Nepal's King Gyanendra called yesterday for peace and security to help conduct long-delayed elections, days after thousands of people took to the streets urging him to initiate democratic reforms.
"It is clear that peace and security are the Nepalese people's prime desire as well as the nation's necessity," the monarch, who is also facing a deadly Maoist revolt that chas claimed hundreds of lives, said in a statement on the Nepali New Year.
CRISIS
"Highest priority must, therefore, be accorded to the creation of an environment wherein the governance of the country can be handed over to the elected representatives," he said.
King Gyanendra plunged the impoverished nation into a crisis in 2002 when he fired the elected prime minister for failing to contain the Maoist insurgency and indefinitely postponed elections then set for November that year.
More than 9,300 people have died in the rebellion since it started in 1996 to replace the constitutional monarchy with a communist republic.
SURGE IN VIOLENCE
Violence has surged since peace talks between the rebela and the government collapsed last August.
Mainstream political parties have been demanding the monarch set up a multi-party government in place of the one he nominated in 2002.
Gyanendra last month said he hoped to hold elections by April next year but his comments are not seen as a commitment to stick to that schedule and the polls could be further delayed using the lack of security as a reason.
Last week, more than 2,000 people were detained as thous-ands of protesters defied a government ban on rallies to launch the biggest anti-king demonstrations since 1990 when multi-party democracy was set up.
NO ACTION
Organizers said about 150 protesters were still held without any charges but authorities said only 19 people were in custody.
Analysts said Gyanendra, who is officially a constitutional monarch but effectively exercises all state powers, has made several calls for peace in the past but had not come up with measures to match the plea.
"He wants to rule the country directly in the name of multi-party democracy," Rajendra Dahal, editor of the widely read Nepali magazine Himal, said.
"He has not initiated any steps to resolve the current crisis," Dahal said.
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