New Year Promises

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To listen to Nepal's political parties, you'd think the Himalayan kingdom is about to get a new government. Last Friday, Nepal's New Year's Day, an alliance of the country's seven main parties issued a statement vowing to continue their recent protests—supported by the country's Maoist insurgents—against King Gyanendra, who seized power 14 months ago. Once the King is gone, they said, "the democratic government"—i.e. themselves—will reimburse health centers for the cost of treating protesters, reinstate government employees sacked for taking part in the unrest and punish soldiers and police deemed responsible for the brutal crackdown on demonstrators. "There can be no permanent peace in the country until the end of autocracy and establishment of full-fledged democracy," the parties declared. "The mass movement is heading towards a success."

But is it? Certainly, the King has never faced protests as widespread or sustained as those that have raged since April 6, with six people reportedly killed, hundreds injured and hundreds more arrested. But so far there is no sign that his trump card, the Royal Nepalese Army, will switch sides, despite entreaties from the parties and the Maoists. The King returned late last Wednesday from a nearly two- month-long vacation to release a New Year's statement in which he promised to hold elections—a pledge critics say he's made before, only to revert to repression. Still, his speech may signal that he understands how precarious his situation has become. "Suppression alone will not work," concedes government minister Keshar Bahadur Bista. "We must go for a meaningful dialogue with the parties."

But the parties may be done talking. "We will not be distracted by the King's offer," says Amrit Kumar Bohara, Acting General Secretary of the Communist Party of Nepal (United Marxist-Leninist). "We shall take the movement to its logical conclusion—a republic."