Word: nepal
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Nepal's palace massacre in 2001 - when crown prince Dipendra allegedly gunned down 10 members of his own family, including his father, King Birendra Shah, before shooting himself - has for the most part receded into memory in this impoverished Himalayan nation. Since then, a Maoist rebellion found its way into power, transformed the kingdom into a republican democracy and abolished the monarchy altogether last year. Yet the current government, headed by the former rebels, still indulges in periodic bouts of royal-bashing, often to paper over the increasingly apparent shortcomings of its own rule. As fuel lines in Kathmandu stretch...
...another new twist, Paras also told the New Paper he may return to Nepal and participate in electoral politics, heading up a party of "young professionals and bankers." But it seems unlikely the deeply unpopular 37-year-old - an embodiment, for many, of royal excess - would gain much from such a venture. "That's what everyone in Nepal is laughing about," says Kunda Dixit, editor of the Nepali Times, a Kathmandu-based weekly. "It's remarkable how quickly people here have otherwise forgotten the monarchy," he says...
...though, who waged a decade-long war against the royal army, have not forgotten so easily. A recent trip to India by Gyanendra, who lives quietly in a private residence in the capital, prompted howls of outrage from members of the government who are wary of his dealings with Nepal's influential southern neighbor. The Maoists, observers say, need to raise the specter of royalist nefariousness to boost their own flagging support. "They need to create a sense of threat, of a larger enemy, to distract the people from their failings," says Dixit...
...face of all this, few in Kathmandu expect much from the inquiry into the royal family's murder. Many other questions remain unanswered from Nepal's decade-long civil war. More than 13,000 people died, many of them civilians, at the hands of both rebel and government soldiers. But neither the Maoists nor elements of the old royalist regime have heeded calls to investigate charges of war crimes. "Not a single case has been prosecuted so far," says Manjushree Thapa, author of Forget Kathmandu, an award-winning history of the conflict. "As ever," she says, "we Nepalis...
...elder Tamang, who worked as a farmer before he became a soldier, doubts Nepal will ever achieve a total ban on Gurkha recruitment. If the recruitment is stopped, Nepal's flailing economy will take a hit; each year, the country receives $1.1 billion in remittances - nearly 18% of the national GDP - from the Gurkhas and other 2 million Nepalis serving abroad. Even with its new democratically elected government, there is no guarantee how long peace will last in a still fractious Nepalese society. "If Nepal was politically stable and there were enough jobs," says Saharman Tamang, "our young men would...