wanderingken.com

It’s been 11 days since my latest post (due in part to a hard drive crash, but that’s another story), and it appears tensions are higher than ever in Nepal, especially Kathmandu, to the point king Gyanendra will be forced to relinquish some control.

Here’s the message I received today from the Canadian Embassy in Nepal:

7:00 am, Friday - 21 April 2006
Kathmandu, Nepal

The Government has announced another day time curfew for Friday, 21 April 2006. The 11-hour curfew will start at 9:00 am and end at 8:00 p.m. The areas covered are all areas within the ring road in Kathmandu and Patan (Lalitpur) districts, and parts of Bhaktapur district. The security personnel have been given shoot at sight orders to those defying curfew orders. Canadian citizens are requested to strictly follow the curfew orders and stay input during the curfew hours.

According to the BBC, however, Nepali citizens are not following these curfew orders by any stretch of the imagination, heading out to the streets in droves (over 200,000, according to Nepal News), calling for Gyanendra to restore power to the political parties. This, after 3 protesters were killed and many others injured when police opened fire at the Kalanki intersection on Thursday, and a protester killed on Wednesday was cremated by police without family present.

BBC claims Gyanendra will ‘address the nation’ about 3 minutes ago, making a ‘major announcement’. Considering the current unrest, and, more importantly, a recent visit from India’s ambassador and hints from US ambassador James Moriarty, one would expect this announcement to include some sort of timeline for re-establishing a parliamentary democracy. One can never underestimate the influence India has on Nepal’s affairs….

Anyway, must go have breakfast and wait for the content of this Big Announcement.