thought I heard up a communist republic.
wailing somewhere from the maze of brick alleys and This was the backdrop to the massacre of 1 June 2001
squares that make up the Nepalese capital, home to 1.7 when Dipendra went on a machine-gun rampage in the
million people, but I soon retreated to bed. Unbeknownst Narayanhity Palace that left nine royals dead and five
to me, a few streets away, a cavalcade of ambulances others injured, among them his parents, younger sister
was screaming down the boulevards toward the city’s and brother. After he had conducted his murderous
military hospital, bearing the bullet-torn bodies of the rampage he shot himself. When Dipendra’s life support
Nepalese royalty, including the dead King Birendra. machine was switched off on Monday afternoon 4
Thus began the bizarre weekend-long reign of Nepal’s June, Gyanendra, Dipendra’s uncle assumed the throne
penultimate monarch. Crown Prince Dipendra Bir – he would be Nepal’s final monarch. I was in Nepal
Bikram Shah Dev had been groomed for the throne since when this shocking incident took place and during the
birth. He was heir to a 232-year-old dynasty that had comatose three-day reign of the prince who has now a
ruled over the mountainous Himalayan kingdom, largely king because he had killed his father. During this strange
cut off from the outside world until well into the 20th period the national mood was one of disbelief, but
century. Multiparty democracy had only arrived in 1990. collective emotions soon began to mirror the individual
Prince Dipendra had gone to the prestigious Eton emotions usually associated with a traumatic loss: grief,
College in the 1980s. He had a black belt in karate and denial and anger.
received military training from the Academy of the The royalty were the last thing on my mind on
Royal Nepalese Gurkha Army. By the time he reached Saturday morning when I tramped down to the hotel
his twenties, his father, King Birendra, was considered a lobby. The previous afternoon, I had interviewed staff at
popular liberal reformer. His mother, Queen Aishwarya, a local non-governmental organization (NGO) engaged
was said to have used Queen Elizabeth II as the in combating sex trafficking. Every year, thousands of
role model of a modern, accessible monarch. Nepal’s Nepalese girls, kidnapped or tricked into leaving their
democratic transition was running into problems though. villages, have ended up in Indian brothels. I also had a
Liberal democracy had translated into a succession of plan to travel west and hike into the Maoist-controlled
fractious, ineffectual and corrupt administrations. They uplands. In the lobby the hotel staff was sitting in rapt

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