<b>I Will Destroy the Palace and Kill Everyone – Katmandu Mayor Recalls</b>

K.T.Rajasingham

Bangkok, 10 July: “I will destroy the Palace and kill everyone, if anyone interfered with the choice of my wife, - threatened the Crown Prince Dipendra of Nepal, when I went to meet him on some other business,” recalled sadly, Keshav Sthapit, the Mayor of Katmandu, at a discussion he had with this writer today, in Bangkok.

Keshav Sthapit is in Bangkok, Thailand, to participate in the Fourth Asia Mayors Forum and Regional Workshop on Good Urban Governance for Poverty Reduction and Social Development, which is being held in Bangkok, at the Conference Hall of the United Nation Economic and Social Commission for Asia and Pacific.

Speaking with this writer, after the official press Conference, Mayor of Katmandu recalled with a deep sense of regret, that when the Crown Prince threatened to destroy the Palace and kill everyone, he said that, he promptly informed King Birendra Bir Bikram Shav Dev, when he was given an audience by the King of Nepal.

Keshav Sthapit said that, when he reported the threat of the Eton educated Crown Prince to the King, the Nepalese monarch did not take his complaint seriously. He said that the King told him, there is nothing in his hand and he can’t do anything. Nepal King had told the Mayor, with a resigned tone, “Everything is in the hands of the Almighty.”

The Mayor recalled that, the 29-year-old, Eton educated, Crown Prince had long been at odds with his mother, over his choice of his bride. The Crown Prince Dipendra, according to the Mayor, wished to marry the daughter of a former government minister, but the queen had objected.

Subsequently, nearly after a month, the Mayor recalled that, the tragic incident took place on the evening of Friday, 1 June 2001, and Katmandu, the capital of 1.5 million people awoke on Saturday to the tragic news of the palace massacre. It all happened, when the royal family had gathered on Friday night for a large family meeting, to discuss Prince Dipendra's marriage. Crown Prince, clad in military fatigues, entered the sitting room of the royal palace, at about 2240 local time on, and opened fire with an automatic rifle.

In the shooting, Crown Prince Dipendra killed King Birendra and Queen Aiswarya, his brother, Prince Nirajan, 22, and sister, 24-year-old Princess Shruti. Also killed were King Birendra's sisters Princesses Shrada and Shanti and his brother-in-law Kumar Khadga. Another member of the royal family, Prince Dhirendra, was critically wounded. Finally, Prince Dipendra shot himself and he also died on Saturday succumbing to the self-inflicted gun shot injury.

King Birendra, 55, became Nepal's head of state in 1972, reigning for almost two decades as an absolute monarch. In 1990, he turned over government to a multi-party democracy that has since struggled with a fractured parliament, a frail economy and a long-running Maoist insurgency.

LTTE’s alleged role in the Nepal insurrection condemned.

In the meantime, in a separate development, recently it was reported that, Nepal has demanded the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) - the Sri Lankan Tamil militant organization, to stop their alleged support to Maoist guerrillas fighting to topple the government in Katmandu and Nepal may seek Norway’s mediation, agency reports quoting government officials in Nepal said.

Reports said that Nepal’s ambassador to Sri Lanka, Bal Bahadur Kunwar, said in a report, that he has raised the issue with Sri Lanka’s President Chandrika Kumaratunga and with Norway’s envoy to the island.

"President Kumaratunga has confirmed that the LTTE have supported the Maoists of Nepal," Kunwar told.

It is learnt that, Kunwar has submitted a five-page report to Nepal’s caretaker Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, who will advise him on the next step.

Kunwar said that he has forwarded a message to the LTTE, demanding an end to its support for the Nepalese guerrillas.

"Why has Prabhakaran been providing training to the Maoists in Nepal, at a time when the LTTE itself is in favor of peace?" Kunwar said that he had already told about this to Norway’s ambassador to Sri Lanka, Jon Westborg.

In Sri Lanka, there has been no hard evidence of the LTTE training Maoists, although the Tigers have been accused of maintaining close links with several other rebel groups worldwide, in the past.

Some 4,300 people have died since the Maoists launched their "people’s war" in 1996, about two-thirds of them after the end of the truce. The Maoists are also alleged to receive support from far-left movements in neighboring India.