Nepal Returns to Work After Royal MassacreNepal's capital returned to work on Tuesday as banks, schools and government offices opened for the first time since the bloody palace massacre of June 1.A commission investigating the palace massacre is to finalize its report on Thursday, but government sources have said it will only be made public next Monday, once new King Gyanendra has had the chance to study it. Although official state mourning for slain King Birendra, his wife and eight other royal family members ended on Sunday, most institutions remained closed for a further day for a traditional Hindu ceremony that believers hope will rid the palace of the ill-fortune that has struck it. The government's already tenuous grip on power will be tested at the ballot box on June 27 in elections for 20 seats in parliament's upper house. How Gyanendra wins over a normally monarchist population remains to be seen. His accession on June 4 was greeted with rude silence, followed by rioting. Gyanendra has already said he will support the type of multi-party democracy that his slain brother and predecessor introduced in 1990, when the country became a constitutional monarchy. That move won Birendra enormous support in the country of 22 million people. For many of his subjects, he was a guarantor of stability. |
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