Nepal curfew imposed to end riots, new king crowned
( 2001-06-04 21:26 ) (7 )

Rioting broke out in Nepal's capital on Monday just hours after a new king was crowned following the massacre of almost the entire royal family.

Armed police used teargas and batons to hold back an angry mob surging towards the royal palace clamouring to know how King Birendra, Queen Aishwarya and six of their closest relatives were killed on Friday night.

Authorities quickly imposed an overnight curfew and warned police could shoot anyone caught violating it.

Although newly crowned King Gyanendra promised a full investigation, Nepalis said they were angry that no-one had yet come up with a convincing explanation for Friday's bloodbath.

Officials first blamed the Crown Prince, who was fatally wounded and died on Monday, and then said the royals died after an automatic weapon accidentally exploded.

"What has happened is not good. There are a lot of unanswered questions as to how the king, queen and Crown Prince Dipendra died," said one shopkeeper, who declined to be named.

"It is difficult to believe that the son shot his parents. There is more than meets the eye," he added.

Youths, many with heads shaved in the Hindu mark of mourning, burned tyres and shouted slogans demanding the truth.

Several hundred people on motorbikes, carrying big portraits of the king and queen, briefly joined the mob at the palace and then whizzed off again to another part of the city.

Soldiers were brought in to guard the palace gates, and the crowd retreated behind police barriers, leaving a litter of shoes and slippers on the street.

Birendra's son and heir Dipendra died on Monday after being in a coma since Friday night's massacre.

DIPENDRA TO HAVE LONELY FUNERAL

He was to be cremated later on Monday in a lonely funeral with the curfew expected to keep away all but official mourners.

"During the curfew period, people should not go out of their homes or compound," the Kathmandu district administration office said in a notice read over state radio. "It will be enforced from 4 p.m. (1015 GMT) today until Tuesday morning."

"If anyone violates the curfew, police can imprison them for one month or even shoot," the radio said.

Officials had initially suggested that Dipendra had shot his family after what media reports said was a family row over his choice of a bride. But they later said they did not know what had happened behind the walls of the palace.

Ballistics experts said the latest official explanation of an automatic gun which exploded by accident was implausible.

"I have never heard of an automatic weapon going off by itself before," said Paul Beaver, defence analyst at British military publication company Jane's.

Dipendra had been proclaimed king despite the coma on Saturday and on his death on Monday, Gyanendra was named Nepal's third king in four days.

GYANENDRA HASTILY CROWNED

Gyanendra, who was out of town at the time of the killings, was crowned in a hastily convened ceremony at the old Monkey Gate palace -- the traditional seat of the ruling Shah dynasty.

Drizzle fell on the ceremony as an elderly royal priest placed a white-plumed golden crown on Gyanendra's head.

Clad in traditional Nepali dress -- a short kurta and cream coloured pants and jacket -- the 54-year-old king sat on a raised golden throne with a carved head of the king cobra.

He later left in a royal chariot drawn by six white horses led by a military band and red-liveried cavalry.

Thousands of spectators lined the three km (two mile) procession route, some clapping but most looking sombre. King Gyanendra sat unsmiling, occasionally nodding to the crowd.

A solitary cry of "Long Live the King" rang out as the procession entered the gates of the palace where the bloodbath took place. But no other voices joined in as the gates shut on the chariot and convoy of vehicles following it.

And then the rioting began.

Some said that the unpopularity of Gyanendra's eldest son Paras, likely to be heir to the throne, added an edge to their anger. Press reports say Paras is not highly regarded in the country because of his wild lifestyle.

"The anger is directed at the new king and his son," said one Nepali businessman, who declined to be named. "The son is not liked too well, you know," he said.

OLD KING POPULAR

The late king, cremated along with his wife and family on the banks of the holy Bagmati river on Saturday, enjoyed great popularity in Nepal, particularly since he ceded absolute power in favour of a British-style constitutional monarchy in 1990.

Many saw the him as holding together the impoverished country, racked by political infighting and Maoist insurgency.

Analysts say Gyanendra will have to work to establish himself as a new pillar of stability in the country of 22 million people, where Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala has faced violent street protests against his rule.

Mana Ranjanj Josse, a journalist who has written extensively on the royal family, said Gyanendra was a close confidant of his late brother but was a very different person.

"People who deal with him will find him to be a no-nonsense,firm man," he said.

Monday's coronation marked the second time Gyanendra had been proclaimed monarch of the impoverished Himalayan nation.

He was installed briefly on the throne in 1950-51 as a toddler after the rest of his family fled to India during political upheaval in Nepal.

But the crown reverted to his grandfather, King Tribhuvan, when the family returned. Birendra took over the throne in 1972.

Nepal, once an almost compulsory pilgrimage for a generation of backpackers, is today better known as a starting point for mountaineers wanting to climb some of the world's highest peaks -- including Mount Everest.

It is also home to the Gurkhas, who make up some of the British army's most feared regiments.

Friday's tragedy was the worst massacre of royalty since the 1918 killings of the last tsar of Russia and his family by Bolshevik revolutionaries.