Nepal set to abolish monarchy, become republic

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hG2O9QRIRxA9fIqMsotKKx-nvWCA


KATHMANDU (AFP) — The Himalayan kingdom of Nepal was set for historic change on Wednesday with an assembly expected to abolish the country's 240-year-old monarchy, in a key victory for former Maoist rebels.

Security was tight around the venue for the assembly, which is set to dissolve the monarchy and sack the unpopular King Gyanendra when it holds its first session later Wednesday.
Scores of police ringed the conference centre in Kathmandu after a series of bomb blasts in the runup to the meet by suspected "anti-republicans" supporting Gyanendra, who ascended the throne seven years ago after a palace massacre.

A homemade bomb exploded in a Kathmandu park on Tuesday shortly after Constituent Assembly members were sworn in, injuring two people.

The lawmakers, elected in last month's polls to draft a new constitution, were set to begin proceedings at 11:00 am (0545 GMT) at the convention centre.

"This is an epoch-making day," Maoist leader Prachanda, who is expected to head the country's next government, told reporters on Tuesday.

"For the past 50 years people have been fighting for this. The institution of the monarchy will formally come to an end."

The Maoists, who have long vowed to remove the king and create a republic, emerged as surprise winners in the April polls, taking a third of the assembly's 601 seats.

The Maoists signed a landmark peace deal in 2006 that brought them into the political mainstream, ending a decade-long insurgency that killed thousands of people and crippled the already impoverished nation's economy.

Gyanendra was crowned following the 2001 killing of his popular brother Birendra and most of the royal family by a drink-and-drug-fuelled crown prince who later killed himself.

Although seen by loyalists as the reincarnation of a Hindu god, he remained at the centre of conspiracy theories linking him to the killings.

He still enjoys some support from Hindu hardliners and powerful elements in the armed forces and ruling elite, but observers of the royal house said Wednesday's meet appeared to be the end of the Shah dynasty.

"He has been isolated and he has a very slim chance of making a comeback," said Surendra Khatri Chhetri, a history professor at Tribhuvan University.

"The strength of republican sentiment has cornered the king."

Kishore Shrestha, editor of a weekly newspaper that regularly runs scoops from palace staff on the dynnasty said the king appeared to be preparing for life as a commoner.

"Palace sources have told me he has started laying off large numbers of staff, and has been renovating two of his private properties," Shrestha said.

"My sources tell me that he will vacate the main palace very soon."

Gyanendra's whereabouts were unknown late Tuesday, after he was seen leaving Narayanhiti palace, a sprawling complex in the heart of Kathmandu, driving himself and Queen Komal in a Mercedes car and part of a small convoy.

The palace press secretariat said it did not know where the king was going, or if he was leaving for good -- in line with Maoist demands that he vacate his royal home and bow out gracefully.
Last month's vote appeared to vindicate the Maoist demand for a republic, with the former rebels winning more than a third of the new assembly's seats.

But less than a day before the assembly was to begin, the mainstream parties and Maoists were still wrangling Tuesday over the make up of a new government.

Maoists insist they have the right to lead the nation after their win, but the other parties fear the former rebels will now have too much power.

Gyanendra sealed his fate in early 2005, when he dismissed the government and took direct control, galvanising public sentiment against him.

The rebel Maoists and political parties launched mass protests that forced the king to back down a year later.

In the process the once bitter foes drew closer together, forging the 2006 peace agreement, ending a decade of civil war that killed 13,000 people, and completely sidelining the king.

"The doors to a republic were opened by the king himself," said historian Khatri Chhetri. "The palace is no more a central figure of politics."