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引用：The Times of India
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【Tourists feel Nepal curfew sting】
KATHMANDU: A popular tourist resort in central Nepal, where security forces shot dead a protester last week, had its image tarnished further when policemen roughed up a Japanese tourist who had ventured out during curfew.The 46-year-old tourist, whose name was given only as Toksang, was assaulted by policemen in the scenic town of Pokhara on Sunday evening along with his Nepali escort, Kathmandu Post daily reported on Tuesday.
The visitor had gone out of his hotel to dine at a nearby restaurant when he was stopped on the road by a group of policemen and beaten up. When the owner of the hotel, who had accompanied him, tried to intervene, he too was beaten up, the Post said.
The incident triggered a protest by other tourists who took out a candle light procession in Pokhara on Monday, the newspaper reported. The assault was also condemned by the Hotel Association of Nepal and human rights organisations.
The paper said tourists under the banner of an organisation called Free International Tourists planned a rally on Tuesday afternoon in Thamel, the tourist hub in this capital city.
The rally has been planned to "show solidarity with Nepalis and their struggle for peace, democracy and human rights", the report said.
Pokhara was put under a 12-hour curfew beginning 9 am from Sunday after security forces fired on a protest rally, killing 32-year-old Bhimsen Dahal, a supporter of the Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist.
The party, along with six others, has called an indefinite shutdown nationwide from April 6 to pressure King Gyanendra into stepping down as head of government.
To put down the protests, the royalist government has clamped curfew in the Kathmandu valley since last week. Currently, Kathmandu and its neighbouring Bhaktapur and Lalitpur cities are under an 11-hour curfew.
【Mission Kathmandu: India steps up pressure on Nepal king】
KATHMANDU: India stepped up pressure on Nepal's King Gyanendra on Wednesday to restore democracy, sending a special envoy and its top diplomat to hold talks with the monarch to try to defuse a fortnight of crippling protests.A woman hit on the face by a tear gas shell during a protest died on Tuesday, taking the death toll in the campaign to six. Hundreds have been wounded in police action against protesters and hundreds of others arrested.
The anti-monarchy campaign by a seven-party alliance has brought the kingdom to a standstill with nationwide street protests and a general strike, which has stopped the movement of food and fuel. Giant neighbour India has expressed worry because of the long, porous border it shares with Nepal.
"I bring prayers and hope that Nepal will get out of the present difficult situation and return to peace and prosperity," the Indian envoy, Karan Singh, told reporters at Kathmandu's airport.
Earlier, Singh told a news TV channel: "It is not our intention to interfere in the internal affairs of another country but the last thing that we would want is for Nepal to dissolve into chaos because India's vital security interests are involved.
"Our human interests are involved. There's an open border between Nepal and India and our commitment to parliamentary democracy is there."
Singh is the scion of the royal family of Kashmir and is related to King Gyanendra by marriage. He was to meet political representatives later on Wednesday and call on the king on Thursday.
Indian Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran, the country's top diplomat, is also in Kathmandu and might accompany Singh when he calls on the king, local officials said.
FLASHPOINT
Diplomats have said events are moving toward a climax.
One flashpoint could come on Thursday at mass rallies called by the political parties, which have vowed to bring out hundreds of thousands of people on the streets.
Sporadic protests took place in the capital and other towns on Wednesday but activists appeared to be reserving their strength for Thursday.
About 250 school and university teachers were arrested when they staged a rally in the western town of Pokhara, where authorities have clamped a curfew to block anti-monarchy demonstrations.
Fifty teachers were arrested in a protest in Kathmandu.
The United States and India have called repeatedly for the restoration of democracy.
King Gyanendra sacked the government and assumed full power in February 2005, vowing to crush a decade-old Maoist revolt in which more than 13,000 people have died.
He has offered to hold elections by April next year, but activists say he cannot be trusted and should immediately hand over power to an all-party government.
The king came under further pressure on Tuesday when three top human rights groups called for international sanctions against the monarch and top Nepali officials, accusing them of being "impervious to the suffering" of the Nepalese people.
"He (the king) and his officials have been responsible for serious human rights violations, including the arbitrary arrest and detention of thousands of critics, torture and ill-treatment of detainees ...," Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the International Commission of Jurists said in a statement.
Despite the pressure, the World Bank's representative to the country said the economy could hold out for months even if Nepal was internationally isolated.
"How long has Burma (Myanmar) survived?" Ken-ichi Ohashi said . "I think evidence is pretty clear that if a country decides to endure some hardship, the economy just doesn't collapse very easily.
"It seems pretty obvious to me that the biggest pressure comes from whether people come out in large numbers.
"If a million people came out, I think the king would have certainly have to take notice. Donors threatening to cut aid I don't think is going to do it."
