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NEIGHBOURS: NEPAL
Official Burial
The inquiry commission's report on the regicide
clarifies a few points in trying to establish Dipendra's guilt. But will
it suffice to set the many ghosts to rest?
By Farzand Ahmed in Kathmandu
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ASSAULT RIFLES: Ranabhatt (right) and an aide hold up the guns
used by Dipendra
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Since the late hours
of June 1 when the tranquillity of Narayanhity palace was shattered by
gunfire, Kathmandu has been transformed into the rumour capital of the
world. There is hardly any theory-however bizarre and far-fetched-that
has not been in circulation to explain the palace massacre that left 10
members of the Nepal royal family, including the king, queen and crown
prince, dead.
The two-member inquiry committee comprising
Chief Justice Keshav Prasad Upadhyaya and Pratinidhi Sabha Speaker Taranath
Ranabhatt was instructed to rush through its report precisely to put an
end to fanciful whodunit theories. But even as officials displayed the
deadly 9mm MP-5 K automatic sub-machine gun and the 5.56 calibre M-16
automatic rifle, said to have been used by Crown Prince Dipendra that
night, Nepal came no closer to discovering what prompted this bloody display
of hate. Devyani Rana, the girl at the centre of the problem, didn't enlighten
the committee on the personal dimensions of her relationship with Dipendra,
although she did communicate with Nepal's ambassador to India.
Not that the inquiry committee report was an
exercise in evasion. Basing itself on eyewitness accounts and telephone
records, the committee presented a credible sequence of events on June
1. It confirmed that Dipendra was indeed inebriated that evening; that
he compounded this drunkenness with hashish mixed with another "unnamed
black substance"; that he thrice spoke to his beloved Devyani on
the mobile phone between 8.12 p.m. and 8.39 p.m.; that he dressed up in
combat gear to effect his final solution and that he killed a total of
nine people before shooting himself.
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POST MORTEM: King Gyanendra (right)
hands over the report to Koirala at the palace
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The report also revealed that a total of 78 empty
cartridge cases from three separate guns had been collected from the scene
of the massacre, mainly fired from guns that could spray anything between
700 and 1,000 bullets per minute. And finally, the report was categorical
that Dipendra was the only person who was seen to have been shooting that
night, implying he must have been the only killer. Dipendra's own death,
the report hinted tangentially, was probably the result of two bullets
fired from a 9mm calibre automatic pistol. Yet it avoids a categorical
conclusion, an omission that will be exploited by the regime's opponents
to fuel more speculation.
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