MSNBC
King Birendra of Nepal was reportedly killed Friday along with
seven other members of the Nepal Royal Family.
Nepal’s king, queen
killed in shooting
At least 8 members of royal family
reported dead in massacre
KATHMANDU, Nepal, June 1 — The crown prince of
Nepal on Friday reportedly killed at least eight
members of the country’s royal family, including
the king and queen, over a marriage dispute. The
massacre occurred inside the Narayanhiti Royal
Palace, police and military sources said.
CROWN PRINCE Dipendra, 30, opened fire and
shot all the members of the royal family including King
Birendra, Queen Aiswarya and Prince Nirajan, the sources
said. He later shot himself.
There were conflicting reports on the crown prince’s
condition. Some said he was dead; others reported he was
still alive in critical condition.
The shooting was caused by a dispute over the
marriage of Prince Dipendra, said the official, who spoke on
condition of anonymity. No other details were immediately
available.
The crown prince, educated at Britain’s Eton College,
was heir to the throne.
King Birendra, the constitutional monarch, was
stripped of power in 1990 and a parliamentary government
was established.
The Nepali Times reported that King Birendra’s
private secretary Pashupati Maharjan went to Baluwatar to
pick up the prime minister and bring him to the royal palace.
Royal flight helicopters flew off from Kathmandu airport at
1:30 a.m. local time to Sauraha to bring Prince Gyanendra
to the capital Kathmandu, but returned because of bad
weather.
Sources said among the other dead at the Chauni Army
Hospital are Princess Sruti, Prince Nirajan, Princess
Sharada, Princess Shanti and Kumar Khadga, the king’s
brother-in-law.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to
this report.
-- Anonymous, June 01, 2001
BBC Saturday, 2 June, 2001, 00:25 GMT 01:25 UK
Nepal royal family
massacred
The king and queen with Prince Charles in Kathmandu
in 1998
The king and queen of Nepal have been killed
in a mass assassination of royal family
members in Kathmandu.
Reports quote the army and sources close to
the prime minister as saying that nine people -
including five members of the royal family -
were shot dead late on Friday evening.
King Birendra's
30-year-old son, Crown
Prince Dipendra,
committed regicide,
patricide, matricide and
fratricide before turning
his gun on himself and
commiting suicide.
He had apparently
disagreed with his
mother, Queen
Aiswarya, over his
choice of bride.
The crown prince, educated at Eton College in
the United Kingdom, was heir to the throne.
Police sources say they do not believe that
any outsider was involved in the killings.
Revered
Nepal's privy council will meet within hours to
choose a successor.
The king's younger brother, Prince Gyanendra,
was away from the capital and is expected
back imminently.
A helicopter was despatched to Chiatwan, 165
km (75 miles) southwest of Kathmandu, to
collect Prince Gyanendra and return him to the
capital.
King Birendra ruled Nepal as an absolute
monarch after ascending the throne in 1972,
but nationwide unrest forced him to legalise
political parties in 1990 and accept a
parliamentary system.
However, the king has remained extremely
popular in Nepal.
Last December hundreds of people lined the
streets of Kathmandu to greet the king on his
55th birthday.
Some people in Nepal, which is 90% Hindu,
believe that the king is the reincarnation of the
god Vishnu.
-- Anonymous, June 01, 2001
Apparently he's better at some cides than others...
http://www.boston.com/dailynews/153/world/Nepal_s_crown_prince_on_life
_s:.shtml
Nepal's crown prince on life support after killing relatives at
palace
By Binaj Gurubacharya, Associated Press, 6/2/2001 11:10
KATMANDU, Nepal (AP) Crown Prince Dipendra, on life support from self-
inflicted wounds, was named Nepal's king Saturday after fatally
shooting his monarch father and seven other members of the royal
family, government and military sources said.
A military official said Dipendra went on the shooting rampage Friday
night reportedly after his mother, the queen, objected to his choice
of a bride.
Sources said the prince had been declared clinically dead but was
being kept breathing by a respirator at a military hospital.
Because of Dipendra's condition, his uncle, Prince Gyanendra, was
named acting king by the State Council, which oversees royal affairs.
A funeral procession for the slain King Birendra and other royals got
under way at sunset. Hundreds of thousands of mourners lined the
streets, wailing, clasping their hands in respect and offering
flowers as the bodies were taken from the army hospital for
cremation.
The bodies of the king, his wife, a son and daughter were put on
palanquins made of bamboo and carried on the shoulders of Brahmin
priests clad in white vests and loincloths.
The procession, broadcast live on state television, followed an 8-
mile route to the Pashupatinath temple on the bank of the Bagmat
River, where the bodies were to be cremated. Hindus in Nepal must be
cremated within 24 hours of their death.
Although Nepal's monarch has virtually no power, the palace massacre
could further unsettle the political instability in this impoverished
Himalayan state. Opposition parties have been demanding Prime
Minister Girija Prasad Koirala's resignation for the government's
alleged role in a bribery scandal and for not quelling a growing
Maoist insurgency.
Details of Dipendra's injuries were not released. The decision on
whether to remove him from life support could fall to the acting king
or his only other close relative, the slain king's 73-year-old
stepmother, Ratna Rajya Laxmi Devi Shah, Nepal's Queen Mother.
Dipendra, 29, shot all immediate members of the royal family late
Friday, including King Birendra, 55; Queen Aiswarya, 51; his brother,
Prince Nirajan, 22; and his sister, Princess Shruti, 24, who had two
daughters, a senior military official told The Associated Press.
The State Council said the others killed were Princess Sharada Shah
and Princess Shanti Singh, both sisters of the late king; Kumar
Khadga Bikram Shah, Princess Sharada's husband; and Princess Jayanti
Shah, a cousin of the late king.
The council said three others were wounded: Gorakh Bikram, Princess
Shruti's husband; Komal Shah, the king's cousin; and Prince
Dhirendra, the king's youngest brother. All were reported in stable
condition.
The government declared a five-day mourning period and ordered flags
at half-staff.
Deputy Prime Minister Ram Chandra Paudel called the massacre ''a
national tragedy,'' and confirmed the crown prince was to blame.
Paudel told the independent news agency Press Trust of India that the
government had ruled out any involvement of Maoist rebels who have
been trying to topple Nepal's constitutional monarchy.
The office of U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan released a statement
expressing his sorrow and calling for calm.
In Washington, President Bush said he was dismayed by the
killings. ''I send my condolences to the Nepalese people during this
difficult period,'' he said in a statement. ''Our prayers are with
the government and people of Nepal.''
The slaughter at Narayanhiti Royal Palace is believed to have been
the worst mass slaying of royals since the Romanovs were killed in
1918 during Russia's civil war.
A senior military official said the shooting was caused by a dispute
over the marriage of the prince, whose mother reportedly objected to
the woman he wanted to wed. The royal family had gathered for dinner
Friday night to discuss the wedding.
Sources close to the family said the prince wished to marry the
daughter of a former government minister and member of the
aristocratic Rana family, which ruled Nepal until 1951.
Because the shootings reportedly began about 10:40 p.m. Friday, most
people didn't learn of the deaths until they awoke Saturday, and
crowds quickly gathered near the palace in the heart of the city.
Police in riot gear stood in front of the iron walls that surround
the modern concrete palace to keep the crowds back.
''This is unbelievable,'' said Shreeram Shrestha, one of those near
the palace. ''One day you hear that the crown prince is getting
married soon and the next day he goes on to a shooting rampage and
kills everyone in the family.''
''Shocking is an understatement. We have been orphaned by this
loss,'' said Janardan Sharma, a vegetable vendor who left his morning
rounds to head to the palace.
King Birendra, who took the throne on Jan. 31, 1972, held near
absolute power until a popular uprising in 1990 forced him to accept
democracy. He became a figurehead royal much like the queen of
England, appearing in ceremonies and addressing Parliament once a
year.
The royal family is revered in Nepal, where some believe the king is
the reincarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu.
Nepal, roughly the size of Tennessee, is squeezed between China and
India. It is one of the world's poorest countries, with 21 million
people and an annual per capita income of only $213.
-- Anonymous, June 02, 2001