Nepal's talks offer fails to dampen protests

Nepalese protesters scuffle with police during a demonstration in Kathmandu yesterday. PHOTO: AFP

The protests continued despite a government offer to talk to opposition leaders and a partial relaxation of curbs imposed to quash protests against King Gyanendra.

A key opposition leader of Nepal on Monday ruled out unity talks with King Gyanendra to resolve a deepening political crisis and vowed to intensify protests against the monarch who seized absolute power last year.

"There is no possibility of any understanding with the king," said former Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala, in his first comments after being freed late on Sunday from a three-day house arrest.

Koirala was among hundreds of politicians put under house arrest or detained ahead of a mass anti-king rally planned in Kathmandu last week. Party officials said dozens of leaders were yet to be freed.

Political activists and students waved party flags and chanted slogans demanding the king surrender his grip on power and restore democracy in the impoverished Himalayan nation.

"Down with the autocratic monarchy," they chanted. "Long live democracy."

At least nine people were injured during the baton charge on a normally busy shopping street in central Kathmandu.

On Tuesday, the government lifted a night curfew and allowed rallies in outlying parts of the capital. It also released key party leaders from house arrest at the weekend, and invited them for talks -- an offer they swiftly rejected.

But the ban on rallies in the heart of Kathmandu remained.

"We have the feeling the security situation has improved," Home Minister Kamal Thapa told reporters early in the day, adding that the restrictions would be reimposed if there was fresh trouble.

Authorities also restored some mobile phone connections late on Monday after cutting them last week.

The curbs were imposed to thwart a pro-democracy rally planned for last Friday and which had been called by an alliance of seven mainstream political parties to protest against Gyanendra's seizure of power last year.

Thousands of heavily armed police and soldiers took to the streets to prevent the rally, placing political leaders under house arrest.

The political parties have called a general strike for Thursday, when candidates for municipal elections are expected to start filing their nomination papers. The elections are due on Feb. 8.

The mainstream parties are boycotting the polls, which were set by the king without consulting political leaders. Maoist rebels have vowed to stop the elections.

Gyanendra says he was forced to take power to crush an anti-monarchy Maoist insurgency in which more than 12,500 people have died since 1996. But so far he has failed to do so and appears more isolated than ever.