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NEIGHBOURS: NEPAL
Conspiracy Theory
Indeed, the report's
clinical precision may not prove an adequate antidote to the incredible
conspiracy theories that have found their way into the bazaars of Kathmandu.
Take the one floated by the weekly Deshantar: "The story that after
the crown prince was taken to his room, he again made a comeback in army
fatigues give enough hints that a third party managed to intervene within
this time ... They (the people) argue that the prince could have been
shot after he was taken to his room. Somebody else could have put on a
mask resembling his face and entered the place where the royals were seated.
The masked man could have opened fire and killed all the members."
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THE REPORT SAYS...
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| DEVYANI |
DIPENDRA |
1. Between
7.30 and 8 p.m. Crown Prince Dipendra drank "one or two pegs
of Famous Grouse whisky neat". By around 8.20 p.m., he was
swaying and had to be escorted to his bedroom by Prince Nirajan,
Prince Paras, Kumar Gorakh and Rajeev Shahi.
2. Before
he was led away, Dipendra asked his ADC for "cigarettes".
These were laced with hashish and "another unnamed black substance".
The cigarettes were handed over by an orderly to Prince Paras.
3. Before the shootings, Dipendra spoke
to Devyani thrice on his cell phone. Devyani informed the inquiry
that Dipendra's speech was slurred.
4. After
8.25 p.m., Devyani contacted the Crown Prince's ADC because she
felt Dipendra sounded unwell. Two palace servants went to the room
and helped Dipendra undress. After the servants departed, Dipendra
dressed himself in combat fatigues, gathered three guns and went
on the shooting spree which resulted eventually in his own death.
Nine others died in the shooting.
5. Five guns
were recovered from the scene of the killings. The crown prince
carried out the massacre using a 5.56 calibre Colt M-16 automatic
rifle and a 9mm MP-5 K automatic sub-machine gun. It is presumed
he killed himself with two shots from a 9mm MP-5K automatic Ges.m.b.H
pistol. Also found was a 9mm G-19 Glock pistol that had been issued
to Prince Nirajan from which no shots had been fired, and a 12-bore
single-barrel shotgun, recovered from a corner of the lawn, which
was also not used.
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Another Kathmandu weekly, Jana Astha, detected
a foreign hand. It proffered the theory that the raw station head left
Nepal abruptly before June 1. This, coupled with the disappearance of
Devyani, "clearly shows that raw was behind the murders". On
their part, the Maoists have spoken of a palace conspiracy against the
"patriotic" King Birendra by "colonialists", presumably
India.
That most of the wilder rumours are politically
inspired and a calculated assault on the tattered remnants of the monarch
is undeniable. But coming in the backdrop of a nervous regime that talks
of redefining democracy, they fall on receptive ears. With a beleaguered
Prime Minister G.P. Koirala as concerned with warding off the dissidents
within the ruling Nepali Congress as with confronting the Maoist underground,
Nepal's democracy is precariously poised. Says Nepali Congress spokesperson
Narahari Acharya: "Democracy in Nepal doesn't have a long history.
So we have to be alert and do everything possible unitedly to strengthen
it."
In the aftermath of the inquiry report, there
are two types of fears. First, there is concern that the Maoists, capitalising
on popular scepticism over Dipendra's role, could ride piggyback on genuine
nationalist disquiet over the royal massacre. That would also involve
tapping the enormous reserves of anti-Indian sentiment in Nepal. Second,
there is a parallel fear that a reactionary wing of the palace will combine
with anti-democratic elements in the army to push the democracy clock
back.
Neither of these threats is fanciful. Which
is why the future of Nepal will depend substantially on whether or not
the people believe that Dipendra lost his head on June 1 and did what
he did unilaterally. If the doubts linger, the Himalayan kingdom could
be in for prolonged turmoil and uncertainty.
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