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.
Four people jailed in the landmark Hong Kong national security trial of "47 democrats" accused of conspiracy to commit subversion were freed today after more than four years behind bars, the second group to be released in a month. Among those freed was long-time political and LGBTQ activist Jimmy Sham (岑子杰), who also led one of Hong Kong’s largest pro-democracy groups, the Civil Human Rights Front, which disbanded in 2021. "Let me spend some time with my family," Sham said after arriving at his home in the Kowloon district of Jordan. "I don’t know how to plan ahead because, to me, it feels
Poland is set to hold a presidential runoff election today between two candidates offering starkly different visions for the country’s future. The winner would succeed Polish President Andrzej Duda, a conservative who is finishing his second and final term. The outcome would determine whether Poland embraces a nationalist populist trajectory or pivots more fully toward liberal, pro-European policies. An exit poll by Ipsos would be released when polls close today at 9pm local time, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points. Final results are expected tomorrow. Whoever wins can be expected to either help or hinder the
North Korea has detained another official over last week’s failed launch of a warship, which damaged the naval destroyer, state media reported yesterday. Pyongyang announced “a serious accident” at Wednesday last week’s launch ceremony, which crushed sections of the bottom of the new destroyer. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called the mishap a “criminal act caused by absolute carelessness.” Ri Hyong-son, vice department director of the Munitions Industry Department of the Party Central Committee, was summoned and detained on Sunday, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported. He was “greatly responsible for the occurrence of the serious accident,” it said. Ri is the fourth person
The collapse of the Swiss Birch glacier serves as a chilling warning of the escalating dangers faced by communities worldwide living under the shadow of fragile ice, particularly in Asia, experts said. Footage of the collapse on Wednesday showed a huge cloud of ice and rubble hurtling down the mountainside into the hamlet of Blatten. Swiss Development Cooperation disaster risk reduction adviser Ali Neumann said that while the role of climate change in the case of Blatten “still needs to be investigated,” the wider impacts were clear on the cryosphere — the part of the world covered by frozen water. “Climate change and
RSS