With Nepal near anarchy, king restores parliament

KATMANDU, Nepal – Nepal’s embattled king appeared to defuse weeks of mass protests that have pushed this Himalayan country near the brink of anarchy, reinstating the lower house of parliament on Monday as his opponents had demanded.

With few choices left and hoping to avoid a bloody showdown between demonstrators and his security forces, Gyanendra’s announcement cleared the way for the creation of a new constitution that could leave him largely powerless, or even eliminate the monarchy.

Gyanendra also expressed his sympathies for the 14 demonstrators killed by his security forces in nearly three weeks of protests.

“We extend our heartfelt condolences for all those who have lost their lives in the people’s movement,” Gyanendra said in the address, broadcast on state television and radio.

Nepal’s three largest opposition parties welcomed the king’s comments, and the sounds of celebratory shouts and whistles could be heard in the streets of Katmandu minutes after the 11:30 p.m. speech.

Gyanendra “has addressed the spirit of the people’s movement” and met the demands of the main opposition seven-party alliance, said Ram Chandra Poudel, general secretary of the Nepali Congress.

Amid the increasing chaos, the U.S. State Department earlier Monday ordered all non-emergency embassy staff and family members to leave Nepal, according to an embassy spokesman, Robert Hugins.

The king’s address effectively handed power back to elected politicians hours before the largest planned protest yet, with hundreds of thousands of people expected to attend. The seven parties planned to meet today to call off the protests, party officials said.

From now on, the seven-party opposition alliance would “bear the responsibility of taking the nation on the path of national unity and prosperity,” Gyanendra said in his address.

“We are confident the nation will forge ahead toward sustainable peace, progress, full-fledged democracy and national unity,” said the king, sitting rigidly in front of a blue backdrop decorated with royal emblems.

For much of the crisis, Gyanendra had remained silent and invisible, hidden behind the walls of his heavily guarded central Katmandu palace and kept in power because of the loyalty of his army and police.

The reaction of Nepal’s Maoist guerrillas, who have seized much of the rural heartland in a bloody decade-long quest for power and who had joined with the alliance to back the protests, remained unknown.

However, their influence has surged with the protests, and they would almost certainly lobby for a role.

In the Chabahal neighborhood of Katmandu, about 50 people streamed into the street singing and clapping.

“This is the people’s victory! Long live democracy!” they chanted.

“The people from every corner are pleased to come and celebrate,” said Prakash Nepal, a 40-year-old bank employee among the crowd. Other rallies were reported elsewhere in the city.

The reinstatement of parliament was a key alliance demand.

The reinstated lower house, which the king called to convene Friday afternoon, was to create an interim government under the alliance’s plan, which would then set up special elections for an assembly. That assembly, in turn, would write a new constitution. Parliament’s lower house holds real elected power in Nepal’s constitution.

The constitution will almost certainly bring dramatic political changes. Most opposition leaders favor a constitution that would give Nepal a ceremonial monarchy, or simply eliminate the royalty completely.

Adam Ereli, a State Department spokesman, called on the king to relinquish his authority, saying “We believe that he should now hand power over to the parties and assume a ceremonial role in his country’s governance.”

Protests have rocked Katmandu and many other towns for nearly three weeks, and police have clashed repeatedly with demonstrators demanding Gyanendra relinquish the absolute power he seized 14 months ago when he dismissed an interim government, saying he needed to bring order to the chaotic political situation and crush the Maoist insurgency.

The interim government was one of many he had named to replace the parliament dissolved in 2002.