Police Fire on Crowd in Nepal, Killing 3

Pro-Democracy Demonstrators Defy Curfew in Capital; Diplomatic Efforts Remain Inconclusive

KATHMANDU, Nepal, April 20 -- Police opened fire on pro-democracy demonstrators in the capital Thursday, killing three and wounding scores of others, as tens of thousands of people defied a curfew to vent their anger against King Gyanendra. India, the United States and other countries, meanwhile, made intensive but apparently inconclusive diplomatic efforts to defuse the crisis.

In response to a call from political parties, protesters gathered Thursday morning in predetermined areas on the fringes of the city, shouting, "Hang the king!" and other anti-monarchy slogans. The crowd pushed into police lines established to keep people out of the central part of the capital.

The deaths and many of the injuries occurred in the Kalanki area on the western edge of Kathmandu, where security forces fired tear gas, rubber bullets and live ammunition to disperse a large crowd, according to human rights monitors and witnesses quoted in news reports. Kieran Dwyer, a spokesman for the U.N. human rights office here, said a telephone survey of city hospitals indicated that at least 160 people had been hurt. Many had bullet wounds.

Assessing the scope of the violence was difficult, Dwyer said, because draconian curfew restrictions prevented officials from the United Nations and other humanitarian agencies from moving freely. The curfew also prevented ambulances from reaching injured protesters and doctors from reaching hospitals to treat them, he said.

"We've had killings yesterday, killings today and an unknown number of serious injuries today," Dwyer said by telephone. "We are deeply concerned about the escalating use of excessive force."

Thursday's deaths were the first in the capital since the country's main political parties, in loose cooperation with Maoist rebels, launched nationwide protests and strikes two weeks ago aimed at forcing Gyanendra to restore democratic rule. To keep the protests in check, the government imposed a curfew from 2 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday. On Thursday evening, authorities announced its extension until 3 a.m. Friday.

Nepal became a constitutional monarchy in 1990, but Gyanendra assumed absolute power in February last year, saying the move was necessary to defeat the Maoists. The parties are demanding that he reinstate parliament as a first step toward writing a new constitution, in which the 237-year-old Hindu monarchy may or may not play a role. Ten people had been killed in other parts of the country before Thursday's deaths.

The crisis has alarmed neighboring India, which dispatched an envoy, Karan Singh, to meet with Gyanendra in the capital on Thursday morning. After returning to New Delhi later in the day, Singh, an Indian lawmaker who is related to the Nepali king by marriage, said he was hopeful that Gyanendra would make an announcement to defuse the situation, but he offered no details.

"Now the ball is squarely in the court of the king," Singh told reporters.

The United States is also involved in diplomatic efforts to put pressure on the king. Earlier this week, the U.S. ambassador here, James F. Moriarty, was rebuked by Nepal's Foreign Ministry after suggesting to CNN that the king might have to flee the country clinging to the undercarriage of a helicopter if he did not back down.

The latest protests in the capital, which by some estimates drew more than 100,000 people despite the curfew, were the largest in Kathmandu since the parties launched their campaign. From the airport Thursday afternoon, smoke could be seen rising from burning tires and debris, and major roads were partially blocked with stones and broken masonry.

The curfew covered the city to its edge, where protesters gathered at seven or eight major rallying points, pushing into the curfew zone as the day wore on.

Police in some areas were more tolerant than those in others. In the Chabahil district in the northeast, for example, a crowd estimated by police at more than 10,000 filled a major road just inside the curfew area, waving party flags and burning an effigy of the king. Although police formed a line to keep them from entering the city proper, a senior police official on the scene said protesters would not be interfered with as long as they remained peaceful.

"We have no orders to charge them," said the official, who was granted anonymity because he was speaking without authorization.

The official described the police officers under his command as tired and demoralized, and he acknowledged misgivings about their role in upholding the king's autocratic rule. "We have our own thinking, but we cannot express this," he said in halting English. "It is very difficult."

Watching from the sidelines, Sarita Giri, an official from one of the parties leading the protests, described Thursday's turnout as "very encouraging." She added, "The king is on the verge of losing the battle he began one year back."