Weitere aktuelle Meldungen in Englisch!

Hier, die Meldungen im Wortlaut (ungek�rzt und unbearbeitet):


It was Deependra, say survivors
By Siddharth Varadarajan

The Times of India News Service

KATHMANDU: Anxious to end speculation over what happened at the royal palace
last Friday, a close relative of two of the royals killed told The Times of
India that the survivors and eyewitnesses he had spoken to immediately after the
massacre had all identified the late Crown Prince Deependra as the killer.

Neer Shah - whose brother Kumar Khadga Bikram Shah and sister-in-law Princess
Sharda perished in a hail of bullets along with seven other members of the royal
Once approved, your limits for withdrawals and deposits increases to $25,000. lost transfer family - pieced together the sequence of events as recounted to him by several
survivors. (Sharda was the sister of the late King Birendra.)

The family was in the snooker room in Deependra's apartments at the palace, he
said, when the Crown Prince burst in brandishing an M-16 rifle. He was wearing
military fatigues and seemed drunk. Without warning, he opened fire on King
Birendra and then his mother. Neer Shah said Deependra's brother, Nirajan, tried
to save his mother and took nearly 20 bullets. Deependra continued firing until
he ran out of bullets. He then took a revolver, left the room and shot himself,
apparently in the garden - where his body was found.

Asked what he had learned about the role of King Gyanendra's son, Paras, whom
many here believe was involved in the shootings, Shah said he had saved the two
daughters of the King's younger brother, Dhirendra, by pushing them under a
table and then leaving the room.

Though Neer Shah's account does not differ significantly from what this
newspaper has already reported, this is the first time that anyone who has
directly spoken to the survivors has confirmed - on the record - that Deependra
was indeed the author of the palace tragedy. So far, all attempts by the press
to meet Queen Komal, Princess Shobha, Ketaki Chester and Gorakh Sumshere Rana -
four members of the family still in hospital - have been unsuccessful.

In fact, Neer Shah, lost more than his brother and sister-in-law that night. His
elderly mother had a heart attack the next afternoon when she heard what had
happened.

Shah is livid that the Raj Parishad, or privy council, named Deependra king
despite knowing he was the killer. ``Prime Minister Koirala and Raj Parishad
chairperson Kesar Rai Majhi were in the hospital and they spoke to the same
people as I did,'' Shah said. ``They knew Deependra had done it. But instead of
stripping him of his title, they made him king. How can a murderer be made
king?'' he questioned.

Majhi, however, told this correspondent that the Raj Parishad had no option but
to name Deependra as king as he was the next in line for the throne. �Just
because someone is suspected of a crime doesn't mean he can be denied his
legitimate right,�' he said.

Calling Majhi and Koirala pseudo-royalists, Shah said the government's failure
to go public right away was the main reason for the popular disquiet so visible
on the streets. In the absence of information, rumours were bound to take hold,
he said, criticising Gyanendra's earlier statement that the killings had
occurred because of an accident.

�I don't care whether people today want to believe it or not. But we all know
that it is Deependra who did this lunatic thing. Just as the Nepalese who
thought Birendra was the worst king only 11 years ago, revere him today, all
those swearing by Deependra will one day come to accept what a horrible crime he
committed,� he added.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Royal Kin Give Account of Slaying
- (ABCNEWS.com)

By NEELESH MISRA, Associated Press Writer

KATMANDU, Nepal (AP) - The royal slaughter in Nepal started with the killing of
the king - shot by his angry, drunken son, Crown Prince Dipendra, the prince's
uncle said Wednesday. The prince's brother pleaded in vain for their mother's
life, saying: �Don't do it, please. Kill me if you want.�

After shooting his father, Dipendra sprayed a roomful of guests with fire from
his assault rifle, his uncle said. In the end, the bloodied ornate halls and
garden of the palace were strewn with the bodies of his parents, his brother and
his sister and five others. Then Dipendra killed himself.

There has still been no official explanation of Friday night's massacre. But
with many Nepalese angry and convinced the truth won't be told, several royals
stepped forward Wednesday and gave accounts.

After several days of rioting, Nepal's capital was quiet Wednesday, as hundreds
lined up at the palace and at impromptu shrines to pay tribute to slain King
Birendra, who was revered by many Nepalese.

His unpopular successor and brother, King Gyanendra, has ordered an
investigation into the slayings, due to begin Thursday and be finished by
Saturday. It has been delayed by squabbles and undermined by the refusal of the
opposition communist party to participate.

In a sign of the deep unease in the small mountain kingdom, police on Wednesday
arrested the editor and publishers of Nepal's largest daily newspaper, Kantipur,
on suspicion of treason. The paper had published an article by a Maoist rebel
leader.

Suraj Shamsher Rana, brother of the slain Queen Aishwarya, told The Associated
Press that the crown prince went on his killing spree after his father,
Birendra, threw him out of a gathering of about two dozen members of the royal
family and wealthy friends at Narayanhiti Palace.

Rana, who was not present at the gathering, said he spoke to several witnesses
and survivors. Another of his sisters - the new queen, Komal - was wounded, and
he has visited her several times in the hospital.

His account was confirmed in an interview on independent Star TV by Neer Shah,
whose brother was married to Princess Shruti, Dipendra's sister. Shah's brother
was wounded.

�According to the facts I have gathered so far, the then-Crown Prince Dipendra
opened fire and killed everyone,� said Neer Shah.

According to these accounts, the king, queen, crown prince and Prince Nirajan
were mingling with guests in the Billiards Room before dinner. The 29-year-old
Dipendra made drinks for some guests at the bar.

Some palace sources told AP that the crown prince and his mother had sharp words
that night over the young woman that Dipendra wanted to marry - Devyani Rana,
the daughter of a prominent Nepali businessman and the granddaughter of an
Indian maharaja.

Witnesses said the king and queen told Dipendra he could marry Devyani Rana but
if he did so Nirajan would take his place as crown prince, according to a member
of the State Council, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Dipendra, who was drunk, was escorted up to his room by two cousins, according
to the accounts. The king, furious at his son's behavior in front of guests,
went into an adjoining room with the queen, the queen's brother said.

A half hour later, Dipendra reappeared on the stairs, dressed in army fatigues
and brandishing an Israeli-made assault rifle. Without a word, he strode past
the stunned guests to the door of the adjacent room.

He fired two shots at the ceiling, then aimed at his father and fired again. The
king slumped on the floor in a pool of blood, witnesses told Suraj Shamsher
Rana.

Dipendra then opened fire in the Billiards Room, as screaming guests hid behind
sofas and tried to flee. Five other royals were killed, while others fell
wounded. In the garden outside the Billiards Room, Dipendra was confronted by
his younger brother Nirajan and the queen.

�Don't do it, please, kill me if you want,� Nirajan screamed, according to the
palace source's eyewitness. Dipendra shot him, then when his mother tried to
hold him back, killed her as well.

Prince Dhirendra Shah, King Birendra's youngest brother, told the prince, �You
have done enough damage, hand over the gun now.� Seconds later, he lay wounded
on the ground. He died Monday.

Prince Paras Shah, son of Gyanendra, pleaded with Dipendra for his life. �We
have grown up together,� he said. When Dipendra's attention was distracted for
a moment, Paras was able to escape, according to the accounts.

Leaving behind a room splattered with bodies, Dipendra returned to the garden
and, standing about 20 feet away from the bodies of his mother and brother, shot
himself in the head.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nepal journalists charged with treason

>From BBC

As tension mounts in Nepal over the massacre of the royal family, authorities
have arrested the editor and two executives of a newspaper for suspected
treason.
The arrests are thought to be linked to an article published in the Kantipur
Daily written by a top Maoist rebel leader criticising the new monarch, the dead
King Birendra's brother, Gyanendra.
The curfew was imposed after three people died in rioting
Authorities imposed a curfew in the capital, Kathmandu, for the third night
running on Wednesday amid continued tensions among Nepalis sensing a government
cover-up over the killings.

The article called on the army to rise up against the new king and accused him
of being part of a conspiracy to kill his brother, and most of the Nepalese
royal family.

Kantipur editor Yubaraj Ghimiri, managing director Kailash Shiroiya and director
Binod Gyawali were taken into custody at the newspaper's offices, witnesses
said.

Expectations that a government-appointed commission into the deaths would report
by the end of the week were dealt a blow when the chairman said work would not
start until Friday.

The commission has been delayed by the refusal of the head of the United Marxist
Leninist Party, Kumar Nepal, to join it, despite an appeal by King Gyanendra.

Protesters shot

Mr Nepal said he wanted other parties to be associated with the inquiry.
Crown Prince Dipendra was reported to be a heavy drinker who was fond of guns

His party also says the committee had been set up unconstitutionally, because
the proposal came from the king, rather than the prime minister.

King Gyanendra has called Friday's fatal shooting an "accident" - to the
disbelief of many angry Nepalis.

Three protesters were shot and killed on Monday night and police said they shot
and wounded 14 people and arrested 460 on Tuesday night for violating the
curfew.

The massacre at the royal palace on 1 June left King Birendra and seven of his
immediate family dead.

First reports said the gunman had been the late king's son, the then Crown
Prince Dipendra, who was briefly monarch as he lay in a coma with severe bullet
wounds. He died on Monday.

The late Dipendra's uncle said on Wednesday that his nephew had been drinking
and was thrown out of a royal gathering by King Birendra, before he returned
with an assault rifle and gunned down his parents and seven other relatives.

Suraj Shamsher Rana, who spoke to survivors, said Prince Dipendra had shot
himself after opening fire on his family.

Rebellion fears

�Yes, indeed, there is no question about that. The crown prince killed the
others and then shot himself,� he told the Associated Press news agency in an
interview. He declined to speculate about Prince Diprendra's motives.

First reports that the crown prince had been responsible for the massacre were
subsequently denied, with an official statement speaking only of an accident in
which there was a sudden discharge of a weapon inside the royal palace.
Hundreds of tourists have been stranded

King Gyanendra has admitted that the second explanation - which was issued when
Dipendra was alive, though critically wounded in hospital - may have been
influenced by �legal and constitutional hurdles�

While alive, Dipendra was king and it would have been impossible under the
constitution and by tradition to accuse him of mass murder.

Some observers say that unless the truth about the royal massacre comes out,
there could be a rebellion against the monarchy.

The violence has left hundreds of tourists stranded in Nepal as they scrambled
for flights to take them out of the country.

But with many flights cancelled, many were forced to stay inside hotels and
guest houses and watch the proceedings on television.

Several countries, including the United States, Britain and Thailand, have
advised their citizens to avoid travel to Nepal.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Abgeschickt von am 07. Juni 2001 um 11:26 Uhr



antworten      zur�ck zum Board








Antwort:

Name:  
E-Mail:

�berschrift:

Nachricht:

     


zur�ck zum Board