Page 31 - All About History - Issue 18-14

Eye Witness

ROYAL MASSACRE

Barbers at work shaving men’s hair
within 48 hours of the massacre Royal portrait of the king and queen covered with holy ash

NGO. Most businesses had closed by noon but there was international flights had been disrupted and rumours Origins and
one exception: the killings had been a boon for the city’s werespreadingalongtheteargassed,brickstrewnstreets.
barbers. In a traditional show of mourning for the slain Some thought, erroneously, that the city’s water supply aftermath
monarchy, men were shaving their heads. It was thought had been poisoned.
The backdrop to the palace massacre was
that half the adult male population had bare scalps Theregicidewasadarkandbloodytragedy.The the People War, led by the Communist Party
by Monday evening. On one empty street, I saw little official explanation, which blamed Dipendra and was
of Nepal-Maoist in the mountainous west
hillocks of black hair everywhere. validated by a seven-day inquiry carried out by the of Nepal. After Gyanendra became king in
I crossed over toward Ratna Park in the centre of the Supreme Court Chief Justice and Speaker of the House, 2001 he adopted a more authoritarian style
city where a truck of stubble-headed men waved the was not good enough for many Nepalese. On Thursday of rule, establishing absolute rule in 2005
overlapping triangular red, blue and white Nepalese flag 7June,Isatinacitycaféasastudenttoldmeheatedly and trying to defeat the Maoists with force
and held up a framed portrait of King Birendra. The that Gyanendra, who was now king, had orchestrated rather than negotiate. The heavy-handed
tactics of the security forces in rural areas
mood was almost jovial and the bald mourners waved the killings. Dipendra was merely the fall guy. After all, probably won the Maoists more recruits in
and gave me the thumbs up. Gurkha soldiers, their wasn’t it suspicious how Gyanendra, who almost never the long term. By the time they ended their
sheathed kukris (daggers) dangling at their hips, had also left Kathmandu, just happened to be in a tourist resort in decade-long insurgency in November 2006,
shaved their heads and behind the main stand in Ratna theWestonthenightofthemassacre?Itwaslittleuse the Maoists ran a parallel state in much of
Park, I watched them wash their faces before marching pointing out that Gyanendra’s wife, Princess Komal, had the countryside, complete with co-operative
toward a line of cannons. It had clouded over at noon. As been seriously wounded in the shoot-up. The Nepalese shops, courts and road-building projects.
the cannons boomed across the city, the rain began to monarchisreveredasapartialincarnationoftheHindu In 2006, the Nepalese parliament took
away the king’s major powers and in May
fall heavily. god Vishnu. If the official explanation was true, it defiled 2008 Nepal was turned into a republic.
On the orders of his grandmother, the machinery that some of the population’s most sacred beliefs. The Maoist leader Pushpa Kamal Dahal,
had sustained the 29-year old king’s vital organs was Withinafewdaysashakynormalcyseemedto known as ‘the Fierce One’ was one of the
switched off: Dipendra was declared dead at 5.57pm. return. There were no more curfews or arrests of republic’s first prime ministers. The concept
Around two hours earlier, crowds had surged forward journalists whose copy had been deemed ‘seditious’ of monarchy is still popular in large parts
of the country though, and Gyanendra has
toward a police station on the far side of the park and by the government. But the nation remained deeply expressed interest in returning as king.
soon after pallid clouds of tear gas billowed skyward. traumatized. If, as the conspiracy mongers maintained,
On Tuesday 5 June, Nepal awoke under the rule itwasanefariousplottoputKingGyanendraonthe
of King Gyanendra Shah. His ascension was deeply throne,hisvictoryprovedapyrrhiconeasbeforetheend
resented. After the nighttime curfew ended, youths ofthedecadeNepalwouldbearepublic.Evenso,the
began burning tyres and stopping traffic in the northern June 2001 massacre scars the Nepalese identity. So many
sector of the city. At the far end of the boulevard, troops years later, if meeting expatriate Nepalese, I am distinctly
were assembling. The warning had already gone out that reluctant to share my memories of that strange weekend-
curfew violators would be shot. Indeed, the previous long reign by the Old Etonian, turned demigod, turned
day’s disturbances had killed at least four people and serial killer.
injured 30 more. One of the soldiers warned me to stay Have you witnessed a
off the highway after 4pm.
When 4pm arrived, the RNA charged down the landmark event in history?
boulevard, waving their rifles and taking up strategic Tellusaboutitat… Pushpa Kamal Dahal led a guerrilla war
positions. After the curfew ended at dawn, shops and against the government before later
markets reopened but only until early afternoon. By now allabouthistory@imagine-publishing.co.uk serving as prime minister ©Corbis

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