KATHMANDU, Nepal: Shouting “Long Live democracy” and “Hang the old leaders,” hundreds of thousands of Nepalese exploded into the streets of the capital April 9 in a spontaneous celebration of the victory of democracy over monarchy.
For the first time in more than 30 years of largely autocratic rule, tens of thousands of political party flags, half of them bearing the Communist Party’s white hammer and sickle, appeared on the bicycles, rickshaws, buses, trucks, tractors, cars and scooters that jammed Kathmandu’s festive street’s throughout the day.
Hundreds of children marched with their mothers chanting and shouting their approval of King Birendra’s historic midnight announcement legalizing political parties. Civil servants, businessmen, doctors and street vendors in every neighborhood of the city left their offices and shops and jumped into the daylong processions.
Patients craned their heads out of hospital windows’ to watch. Farmers from nearby villages piled as many as 50 people on a single flag draped tractor and joined the huge motorcade rolling past the king’s downtown palace.
By the end of the day, nearly every face in the city was covered with thick layers of air, the iridescent red paint that this overwhelmingly Hindu kingdom usually reserves for only its holiest of festivals:
It was far by the largest and most emotional public demonstration in recent Nepalese history. And it was strong evidence that the democratic wave sweeping the world has reached this remote mountain kingdom.
Not a single soldier was seen on the streets all day, the first time since Friday that the Nepalese capital had been completely freed from curfew. Not once did single riot policemen appear on the scene, and the day ended peacefully.
“We have suffered a lot, but that is the nature of the struggle. And I assure you that the struggle is not over, he said.
Article extracted from this publication >> April 13, 1990
