Timeline Nepal
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The Gurkhas are a Nepalese warrior clan that has been used as
elite fighters by the British army. 21 million Nepalese live in Nepal,
10 million live in India and 2 million in other neighboring countries.
(SFC, 2/10/97, p.A8)(WSJ, 3/6/97, p.A8)
563BCE Apr 8, Buddha (d.483BCE),
Siddhartha Gautama, was born in Northern India. [Nepal] Raja
Suddhodana, king of the Sakyas in the 6th century BC, is best known as
the father of Bud-dha. The kingdom of the Sakyas was on what is now the
border of Nepal and India. Buddha was born in about 563 BC. The
birthplace of the Indian prince Siddartha, who became the monk Buddha,
was believed to have been discovered by archeologists in 1996. Lumbini,
Nepal, birth-place of Buddha, was designated a UNESCO World Heritage
Site in 1997. [see May 15]
(eawc, p.9)(V.D.-H.K.p.21)(WSJ, 2/6/96, p.A-1)(SFC,
9/1/96, DB p.30)(SFC,12/5/97, p.B2)(HN, 4/8/98)(HNQ, 3/30/99)
563BCE May 15, Wesak Day, also known as Buddha's
birthday. [see Apr 8]
(SFC, 5/15/03, p.A3)
c250BC In Patan the 4 corners are marked by stupas
said to be constructed on orders of Em-peror Ashoka.
(WSJ, 1/22/98, p.A17)
889 Bhaktapur, Nepal, was founded
under the Malla dynasty.
(SSFC, 9/21/03, p.C8)
1200-1500 Bhaktapur, Nepal, rose to dominate the
entire Kathmandu Valley region culturally and politically.
(SSFC, 9/21/03, p.C8)
1484-1768 The Nepalese city-states of Kathmandu,
Patan and Bhaktapur, were each ruled by its own Malla king after the
Malla dynasty divided up the Kathmandu Valley.
(SSFC, 9/21/03, p.C8)
c1500-1800 The Malla dynasty created an architectural
frenzy in Patan between the 16th and 18th centuries.
(WSJ, 1/22/98, p.A17)
1600-1700 Ladakh was a West Tibetan kingdom of this
time with lands that extended into what is now Nepal.
(SFEC,12/14/97, p.T4)
1769 Bhaktapur, Nepal, fell and
the triumphant Gurkhas took Kathmandu as their capital.
(SSFC, 9/21/03, p.C8)
1769-1775 Prithvi Narayan Shah, with whom we move
into the modern period of Nepal's history, was the ninth generation
descendant of Dravya Shah (1559-1570), the founder of the ruling house
of Gorkha.
(www.infonepal.com.np/shahs.htm)
1800s A Nepalese prince in Gorkha
allowed the British to recruit his subjects following the de-feat of
Nepal by the British East India Co. The recruits became known as
Gurkhas.
(WSJ, 7/3/01, p.A11)
1812 Sep, William Moorcroft, East
India Co. head of 5,000 acre horse farm at Pusa, India, was arrested in
Nepal while returning from Tibet to India. They were released after 17
days in captivity.
(ON, 1/02, p.3)
1815 Nepalese soldiers, later
known as Gurkhas, began serving in the British military.
(Econ, 5/2/09, p.58)
1846 The Kot Massacre took place
in Nepal. The Rana dynasty forced the Shah monarchy from power and then
ruled until 1951.
(SFC, 6/7/01,
p.A12)(www.russojapanesewar.com/lewis-3.html)
1900 Nepalese were recruited into
Bhutan as loggers.
(WSJ, 3/6/97, p.A8)
1911 In Nepal King Prithvi Bir
Bikram Shah (36) passed away and his son King Tribhuvan Bir Bikram Shah
(b.1906) ascended the throne.
(www.nepalmonarchy.gov.np/monarcyinnepal/monarchyinnepal.php)
1911 King George V of Britain
visited India. He went hunting in Nepal and from the back of an
elephant bagged 21 tigers, 8 rhinos, and a bear.
(NG, 12/97, p.138)
1921 George Leigh Mallory (36)
took part in the 1st expedition of mountain climbers to explore Mt.
Everest on the border of Nepal and Tibet.
(ON, 3/05, p.6)
1922 George Leigh Mallory (36)
took part in a 2nd expedition of mountain climbers to Mt. Ev-erest. 7
porters were killed and the expedition failed to reach the summit.
(ON, 3/05, p.7)
1923 Dec 21, Nepal changed from
British protectorate to independent nation.
(MC, 12/21/01)
1924 Jun 8, George Mallory (38), a
British schoolteacher, and Andrew Irvine (28), a student at Cambridge,
attempted to reach the top of Mount Everest from their camp at 26,800
feet. The body of Mallory was found May 1, 1999 on a ledge at 27,000
feet. Irvine’s body was not found. Two books were published in 1999
that used parallel narratives for the 2 expeditions: "The Lost
Explorer" by Conrad Anker and David Roberts, and "Ghosts of Everest" by
Jochen Hemmleb, Larry A. Johnson and Eric R. Simonson (as told to
William E. Northdurft).
(SFC, 5/5/99, p.A10)(WSJ, 12/16/99, p.W10)
1933 Apr 3, Royal Air Force
Lieutenant David McIntyre and the Scottish Marquess of Clydes-dale,
flying two open-cockpit Westland aircraft, completed the first
overflight and aerial photo-graphic survey of Mount Everest. The
British Mount Everest team, battled extreme cold and high winds as they
photographed the previously unknown crest of the 29,028-foot peak.
(HNPD, 4/3/99)
1933 Apr 13, The first flight over
Mount Everest was completed by Lord Clydesdale. [see Apr 3]
(HN, 4/13/98)
1934 Jan 15, An 8.4 earthquake in
India and Nepal killed some 15,000 people. It damaged the Mahabuddha
Temple in Patan, Nepal, one of but 3 in the world.
(http://asc-india.org/menu/gquakes.htm)(WSJ,
1/22/98, p.A17)
1934 Maurice Wilson, soldier and
mystic, attempted to scale Everest while relying on fasting and prayer.
His body was found the next year.
(SFEC, 4/25/99, p.C8)
1935 Charles Warren (d.1999 at
92), pediatrician, attempted to scale Mt. Everest. He failed to reach
the summit but found the body of Maurice Wilson and Wilson's diary. He
also failed on two other attempts.
(SFEC, 4/25/99, p.C8)
1948 Nepal established diplomatic
relations with the US.
(www.russojapanesewar.com/lewis-3.html)
1950 Jun 3, French expedition
reached the top of Himalayan peak of Annapurna in Nepal.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annapurna)
1951 Feb, King Tribhuvan
(1906-1955) returned to Kathmandu to usher in a new era of de-mocracy
in Nepal after oligarchy finally succumbed to popular demands.
(www.nepalmonarchy.gov.np/monarcyinnepal/monarchyinnepal.php)
1953 May 29, Mount Everest was
conquered as Edmund Hillary of New Zealand and Tensing Norgay, a Sherpa
of Nepal, became the first climbers to reach the summit. The expedition
was led by John Hunt (d.1998 at 88). Tenzing Norgay later authored the
autobiography "Man of Ev-erest."
(AP, 5/29/97)(SFEC, 6/1/97, p.T5)(HN, 5/29/98)(SFEC,
11/8/98, p.A23)(WSJ, 6/4/01, p.A20)
1955 King Tribhuvan (b.1906) died
and was succeeded by his eldest son Crown Prince Mahendra Bir Bikram
Shah (b.1920).
(www.nepalmonarchy.gov.np/monarcyinnepal/monarchyinnepal.php)
1959 King Mahendra promulgated
Nepal's first constitution based on a multiparty democratic polity
under which the first general elections were held later this year to
elect a House of Rep-resentatives.
(www.nepalmonarchy.gov.np/monarcyinnepal/monarchyinnepal.php)
1961 Jan, Nepal’s King Mahendra
introduced the indigenous Panchayat System (village council). Early in
1961 the king set up a committee of four officials from the Central
Secretariat to recommend changes in the constitution that would abolish
political parties and substitute a "National Guidance" system based on
local panchayat led directly by the king.
(http://countrystudies.us/nepal/19.htm)
1961 Dec 26, Nepal’s King Mahendra
appointed a council of five ministers to help run the ad-ministration.
Several weeks later, political parties were declared illegal.
(http://countrystudies.us/nepal/19.htm)
1960s Many Nepalese migrated to
Bhutan for economic reasons.
(Econ, 10/25/03, p.39)
1961 By late 1961 violent actions
organized by the Nepali Congress in exile began along the Indian
border, increasing in size and number during early 1962.
(http://countrystudies.us/nepal/19.htm)
1962 Jim Edwards began running
jungle safaris in Nepal and accumulated his own elephant herd.
(WSJ, 1/16/98, p.A1)
1963 May 1, James Whittaker became
the 1st American to conquer Mount Everest as he and a Sherpa guide
reached the summit.
(AP, 5/1/03)
1965 Col. Jimmy Roberts first
hired Khumbu Sherpas to serve his clients on adventure "treks." The
term originally was used by the British during the Boer War to describe
a slow jour-ney by oxcart. His first trekkers were 3 middle-aged
American women from the Midwest.
(SFEM, 6/6/99, p.12)
1969 In Nepal the royal residence
Narayanhiti Palace was completed in Kathmandu. On Feb 26, 2009, it was
opened to public.
(Econ, 3/28/09, p.51)
1970 Apr 5, Six Nepalese Sherpas
died in an avalanche during a Japanese skiing expedition on Everest.
(SFC, 5/15/96,
A-10)(www.everestsummiteersassociation.org/listofdeadoneverst.htm)
1970 May 6, Yuichiro Miura
(b.1932) of Japan skied down Mt. Everest.
(http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1090978/index.htm)
1970 May 27, Dougal Haston and Don
Whillans, members of a British expedition, climbed the south face of
Nepal’s Annapurna I, the 10th highest summit in the world.
(www.trentofestival.it/en/info/honorary%20members/SIR%20CHRIS%20BONINGTON.htm)
1972 King Mahendra, Nepal’s
poet-king, passed away at Diyalo Bangalow, Bharatpur. Crown Prince
Birendra (b.1945) ascended the throne of the kingdom. Birendra was
killed by his son in 2001.
(www.nepalmonarchy.gov.np/monarcyinnepal/monarchyinnepal.php)(WSJ,
9/29/07, p.A6)
1975 Feb 24, In Nepal Birendra,
who came to the throne on January 31, 1972, was crowned.
(http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/english/200106/02/eng20010602_71583.html)
1975 May 16, Japanese climber
Junko Tabei (b.1939) became the first woman to reach the summit of
Mount Everest.
(AP, 5/16/97)
1975 Dec, The bodies of Tourists
Connie Jo Bronzich (29) and Laurent Armand Carriere were found badly
burned in a field outside Kathmandu, Nepal. In 2003 Charles Sobhraj
(59) was or-dered to stand trial for their murder. Police said he had
killed as many as 20 people. In 2004 he was convicted in Nepal and
sentenced to life in prison.
(SFC, 11/21/03,
p.D1)(www.abc.net.au/am/content/2004/s1175776.htm)
1975 Thailand issued a warrant for
the arrest of Charles Sobhraj on charges of drugging and killing six
women, all wearing bikinis, on a beach at Pattaya. Sobhraj is also
accused of killing more than 20 young Western backpackers across Asia,
usually by drugging their food or drink, in the 1970s and 1980s.
Sobhraj, serving 20 years in India, escaped from prison in the
mid-1980s, but was caught and returned to jail until 1997. In 2003
French national Sobhraj was ar-rested from a casino in Kathmandu on
charges that he traveled to the Himalayan nation on a fake passport 32
years ago. He was subsequently sentenced to life in prison for
murdering an American backpacker in 1975.
(Reuters, 12/19/07)
1977 Apr 29, Donald Evans
(b.1945), American artist, died in a fire in the Netherlands. His work
included the creation of postage stamp series for imaginary countries.
(WSJ, 2/5/03,
p.D10)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Evans_(artist))
1978 Oct, An all-woman team
climbed the 26,558-foot Mt. Annapurna. 2 women died in an accident 2
days after Irene Miller and Vera Komarkova reached the top.
(SFC, 11/7/03, p.E3)
1980 Aug 20, Reinhold Messner of
Italy became the 1st to solo ascent Mt. Everest.
(www.britannica.com/ebc/article-9052253)
1982 Elephant polo began under the
direction of Jim Edwards.
(WSJ, 1/16/98, p.A1)
1984 In Nepal authorities began to
introduce 72 rhinos, also known as the Indian rhinoceros, in the Babai
Valley, 320 km southwest of Kathmandu, as part of a conservation drive.
By 2007 at least 23 had died due to poaching and other causes, and the
rest were missing.
(Reuters, 1/3/07)
1985 Ned Gilette (d.1998 at 53)
and Jan Reynolds published "Everest Grand Circle: A Climb-ing and
Skiing Adventure Through Nepal and Tibet."
(SFC, 8/15/98, p.A24)
1985 The South Asian Association
for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) was founded in Dhaka, Bangladesh, with
the aim of promoting economic cooperation and alleviating poverty in
South Asia. Members included Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives,
Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
(AP, 11/13/05)
1987 Chendra and Shanti,
one-horned rhinos, were presented as a gift to the SF Zoo from Prine
Gyanendra of Nepal. They came from the Royal Chitwan National park, one
of only 3 places where the species survives in the wild.
(SFC, 9/6.96, p.B1)
1987 Olga Murray (62), a retired
California Supreme Court research attorney, broke her leg while
traveling in Nepal. Her hospital experience led her to support another
young patient and then to found her Nepalese Youth Opportunity
Foundation. Her efforts grew to fight the use of young girls as
domestic slaves. In 2006 the Nepalese Supreme Court past token
legislation out-lawing the “kamlari” system, which indentured young
girls.
(SSFC, 2/8/09, p.A17)
1988 Aug 21, More than 1,000
people were killed in an earthquake on the Nepal-India border.
(AP, 8/21/98)
1988 A census found that southern
Bhutan had a lot of illegal Nepalese settlers. Protestors of the census
were jailed, some expulsion orders were issued and others were harassed
out.
(WSJ, 3/6/97, p.A1)(Econ, 10/25/03, p.39)
1990 Feb 5, The Nepali Congress
passed a resolution officially launching the "country-wide peaceful
mass movement." Shortly thereafter, as many as 475 opposition party
members, hu-man rights advocates, students, lawyers and journalists
were arrested. In a number of inci-dents, police opened fire
indiscriminately into crowds of unarmed demonstrators. Estimates of the
number killed range from 50 to several hundred. While the lower figure
probably is more accurate, the precise figure may never be known
because the police disposed of many of the bodies in secret without
conducting inquests.
(www.hrw.org/reports/1990/WR90/ASIA.BOU-07.htm)
1990 A parliamentary democracy
with 205 seats was adopted to replace the absolute monar-chy. A popular
revolt led to the institution of a constitutional monarchy.
(WSJ, 5/3/99, p.A1)(SFC, 5/13/99, p.C2)(WSJ, 6/5/01,
p.A26)
1990s The Gurkha Army
Ex-Servicemen's Organization (Gaeso) was founded along with the
publication of "Gurkha Soldier Voice."
(WSJ, 7/3/01, p.A11)
1991 Nepal banned the import of
2-stroke three wheelers due to the smog. The ban led to the development
of a fleet of electric three-wheelers.
(WSJ, 5/31/00,
p.B1)(www.environmentnepal.com.np/articles_d.asp?id=268)
1992 Sep 28, A Pakistani jetliner
crashed in Nepal, killing all 167 people aboard. The crew had
miscalculated their altitude.
(AP, 9/28/97)(SFC, 11/13/01, p.A10)
1992 In Nepal the region of
Mustang was opened to visitors. It was only accessible by a week-long
hike from the town of Jomsom along the Mustang River. Explorer and
artist Robert Powell began visiting there and creating local paintings.
(WSJ, 3/5/99, p.W10)
1992 Dwarika Das Shrestha, founder
of Dwarika's Hotel in Kathmandu, Nepal, died.
(SFEM, 9/17/00, p.94)
1994 The United People's Front
boycotted the elections after a confrontation with the ruling Nepali
Congress Party.
(SFC, 5/13/99, p.C2)
1995 Nov 10, Searchers in
Kathmandu, Nepal, rescued 549 hikers after a massive avalanche struck
the Himalayan foothills, killing 24 tourists and 32 Nepalese.
(AP, 11/10/00)
1995 A center-right government
came to power.
(WSJ, 8/22/96, p.A1)
1996 Feb, A Maoist insurgency
began central and midwestern in Nepal. The Communist Party of Nepal
launched its "people's war" to surround cities and seize power.
Kathmandu commu-nists Baburam Battarai and Pushpa Kamal Dahal preached
their Maoist proposal initially among the majority Magars, an ethnic
group of sheepherders and marijuana growers.
(SFC, 9/16/00, p.A12)(SSFC, 6/9/01, p.D3)(SSFC,
4/10/05, p.C6)
1996 Feb, Archeologists in Nepal
believed that they had discovered the birth place of Siddar-tha, who in
the 6th century BC became the monk Buddha.
(WSJ, 2/6/96, p.A-11)
1996 May 10, A blizzard suddenly
erupted on Mt. Everest and led to the death of 8 climbers descending
from 29,028 foot summit. Jon Krakauer, journalist, was on the
expedition and in 1997 published "Into Thin Air," an account of the
ordeal. The climbers were part of an IMAX film expedition.
(SFC, 5/15/96, A-10)(WSJ, 5/30/97, p.A16)(WSJ,
6/4/01, p.A20)
1996 Aug, The Communists called a
general strike against the center-right government.
(WSJ, 8/22/96, p.A1)
1996 Durga Pokhrel, ex-patriot
Nepalese journalist, authored “Shadow Over Shangri-La: A Woman’s Quest
for Freedom.”
(SSFC, 11/12/06, p.M3)
1997 Mar 6, The 17-month coalition
of Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba was defeated and Deuba resigned.
King Birendra asked Deuba's centrist Nepali Congress Party to continue
until the formation of a new council of ministers.
(SFC, 3/7/96, p.A17)
1997 Mar 10, King Birendra named
Lokendra Bahadur Chand as prime minister and gave him 30 days to form a
majority in the 205-seat House of Representatives. The Communists held
90 seats and backed Chand to form a coalition.
(SFC, 3/11/97, p.A11)
1997 Apr-Nov, An outbreak of
Japanese encephalitis has claimed at least one hundred lives over this
period. The flu-like disease is an inflammation of the brain and is
spread by mosqui-toes.
(SFEC,11/2/97, p.T14)
1997 Jun 11, Prakash Chandra
Lohani, the foreign minister, resigned and accused the ruling coalition
of Communists of cheating in last month's elections.
(SFC, 6/12/97, p.A14)
1997 Nov 8, It was reported that a
man-eating tiger that killed 100 people was finally tracked down and
killed in the Baitadi district.
(SFC,11/8/97, p.A16)
1999 May 2, In Nepal insurgents
killed 2 police officers the day before parliamentary elections that
they asked voters to boycott. The rebels demanded land reforms and an
end to the monar-chy. Election related violence left at least 10 people
dead.
(WSJ, 5/3/99, p.A1)(WSJ, 5/4/99, p.A1)
1999 May 3, In Nepal elections for
the parliament began.
(WSJ, 5/4/99, p.A1)
1999 May 10, Voting began in a
2-stage election process and 4 people were killed in violence. Nepalese
insurgents were led by Pushpa Kamal Dahal, aka Comrade Prachnanda or
the Furi-ous One.
(SFC, 5/13/99, p.C2)
1999 Dec 24, In Nepal 5 Sikh men
hijacked an Indian Airlines A-300 Airbus, Flight 814, with 189 people
onboard. After 3 stops for refueling it landed in Kandahar,
Afghanistan, where it was surrounded by Taliban militia. 26 passengers
were released in Dubai. They called for the re-lease of Maulana Massood
Azhar, a Pakistani religious leader and other Kashmiri militants. They
later raised their demands to $200 million, the release of 35 jailed
guerrillas and the ex-humation of a dead comrade buried in India. [see
Dec 29]
(SFC, 12/25/99, p.A1)(WSJ, 12/27/99, p.A1)(SFC,
12/28/99, p.A9)(SFC, 12/29/99, p.A1)
2000 Feb 22, In Nepal police
killed 19 Maoist rebels in the midwestern mountains. The police
operation followed days after guerrillas killed 15 policemen and
injured another 16 in the bomb-ing of a police station.
(SFC, 2/24/00, p.A14)
2000 Mar 27, A general strike
turned violent in Kathmandu.
(SFEC, 4/9/00, p.T15)
2000 Apr 6, Maoists called for an
"armed strike" in Kathmandu.
(SFEC, 4/9/00, p.T15)
2000 Jul 17, Nepal’s King Birendra
abolished debt-bondage slavery following efforts by Kevin Bales, an
American anti-slavery activist. Soon some 40,00 families in 5 districts
suddenly found themselves emancipated and evicted by slaveholders. They
moved into refugee camps and by 2007 a third still lived in the camps.
In 2007 Bales authored “Ending Slavery: How We Free To-day’s Slaves.”
(SSFC, 9/30/07, p.M1)
2000 Sep 15, The government
reported that the Maoist insurgency had killed over 1,400 peo-ple the
last 4 years. 209 police personnel, 979 rebels and 249 civilians were
killed.
(SFC, 9/16/00, p.A12)
2000 Sep 25, Maoist rebels killed
12 police officers in Dunai with crude bombs and guns.
(SFC, 9/26/00, p.A14)
2000 Dec 26, In Kathmandu rioting
began and 4 people were killed following a rumor that Hrithnik Roshan,
an Indian film star, allegedly spoke of his hate for Nepal and its
people. Roshan denied making such comments.
(SFC, 12/28/00, p.C2)
2000 Pushka Gautam, Maoist
commander in Nepal, defected and established himself as a
Kathmandu-based writer.
(Econ, 12/4/04, p.41)
2001 cMar 27, A huge avalanche
killed 3 members of an Australian army expedition, including an
8-year-old girl, near Dhunche.
(SFC, 3/28/01, p.D4)
2001 Apr 2, A Maoist insurgency
killed at least 38 people.
(SFC, 4/3/01, p.A9)
2001 Apr 8, Maoist rebels killed
28 policemen over the weekend. The government said it was ready to
begin talks, but the top opposition party wanted the premier to quit.
(WSJ, 4/9/01, p.A1)
2001 Apr 10, In Singapore doctors
completed a 4-day operation to separate 11-month-old Siamese twins,
Jamuna and Ganga Shrestha of Nepal. The girls had joined heads.
(SFC, 4/11/01, p.C3)
2001 Apr 29, Babu Chhiri (35),
Sherpa guide and mountain climber, died from a fall into a cre-vasse on
Mt. Everest.
(SFC, 5/1/01, p.B2)
2001 May 22, Temba Tsheri (15)
became the youngest person to scale Mt. Everest.
(SFC, 5/25/01, p.A16)
2001 May 22, An Australian climber
fell to his death just 155 feet from the summit of Mt. Ev-erest.
(SFC, 5/25/01, p.A16)
2001 May 24, Erik Weihenmayer (32)
of Golden, Colorado, became the 1st blind person to reach the top of
Mt. Everest. Sherman Bull of New Canaan, Conn., became the oldest
person to reach the peak. 94 climbers reached the summit over 4 days.
(SFC, 5/26/01, p.A1)(SSFC, 5/27/01, p.A14)
2001 May 27, A 3-day strike was
called by the opposition parties who demanded that Prime Minister
Girija Prasad Koirala resign for his role in a bribery case involving
the lease of a com-mercial jet for state-run Royal Nepal Airlines.
(SFC, 5/28/01, p.B12)
2001 Jun 1, Crown Prince Dipendra
(29) killed at least 8 members of the royal family before shooting
himself. King Birendra, Queen Aiswarya, Princess Shruti, Prince
Nirajan, 3 of the King's sisters and a brother-in-law were all shot to
death. Dipendra was put on life support and Prince Gyanendra (54), the
king's younger brother, was appointed as assistant to the crown. There
was an apparent dispute over his upcoming marriage.
(SFC, 6/2/01, p.A1)(SSFC, 6/3/01, p.A14)
2001 Jun 4, King Dipendra died 3
days after allegedly shooting the royal family and himself. Prince
Gyanendra was named king.
(SFC, 6/4/01, p.A8)
2001 Jun 14, A panel of inquiry
reported that Prince Dipendra was tipsy from whiskey and high on
hashish when he killed his family members Jun 1.
(SFC, 6/15/01, p.A18)
2001 Jul 19, PM Girija Prasad
Koirala resigned over pressures from a bribery scandal in his
government.
(SFC, 7/20/01, p.D3)
2001 Jul 22, Sher Bahadur Deuba
was chosen as prime minister.
(SFC, 7/23/01, p.A9)
2001 Jul 23, The new government
declared a unilateral ceasefire and called on Maoist rebels to talk
peace. In a recent skirmish guerrillas killed at least 17 police
officers in Pandusen.
(WSJ, 7/24/01, p.A1)(SFC, 7/24/01, p.A12)(SFC,
7/31/01, p.A10)
2001 Aug 16, The government
outlawed discrimination against members of the lowest caste, the
Dalits, who would be free to enter any temple or religious structure.
(SFC, 8/17/01, p.A12)
2001 Sep 9, In Damak, Nepal, a
Bhutanese leader, R.K. Budhathoki, was attacked and killed with
khukris, the traditional Nepalese curved knives.
(SFC, 9/10/01, p.B2)
2001 Nov 21, Nepal's Maoist rebel
leader Prachanda (b.1954), the name means fierce, an-nounced a
withdrawal from a 4-month cease-fire agreement. Attacks on police
stations and government installations quickly followed.
(SFC, 11/24/01, p.A12)(Econ, 8/23/08,
p.33)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prachanda)
2001 Nov 23, Maoist rebels killed
14 soldiers and at least 23 police in a wave of attacks. Au-thorities
believed that some 80 rebels were killed in the gunbattles.
(SSFC, 11/25/01, p.A18)
2001 Nov 25, In Solukhumbu 28
people were killed during Maoist rebel attacks.
(SFC, 11/27/01, p.A6)
2001 Nov 26, Nepal went into a
state of emergency as the death toll from recent Maoist re-bels attacks
mounted to 76.
(SFC, 11/27/01, p.A6)
2001 Dec 6, The anti-rebel
campaign was reported to have left 250 dead since rebel attacks began
Nov 23.
(WSJ, 12/7/01, p.A1)
2001 Dec 31, Tourism for the year
plunged 21%.
(WSJ, 1/2/02, p.A1)
2001 Jamling Tenzing Norgay
authored "Touching My Father's Soul" with Broughton Coburn.
(WSJ, 6/4/01, p.A20)
2001 Bhutan and Nepalese
authorities agreed on a joint screening system to determine on which
refugees would be allowed to go back to Bhutan. Over 100,000 people
were in refugee camps in Nepal.
(Econ, 10/25/03, p.39)
2002 Feb 17, In Nepal Communist
rebels killed 129 police, soldiers and civilians in Mangalsen and
Sanphebaga.
(SFC, 2/18/02, p.A3)
2002 Feb 18, Legislators called
for the government to resign.
(SFC, 2/19/02, p.A7)
2002 Feb 20, Security forces
killed 12 Maoist guerrillas in fighting at Kalikot and other loca-tions.
(SFC, 2/21/02, p.A13)
2002 Feb 21, The army killed 48
guerrillas and the parliament extended the state of emer-gency by 3
months.
(SFC, 2/22/02, p.A14)
2002 Feb 22, In Nepal rebels
attacked a police post and killed at least 32 officers. They killed 5
bus passengers in a separate attack. The army said 10 rebels were
killed in other fighting. Rebels called a 2-day nationwide general
strike.
(SFC, 2/23/02, p.A12)(SSFC, 2/24/02, p.A20)
2002 Feb 27, Nepalese soldiers
killed 27 rebels over the last 2 days as part of a military of-fensive.
(SFC, 2/28/02, p.A9)
2002 Apr 12, Rebel attacks killed
160 people. 60 police officers were killed defending the house of
Interior Security Minister Khum Bahadur Khadka. 27 officers who
surrendered were beheaded and 2 were burned alive.
(SSFC, 4/14/02, p.A14)
2002 Apr 23-28, Maoist rebels
called for a national strike.
(SSFC, 5/12/02, p.C8)
2002 May 2, PM Sher Bahadur Deuba
rejected a reported offer by rebel leader Prachand to hold peace talks.
(SFC, 5/4/02, p.A9)
2002 May 3, In western Nepal
security forces killed at least 90 Maoist guerrillas.
(SFC, 5/4/02, p.A9)
2002 May 4, Security forces
increased the number of rebels killed to 350.
(SSFC, 5/5/02, p.A16)
2002 May 6, The government
reported that army air strikes had killed an additional 200 rebels in
the remote districts of Rolpa and Pyuthan.
(SFC, 5/7/02, p.A11)
2002 May 8, Fighting continued in
western Nepal. Guerrillas regained control of Gam. The army reported
518 people killed, including 410 rebels, since May 2. Rebels offered a
one-month cease-fire. The government rejected the offer.
(SFC, 5/8/02, p.A9)(WSJ, 5/10/02, p.A1)(WSJ,
5/13/02, p.A1)
2002 May 16, A record 54 climbers
reached the top of Mount Everest.
(WSJ, 5/17/02, p.A1)
2002 May 22, King Gyanendra
dissolved parliament and ordered elections due to rifts over a proposed
extension of emergency rule.
(SFC, 5/23/02, p.A12)
2002 Jun 12, In Nepal some 300
Maoist rebels attacked an army camp in western Salyan dis-trict and
killed at least 5 soldiers.
(SFC, 6/14/02, p.A16)
2002 Jun 23, A wild elephant
killed 10 people on the India-Nepal border.
(SFC, 6/25/02, p.A8)
2002 Jul 23, In Nepal floods and
landslides triggered by heavy monsoon rains killed at least 11 people
over the last 2 days, bringing to 67 the number of deaths caused by bad
weather over the past two weeks.
(Reuters, 7/23/02)
2002 Jul 25, Torrential monsoon
rains and overflowing rivers worsened flooding in eastern India, Nepal
and Bangladesh and officials said 218 people have died and more than
six million people have been left homeless during the last 5days.
(Reuters, 7/25/02)
2002 Jul 28, Torrential overnight
rains set off more floods in eastern India as the death toll from
floods in India, Nepal and Bangladesh passed 300.
(Reuters, 7/28/02)
2002 Aug 13, Deaths from flooding
in Bangladesh (157), India (265) and Nepal (422) and reached at least
874.
(SFC, 8/13/02, p.A15)
2002 Aug 20, In Nepal army
soldiers reportedly killed at least 30 Maoist rebels at a remote
training camp.
(SFC, 8/22/02, p.A10)
2002 Aug 21, In east Nepal a
massive landslide triggered by monsoon rains wiped out a vil-lage,
killing at least 60 people.
(AP, 8/21/02)
2002 Aug 22, In Nepal a small
plane carrying 18 people, including tourists from Germany, the United
States and Britain, crashed into a mountain in bad weather, killing all
aboard.
(Reuters, 8/22/02)(AP, 8/22/03)
2002 Aug 28, Nepal's government
announced that it was lifting a state of emergency imposed in Nov, 2001.
(SFC, 8/29/02, p.A12)
2002 Sep 7, In Nepal over one
thousand Maoist rebels, fighting to topple Nepal's constitu-tional
monarchy, attacked a police post in the east of the country and killed
49 police officers.
(Reuters, 9/8/02)
2002 Sep 9, In Nepal Maoist rebels
launched an overnight attack on a remote Nepali town targeting several
government offices. At least 57 soldiers and police were killed and a
counter-attack was launched.
(Reuters, 9/9/02)(SFC, 9/10/02, p.A11)
2002 Sep 13, In Nepal 9 police
officers were killed when their jeep drove over a land mine. The 6-year
Maoist insurgency has left nearly 5,000 people dead.
(SFC, 9/14/02, p.A10)
2002 Sep 22, In Nepal Maoist
rebels fighting the constitutional monarchy have called for a three-day
countrywide strike aimed at disrupting general elections slated to
begin on November 13. The army killed 76 rebels over the last 2 days.
(Reuters, 9/22/02)(SFC, 9/23/02, p.A8)(SFC, 9/24/02,
p.A13)
2002 Sep 23, Nepali troops fought
a fierce battle with Maoist rebels and killed 24 guerrillas. The death
toll from the fighting took the number of insurgents killed in the last
five days to 143.
(Reuters, 9/25/02)
2002 Oct 4, In Nepal King
Gyanendra stunned the country when he announced he was firing Prime
Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, postponing November elections and assuming
direct power for the first time since absolute rule by the monarchy was
abolished in 1990.
(Reuters, 10/5/02)
2002 Nov 11, Nepal security forces
killed at least 10 rebels as guerrillas called for a 30day strike.
(WSJ, 11/12/02, p.A1)
2002 Nov 14, In Nepal thousands of
Maoist rebels stormed two remote towns, fighting pitched battles with
security forces in which at least 118 people were killed.
(Reuters, 11/15/02)
2002 Dec 8, In Nepal 5 people were
killed and more than 30 were injured when Maoist rebels blew up a bus
in east Nepal.
(Reuters, 12/8/02)
2002 Dec 15, Troops in Nepal shot
dead 11 Maoist rebels during gunbattles across the trou-bled Himalayan
nation over the past 24 hours, while guerrillas killed a soldier in the
west of the country.
(Reuters, 12/15/02)
2003 Jan 12, The death toll from a
month-long cold spell rose to 986 people in northern India, Nepal and
Bangladesh.
(AP, 1/13/03)
2003 Jan 25, In Nepal suspected
Maoist rebels gunned down police chief Krishna Mohan Shrestha along
with his wife and bodyguard.
(SSFC, 1/26/03, p.A14)
2003 Mar 13, Nepal and Maoist
rebels agreed to release all prisoners of war and set guide-lines for
peace.
(WSJ, 3/14/03, p.A1)
2003 Jun 4, In Nepal King
Gyanendra appointed a pro-monarchist Wednesday as Nepal's new PM. Surya
Bahadur Thapa replaces Lokendra Bahadur Chand, who resigned last week.
(AP, 6/4/03)
2003 Jul 21, Monsoon rains were
reported to have killed at least 579 people in South Asia. India
reported a total of 263 deaths, Bangladesh 169, Pakistan 78, and Nepal
69.
(AP, 7/21/03)
2003 Jul 31, In Nepal monsoon
rains triggered landslides, killing at least 48 villagers over the last
2 days, burying houses and blocking a key highway.
(AP, 7/31/03)
2003 Aug 15, A landslide swept
through an army base in northern Nepal killing at least 15 soldiers,
and search teams scoured the debris for more bodies.
(AP, 8/16/03)
2003 Aug 17, Nepal’s government
forces detained and then shot dead 21 suspected Maoists in the village
of Doramba. In 2005 the major responsible was cashiered and sentenced
to 2 years in prison.
(Econ, 4/16/05,
p.23)(http://hrw.org/reports/2005/nepal0205/2.htm)
2003 Aug 27, Nepal's rebels
announced that they were ending a seven-month cease-fire and
withdrawing from peace talks with the government aimed at closing seven
years of insurgency.
(AP, 8/27/03)
2003 Sep 18, Nepal was shut down
in a 3-day strike imposed by Maoist rebels.
(WSJ, 9/19/03, p.A1)
2003 Oct 11, In Nepal at least 3
policemen and 35 Maoist rebels were killed in an overnight battle as
the rebels resumed attacks on government forces after a 9-day
cease-fire.
(AP, 10/11/03)
2003 Oct 13, In western Nepal
Communist rebels attacked a police training camp overnight, sparking a
gunbattle that left at least 12 policemen and 15 guerrillas dead.
(AP, 10/13/03)
2003 Oct 13, In Nepal soldiers
stormed a high school that had been taken over by rebels in a mountain
village, starting a gunbattle that left at least 11 insurgents and four
students dead.
(AP, 10/14/03)
2003 Oct 28, In central Nepal
rebels attacked a police station, killing at least 8 people.
(AP, 10/28/03)
2003 Nov 15, In Nepal a roadside
bomb believed planted by rebels killed a brigadier general and three
soldiers.
(AP, 11/15/03)
2003 Dec 14, In Nepal Fighting
between suspected rebels and security forces intensified over the
weekend, killing at least 70 people in separate attacks across the
Himalayan kingdom.
(AP, 12/14/03)
2004 Feb 2, In Nepal some 15,000
people marched in downtown Kathmandu demanding de-mocratic reforms.
Police broke up the rally with tear gas, water cannons and bamboo
batons, injuring at least 12 people.
(AP, 2/2/04)
2004 Feb 22, In Nepal a land mine
exploded beneath a bus carrying Nepalese soldiers, killing three people
and injuring 15 others.
(AP, 2/22/04)
2004 Mar 3, In eastern Nepal
leftist rebels attacked a telecommunications tower in mountains,
killing at least 29 soldiers and leaving 10 others missing.
(AP, 3/3/04)
2004 Mar 5, In Nepal some 10,000
demonstrators marched through the streets of the capital, the latest
protest against the king for dismissing an elected government and
replacing it with one loyal to the monarchy.
(AP, 3/5/04)
2004 Mar 20, Nepalese government
forces killed as many as 500 rebels, and at least 18 po-lice and
soldiers died in some of the fiercest fighting since a cease-fire
collapsed last year.
(AP, 3/21/04)
2004 Apr 4, Maoist rebels in
southern Nepal killed at least 9 police officers.
(SFC, 4/5/04, p.A2)
2004 Apr 9, In Nepal police
detained more than a thousand protesters for defying a ban on public
rallies, as an estimated 25,000 demonstrators flooded the streets of
the Kathmandu to demand that the king restore democracy.
(AP, 4/9/04)
2004 Apr 30, A bus skidded off a
mountain highway in central Nepal, killing at least 29 people.
(AP, 5/1/04)
2004 May 7, Nepal's prime minister
Surya Bahadur Thapa quit after weeks of protests de-manding the return
of democracy in the Himalayan kingdom wracked by political instability
and a Maoist insurgency.
(AP, 5/7/04)
2004 Jun 2, In Nepal King
Gyanendra named Sher Bahadur Deuba, a former prime minister fired two
years ago for alleged incompetence, as prime minister again amid
political turmoil.
(AP, 6/2/04)
2004 Jun 14, Police in Nepal said
a land mine planted by suspected rebels blew up two police trucks in
western Nepal, killing at least 22 officers.
(AP, 6/14/04)
2004 Jun 16, In Nepal a passenger
bus veered off a mountainous highway west of the capital, killing at
least 12 passengers and leaving many more injured.
(AP, 6/16/04)
2004 Jun 18, In Nepal rebels
ambushed a police truck with a bomb and gunfire, also hitting a nearby
passenger bus in an attack that killed 14 policemen and 4 civilians,
including at least one child.
(AP, 6/19/04)
2004 Jul 12, Monsoon floods
continued to wreak havoc across South Asia, killing 37 more people and
forcing millions to flee their homes or seek emergency shelter.
Flooding has killed 36 people in Bangladesh this year. A total of 47
people have died in Nepal since June. In India a total of 158 people
have died in flooding since the beginning of June.
(AP, 7/12/04)
2004 Jul 13, At least 13 people --
eight Maoist guerrillas, two security men and three civilians -- were
killed in revolt-racked Nepal during the last 24-hour period.
(AP, 7/13/04)
2004 Jul 15, In western Nepal 11
suspected Maoist rebels including two local leaders were killed in
armed clashes with security forces.
(AFP, 7/15/04)
2004 Jul 18, In Nepal Maoist
guerrillas abducted at least 50 students and a dozen teachers from a
school near the capital to try to force them to back a campaign against
the constitutional monarchy.
(AP, 7/19/04)
2004 Jul 20, In Nepal Communist
rebels freed about 50 students and a dozen teachers.
(AP, 7/20/04)
2004 Aug 8, The death toll from
monsoons in South Asia reached 1,972. At least 1,152 have died in
India, 691 in Bangladesh, 124 in Nepal and 5 in Pakistan.
(AP, 8/8/04)(SSFC, 8/8/04, p.A3)
2004 Aug 12, A Nepali court
sentenced notorious criminal Charles Sobhraj, also known as the
"Serpent" and the "Bikini Killer", to life imprisonment in connection
with the killing of an Ameri-can backpacker in 1975.
(AP, 8/12/04)
2004 Aug 18, Communist rebels
isolated Nepal's capital from the rest of the country, stopping all
road traffic near Kathmandu by threatening to attack vehicles. The
campaign, announced last week, was aimed at pressuring the government
to free jailed guerrillas.
(AP, 8/18/04)
2004 Aug 24, Nepalese rebels
lifted a weeklong blockade that cut off Kathmandu from the rest of the
nation.
(WSJ, 8/25/04, p.A1)
2004 Aug 31, A video purporting to
show the methodical, grisly killings of 12 Nepalese con-struction
workers kidnapped in Iraq was posted on a Web site linked to a militant
group operat-ing in Iraq.
(AP, 8/31/04)
2004 Sep 1, Nepal's government
imposed an indefinite curfew and appealed for calm after thousands of
demonstrators ransacked a mosque and clashed with police in the capital
to pro-test the slaying of 12 Nepalese hostages by Iraqi militants.
(AP, 9/1/04)
2004 Sep 7, A Nepali labor union
with links to Maoist rebels asked 35 firms across the embat-tled
Himalayan kingdom to shut shop in a move aimed at bolstering the
guerrilla campaign to overthrow the monarchy.
(Reuters, 9/7/04)
2004 Sep 10, Nepali PM Sher
Bahadur Deuba vowed to crush a deadly Maoist revolt as giant neighbor
India promised more military help to fight the leftist guerrillas.
(AP, 9/10/04)
2004 Nov 6, In western Nepal 9
Maoist rebels, five of them women, and a policeman were killed in a
series of clashes and an accidental explosion.
(AP, 11/7/04)
2004 Nov 20, In western Nepal at
least 26 rebel and government soldiers were killed during a clash at a
rebel training camp at Pandon.
(SFC, 11/22/04, p.A3)
2004 Nov 21, At least 66 Maoist
rebels and 10 government troopers were killed in an over-night clash in
Nepal's far-western Pandon village.
(AP, 11/21/04)
2004 Dec 15, In western Nepal
fighting killed at least 20 soldiers and six guerrillas.
(AP, 12/15/04)
2004 Dec 18, Maoist rebels
attacked a police post near Nepal's capital with crude bombs and
automatic weapons, killing five policemen.
(AP, 12/18/04)
2004 Dec 19, Suspected communist
rebels ambushed an army patrol near the Nepalese capi-tal, killing at
least 9 soldiers. 3 rebels were killed in subsequent fighting.
(AP, 12/19/04)
2004 Dec 23, Nepali soldiers
killed 22 Maoist rebels in a fierce gun battle in the west of the
country.
(AP, 12/23/04)
2004 Nepal’s government banned all
diesel-run 2-stroke three wheelers in the Kathmandu Valley due to the
smog.
(www.environmentnepal.com.np/articles_d.asp?id=268)
2005 Jan 5, In western Nepal
soldiers backed by helicopters raided a communist rebel hide-out,
killing at least 30 guerrillas and foiling a planned attack on an army
base.
(AP, 1/5/05)
2005 Jan 9, At least five Maoist
rebels fighting to overthrow Nepal's constitutional monarchy were
killed, three days before a deadline for the guerrillas to begin peace
talks.
(AP, 1/10/05)
2005 Jan 13, Nepal's PM Sher
Bahadur Deuba said he would call elections and intensify a crackdown
against Maoist rebels after they turned down his offer of peace talks.
(AP, 1/13/05)
2005 Jan 22, Nepali troops killed
at least nine Maoist guerrillas including four women in weekend
gunbattles in the west of the revolt-torn Himalayan kingdom.
(Reuters, 1/23/05)
2005 Feb 1, Nepal's King Gyanendra
dismissed government of PM Sher Bahadur Deuba and imposed a state of
emergency, cutting off his Himalayan nation from the rest of the world
as telephone and Internet lines were severed, flights diverted and
civil liberties severely curtailed.
(AP, 2/1/05)(AFP, 2/13/06)
2005 Feb 2, Nepal’s King Gyanendra
announced a 10-member Cabinet dominated by his own supporters, one day
after he dismissed the government.
(AP, 2/2/05)
2005 Feb 4, In Nepal dozens of
paramilitary police raided an underground political meeting and rounded
up a group of party officials, days after the king seized power and
banned public gatherings.
(AP, 2/4/05)
2005 Feb 10, Police in Nepal's
capital arrested 12 rights activists and quashed a rally to pro-test
the king's emergency rule, while rebels in the southwest killed five
policemen and freed comrades from a jail during a raid on a town.
(AP, 2/10/05)
2005 Feb 15, In eastern Nepal an
overnight clash between government troops and communist rebels left at
least 12 rebels and 3 soldiers dead.
(AP, 2/15/05)
2005 Feb 17, Nepal's King
Gyanendra set up a controversial anti-corruption body using emergency
provisions of the constitution.
(AP, 2/13/06)
2005 Feb 18, The royal government
plunged Nepal into a communications blackout, the coun-try's annual
celebration of democracy, cutting phone service to thwart opposition
activists trying to organize nationwide protests.
(AP, 2/18/05)
2005 Feb 26, Nepal's rebel chief
said he was lifting a crippling countrywide blockade of roads by his
fighters to ease the discomfort of common people.
(AP, 2/26/05)
2005 Feb 27, At least 15 people
died in a fresh burst of violence in southern Nepal, after communist
rebels lifted a two-week highway blockade.
(Reuters, 2/27/05)
2005 Feb 28, In Nepal at least 50
Maoist rebels and 4 soldiers were killed in a gunbattle in the western
Bardiya district.
(AP, 3/1/05)
2005 Mar 4, Nepal government
forces killed at least 30 Maoist rebels in the western district of
Arghakhanchi.
(AP, 3/7/05)
2005 Mar 8, Nepali police arrested
nearly two dozen activists, including former ministers, as they rallied
in the Himalayan kingdom's capital on in one of the biggest protests
since King Gy-anendra seized power last month.
(AP, 3/8/05)
2005 Mar 11, Nepal freed sacked PM
Sher Bahadur Deuba from house arrest, amid mounting international
pressure on the country's king to relinquish power and restore
democracy.
(Reuters, 3/11/05)
2005 Mar 30, Nepalese Finance
Minister Madhukar Shumsher Rana and Pakistan's Minister of State for
Economic Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar concluded two days of talks by
signing an agreement to boost trade and investment. Pakistan offered
Nepal five million dollars in trade credits and talks on a free trade
agreement after the first meeting of senior economic officials of the
two countries in a decade.
(AFP, 3/30/05)
2005 Apr 1, Nepal's royal
government freed a popular former prime minister and 258 other
detainees, the biggest prisoner release since King Gyanendra seized
full power 2 months ago.
(AP, 4/1/05)
2005 Apr 8, Nepalese soldiers
repelled a major rebel assault overnight on one of their bases in the
country's mountainous northwest, killing at least 50 communist
guerrillas during a battle that lasted more than 12 hours. Soldiers
soon recovered more bodies of Maoists killed in the raid, taking the
toll of rebels to 113 in the deadliest clash in the country in five
months.
(AP, 4/8/05)(AFP, 4/10/05)
2005 Apr 9, In Nepal 2 Russian
tourists were injured, two Nepali citizens were killed and 13 others
wounded in separate bombings by Maoist rebels.
(Reuters, 4/9/05)
2005 Apr 10, Nepal agreed to
immediately allow UN monitors into the country to help prevent human
rights abuses.
(AFP, 4/11/05)
2005 Apr 10, It was estimated that
Maoist guerrillas controlled two-thirds of Nepal.
(SSFC, 4/10/05, p.C6)
2005 Apr 13, In Nepal businesses
reopened and traffic resumed on major highways after an 11-day general
strike called by communist rebels that crippled life across the
kingdom. The student wing of Maoist rebels demanded all private schools
shut down indefinitely.
(AP, 4/13/05)
2005 Apr 14, Nepal’s King
Gyanendra said he was ordering municipal polls to be held by mid-April
2006 in view of an "improving law and order situation" since he seized
power. Opposition parties dismissed the king's pledge as a sham and
have urged a boycott of the municipal polls.
(AP, 4/15/05)
2005 Apr 15, Communist rebels in
southern Nepal dragged at least 10 males from their homes, including a
14-year-old boy, and gunned them down for refusing to take up arms with
the guerrilla movement.
(AP, 4/17/05)
2005 Apr 19, Nepali soldiers
killed 22 Maoist guerrillas as the royalist government brushed aside a
rebel prediction of a victory in the nine-year civil war.
(AP, 4/19/05)
2005 Apr 22, Indian Foreign
Minister Natwar Singh met Nepal's King Gyanendra on the fringes of an
international summit in Jakarta and pushed for a restoration of
democracy.
(AFP, 4/22/05)
2005 Apr 23, In western Nepal 5
children were killed and three others wounded when a crude bomb left by
suspected Maoist rebels exploded.
(Reuters, 4/24/05)
2005 Apr 30, Nepal's King
Gyanendra lifted a state of emergency he imposed after seizing power in
February.
(AP, 4/30/05)
2005 May 1, In Nepal about ten
thousand people marched through Kathmandu, demanding the restoration of
democracy in the biggest show of opposition strength since King
Gyanendra seized absolute power three months ago.
(AP, 5/1/05)
2005 May 1, Michael O’Brien (39)
of Seattle, Wa., fell to his death on the Khumbu Icefall of Mount
Everest.
(SFC, 5/4/05, p.A3)
2005 May 6, In southwestern Nepal
unidentified gunmen fatally shot Narayan Pokhrel, the chief of the
World Hindu Council's Nepal chapter, while he was touring villages.
(AP, 5/6/05)
2005 May 8, In Nepal seven
mainstream opposition parties agreed to form a united front to push for
a return to democracy following King Gyanendra's seizure of power.
Nepal's Maoist rebels soon threw their support behind the decision.
(AP, 5/11/05)
2005 May 8, In Pakistan's
northwestern tribal region a bomb ripped through a car, killing 2
tribesmen.
(AP, 5/8/05)
2005 May 9, Nepali troops killed
26 Maoist rebels who attacked a military base at Bandipur. 3 policemen
and one soldier were also killed.
(AP, 5/10/05)
2005 May 14, In western Nepal
government soldiers rescued about 600 students who were abducted from
their classrooms in a series of bold strikes by communist rebels.
(AP, 5/15/05)
2005 May 16, Nepalese troops
resumed their search for hundreds of children taken hostage by Maoist
insurgents in the mountains of western Nepal. In the latest fighting, 4
rebels, 3 army soldiers and a policeman were killed in Sandheni area,
about 100 miles southeast of Kath-mandu. Meanwhile, Nepal's
anti-corruption agency charged former Prime Minister Sher Ba-hadur
Deuba and five others with embezzling $53 million.
(AP, 5/16/05)
2005 May 27, In Nepal thousands of
activists rallied to demand a restoration of democracy in the first
such protest since the monarch seized power and ordered a crackdown on
politicians.
(AP, 5/27/05)
2005 May 29, In southwestern Nepal
Maoist rebels shot dead a policewoman and her four-year-old son.
(AP, 5/29/05)
2005 Jun 6, In southern Nepal at
least 37 people were killed and dozens more wounded when a crowded bus
detonated a land mine planted by suspected communist rebels.
(AP, 6/6/05)
2005 Jun 8, Nepalese police
arrested 53 journalists as they protested press restrictions.
(AP, 6/8/05)
2005 Jun 13, In Nepal police
arrested nearly 100 journalists during a protest to demand King
Gyanendra immediately lift media restrictions imposed 4 months ago. At
least 14 rebels and security force members were killed in a gunbattle.
(AP, 6/13/05)
2005 Jun 13, In India officials
said at least 275 people have died from sunstroke and dehydra-tion in
northern India and neighboring Nepal and Bangladesh so far this summer,
as high tem-peratures sweep the region ahead of the monsoon.
(AP, 6/13/05)
2005 Jun 14, Nepal freed all the
journalists detained in a protest of media restrictions, bowing to
international demands that the reporters be released at once.
(AP, 6/14/05)
2005 Jun 22, South Asia endured
one of its hottest summers on record and at least 375 peo-ple were
reported to have died from sunstroke and dehydration in a month-long
heat wave sweeping India, Nepal, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
(Reuters, 6/22/05)
2005 Jun 29, A state dept.
officials said the US has suspended a shipment of M-16 rifles to Nepal
to protest at King Gyanendra's takeover in February.
(AP, 6/29/05)
2005 Jul 15, Nepal's king
appointed a dozen loyalists to ministerial jobs.
(AP, 7/15/05)
2005 Jul 19, In Nepal police broke
up a demonstration in the capital by hundreds of students protesting
the king's seizure of absolute power.
(AP, 7/19/05)
2005 Jul 24, In Nepal police used
batons to break up a protest by supporters of the detained former prime
minister, leaving about 15 demonstrators and 10 police injured.
(AP, 7/24/05)
2005 Jul 25, Nepal's main
political parties rejected an appeal by the country's Maoist rebels for
talks to plan joint opposition to King Gyanendra's seizure of power,
saying the guerrillas should stop killing civilians first.
(Reuters, 7/25/05)
2005 Jul 26, Nepal's former prime
minister and a member of his Cabinet were convicted of embezzlement by
the king's anti-corruption commission and sentenced to two years in
prison.
(AP, 7/27/05)
2005 Jul 30, Maoist guerrillas in
eastern Nepal kidnapped seven civil servants.
(AP, 7/30/05)
2005 Jul 31, Maoist rebels freed
seven government officials they had seized in eastern Nepal, and all
were safe and in good health.
(AP, 7/31/05)
2005 Aug 7-2005 Aug 8, In Nepal
communist insurgents overran about 200 troops 340 miles northwest of
Kathmandu and killed at least 40 soldiers in fierce clashes between the
military and Maoist rebels.
(AP, 8/9/05)(AP, 8/12/05)
2005 Aug 12, The Nepali army said
faulty Indian assault rifles were partly responsible for its heavy
death toll in a gun battle with Maoist rebels as troops hunted for 75
soldiers still missing after the fighting.
(AP, 8/12/05)
2005 Aug 22, In southern Nepal a
land mine planted by suspected communist rebels killed at least four
police officers and injured three others.
(AP, 8/22/05)
2005 Aug 23, Officials said
Nepal's main political parties will hold talks with Maoists on form-ing
a broad front against King Gyanendra provided the rebels keep to their
promise to stop kill-ing civilians.
(AP, 8/23/05)
2005 Aug 30, The UN said it was
alarmed by the rising number of disappearances in Nepal's civil war and
blamed both government troops and Maoist rebels. The state National
Human Rights Commission said since 1996 almost 1,000 people had
disappeared in the conflict. The 2005 UN report said no less than 136
people had disappeared in 2004.
(AP, 8/30/05)(Econ, 11/19/05, p.45)
2005 Sep 2, Former Nepali PM
Girija Prasad Koirala vowed to intensify anti-king protests, a day
after he won a 3rd term as chief of Nepal's oldest political party, the
Nepali Congress.
(AP, 9/2/05)
2005 Sep 3, Communist rebels in
Nepal said that they were unilaterally suspending attacks for the next
three months.
(AP, 9/3/05)
2005 Sep 4, In Nepal police fired
tear gas and used bamboo batons to stop pro-democracy demonstrators
from marching into the capital's center, arresting former PM Girija
Prasad Koirala (80) and dozens of other protesters.
(AP, 9/4/05)
2005 Sep 5, In Nepal more than a
dozen demonstrators were hurt in violent clashes with po-lice, the 3rd
day of protests against King Gyanendra's seizure of power seven months
ago. Au-thorities released more than 50 pro-democracy protesters
detained over the weekend.
(AP, 9/5/05)
2005 Sep 14, In Nepal police fired
tear gas and beat protesters with batons as 7,000 people poured into
the center of the Nepalese capital in continuing pro-democracy rallies.
(AP, 9/14/05)
2005 Sep 16, In Nepal police
arrested 87 journalists as they gathered in Kathmandu to protest media
restrictions while thousands of pro-democracy activists demonstrated
elsewhere in the city to demand an end to absolute royal rule. About
200 of those protesters were also arrested.
(AP, 9/16/05)
2005 Sep 20, Nepalese police
arrested more than 400 people in protests against King Gy-anendra's
rule.
(AFP, 9/20/05)
2005 Oct 20, The roof of a
hospital in central Nepal collapsed, killing at least 10 people and
injuring nine others.
(AP, 10/20/05)
2005 Oct 24, An official said more
than a dozen climbers from France and Nepal were swept away in an
avalanche on a Himalayan mountain and believed killed. The mountaineers
were reported missing last week after heavy snowfall hit the Himalayas.
(AP, 10/24/05)
2005 Oct 28, A general strike shut
down schools, businesses and transportation in Kath-mandu in a protest
of new laws restricting the media for criticizing Nepal's king.
(AP, 10/28/05)
2005 Nov 12, In Dhaka, Bangladesh,
Nepal’s King Gyanendra, who sacked his elected gov-ernment earlier this
year, repeated a pledge to hold parliamentary elections in 2007 and
urged his country's Maoist rebels to put down their arms.
(AFP, 11/12/05)
2005 Nov 12, In Dhaka, Bangladesh,
a 2-day summit aimed to alleviate poverty and boost trade and
cooperation among Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal,
Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Leaders called for greater cooperation within
the region to deal with the aftermath of dis-asters like the Kashmir
earthquake and last year's devastating tsunami.
(AFP, 11/12/05)
2005 Nov 22, Nepal's communist
rebels and seven main political parties said they have reached an
agreement to bolster opposition to King Gyanendra.
(AP, 11/22/05)
2005 Nov 28, Nepal's Supreme Court
ordered an end to a discriminatory practice that re-quired women under
age 35 to get written consent from her parents or husband to get a
pass-port. The law had been previously enforced as a measure to fight
the trafficking of women.
(AP, 11/29/05)
2005 Nov, Nepal promulgated an
ordnance to restrict the autonomy of NGOs. Another ord-nance banned
news on FM radio and prohibited criticism of the royal family.
(Econ, 11/19/05, p.46)
2005 Dec 2, In Nepal tens of
thousands of people marched in Kathmandu to demand restora-tion of
democracy.
(AP, 12/02/05)
2005 Dec 14, A Nepalese soldier in
Nagarkot ended an argument with a group of villagers by spraying them
with bullets, killing at least 11 people. 19 civilians were injured.
(AP, 12/15/05)
2005 Manjushree Thapa authored
“Forget Kathmandu: An Elegy for Democracy,” an exami-nation of events
in Nepal since 2001.
(Econ, 2/19/05, p.80)
2006 Jan 2, Communist rebels in
Nepal announced they would end a four-month cease-fire, saying they had
to take up arms to defend themselves against government attacks.
(AP, 1/2/06)
2006 Jan 5, Suspected rebels
killed 3 police and wounded 4 more in attacks across Nepal, while
hundreds of protesters marched through Kathmandu, demanding restoration
of democ-racy.
(AP, 1/5/06)
2006 Jan 14, In Nepal Maoist
rebels assaulted two police stations on the outskirts Kath-mandu,
killing 12 and wounding six.
(AP, 1/14/06)
2006 Jan 19, Nepal's royalist
government detained nearly 80 activists and cut off mobile phone
services to foil organizers of an anti-government rally.
(AP, 1/19/06)
2006 Jan 20, In west Nepal
suspected communist rebels attacked a security checkpoint, kill-ing at
least four policemen and injuring four others.
(AP, 1/20/06)
2006 Jan 21, In Nepal police fired
tear gas to disperse activists protesting the Nepalese king's seizure
of absolute power last year. At least 300 people were arrested and 50
were injured.
(AP, 1/21/06)
2006 Jan 21, In southern Nepal
Maoist rebels and government forces clashed in Phapar Badi village,
killing 14 militants and six security forces.
(AP, 1/22/06)
2006 Jan 22, In Nepal an electoral
candidate in Janakpur was murdered.
(Econ, 1/28/06, p.40)
2006 Jan 23, Nepal's royal
government vowed to hold municipal elections next month despite a
boycott by major parties, street protests, a candidate's assassination
and rebel violence that killed 26 over the weekend.
(AP, 1/23/06)
2006 Jan 24, In Kathmandu, Nepal,
police fired tear gas and beat pro-democracy activists with batons,
hours after authorities lifted a ban on demonstrations.
(AP, 1/24/06)
2006 Jan 27-2006 Jan 28, In Nepal
11 Maoist rebels fighting to overthrow the monarchy and two soldiers
were killed in a battle in the eastern part of the kingdom.
(AP, 1/28/06)
2006 Feb 1, Nepal's king pledged
to hold national elections within 15 months, the one-year anniversary
of his power grab, and claimed success in fighting communist rebels,
despite an overnight attack that killed at least 20 security forces.
(AP, 2/1/06)
2006 Feb 2, In Nepal the homes of
3 mayoral candidates loyal to the king were bombed, a week before
nationwide municipal elections that insurgents have called a sham and
vowed to disrupt.
(AP, 2/2/06)
2006 Feb 3, A pro-government
candidate in Nepal's municipal election died after being shot by
communist rebels, the 2nd person to be assassinated ahead of next
week's polls.
(AP, 2/4/06)
2006 Feb 5, A general strike
called by communist rebels to disrupt elections in Nepal forced schools
and markets to close, and highways and city streets remained deserted
in much of this Himalayan nation.
(AP, 2/5/06)
2006 Feb 7, In Nepal Communist
rebels killed at least seven security forces and wounded 15 in two
overnight attacks. Government troops were given orders to shoot anyone
who tries to disrupt municipal elections.
(AP, 2/7/06)
2006 Feb 8, A rebel attack and an
army shooting of protesters marred Nepal's first elections in seven
years, as few voters turned out at schools, shrines and temples for
municipal balloting seen as a referendum on the king. At least six
people were killed.
(AP, 2/8/06)
2006 Feb 9, In Nepal thousands of
opposition protesters flooded the streets of Kathmandu, as early
results showed pro-government candidates sweeping local elections that
were marred by rebel attacks, the shooting of protesters and low
turnout.
(AP, 2/9/06)
2006 Feb 10, In western Nepal
communist rebels clashed with soldiers, leaving seven people dead, as
the royal government announced its mostly uncontested candidates swept
discredited local elections.
(AP, 2/10/06)
2006 Feb 13, In Nepal a
controversial anti-corruption body set up by Nepal's King Gyanendra was
dissolved, paving the way for the release of jailed ousted PM Sher
Bahadur Deuba.
(AFP, 2/13/06)
2006 Feb 15, In Nepal insurgents
ambushed an army patrol near the village of Bibeke, about 150 miles
west of Kathmandu, killing at least three soldiers and injuring two
others.
(AP, 2/15/06)
2006 Feb 17, Nepal's Supreme Court
ordered the royalist government to release 37 political detainees who
opposed the king's rule, while communist insurgents freed two abducted
officials amid a major army offensive in the southwest.
(AP, 2/18/06)
2006 Feb 18, Nepal's communist
insurgents called for an indefinite nationwide strike to begin Apr 3 as
the country's major political parties prepared for a weekend protest
amid growing an-ger at the king's autocratic rule.
(AP, 2/18/06)
2006 Feb 22, In Nepal police
raided the house of Krishna Sitaula, a senior opposition leader
instrumental in organizing anti-government protests, and arrested him
two days after he was freed by the Supreme Court on similar charges.
(AP, 2/22/06)
2006 Mar 1, Security forces in
western Nepal found 29 bodies of soldiers and suspected re-bels at the
site of a fierce clash. Five insurgents were reported killed in an
accidental explosion.
(AP, 3/1/06)
2006 Mar 7, Hundreds of communist
rebels attacked security bases overnight and bombed government
buildings in eastern Nepal, sparking battles that left at least 13
people dead.
(AP, 3/7/06)
2006 Mar 9, In southwestern Nepal
communist rebels attacked a security checkpoint with bombs, killing at
least three government security forces and wounding five.
(AP, 3/9/06)
2006 Mar 11, Nepalese officials
said a 15-year-old boy, whose followers believe he is the
re-incarnation of Buddha, has disappeared after 10 months of meditation
in the jungle.
(AP, 3/12/06)
2006 Mar 13, Nepal's royal
government offered amnesty, cash, jobs and land to communist rebels who
surrender in the next three months.
(AP, 3/13/06)
2006 Mar 18, A Maoist-dictated
strike hobbled Nepal for a fifth day.
(AFP, 3/18/06)
2006 Mar 20, In Nepal About 1,000
pro-democracy activists marched in Kathmandu demand-ing King Gyanendra
free political detainees and give up powers he seized last year.
(AP, 3/20/06)
2006 Mar 21, Nepalese soldiers
hunted down communist rebels in the northern mountains as insurgents,
some on motorbikes, attacked police stations. The day of violence left
at least 33 people dead.
(AP, 3/21/06)
2006 Mar 27, Nepalese army
helicopters launched an attack on a gathering of communist re-bels in
the mountains of north-central Nepal, killing at least four people.
(AP, 3/27/06)
2006 Apr 3, The chief of Nepal's
communist rebels promised to suspend attacks on the capi-tal ahead of a
planned nationwide strike, a first sign of easing tensions in a battle
of nerves be-tween the king's government and its opponents.
(AP, 4/3/06)
2006 Apr 5, In Nepal police
detained dozens of opposition politicians and ordered a night cur-few
to thwart a planned general strike aiming to pressure King Gyanendra to
restore democ-racy.
(AP, 4/5/06)
2006 Apr 6, In Nepal police
arrested 300 protesters in Kathmandu, chasing them down nar-row lanes
and beating them with batons on the first day of a general strike to
demand the king restore democracy. Maoist rebels said they had shot
down an army helicopter for the first time, during clashes in which
police reported five of their officers and three guerrillas killed.
(AP, 4/6/06)(AFP, 4/6/06)
2006 Apr 7, In Nepal police fired
tear gas and fought frenzied street battles with protesters on the
second day of a strike called by government adversaries of King
Gyanendra. Protesters said 150 people were arrested.
(AP, 4/7/06)
2006 Apr 8, In Nepal security
forces fired on anti-monarch demonstrators in separate marches, killing
one and wounding five.
(AP, 4/8/06)
2006 Apr 9, In Nepal security
forces fired at anti-monarchy demonstrators in eastern Nepal, killing
at least one man.
(AP, 4/9/06)
2006 Apr 10, In Nepal security
forces fired tear gas and beat protesters with batons to break up
democracy rallies as the political crisis deepened.
(AP, 4/10/06)
2006 Apr 12, In southern Nepal
police shot and killed an anti-government protester as authori-ties
foiled pro-democracy activists' plans to hold a mass rally in the heart
of Kathmandu and de-tained dozens of demonstrators.
(AP, 4/12/06)
2006 Apr 13, In Nepal police fired
rubber bullets and tear gas on hundreds of lawyers protest-ing in
Kathmandu, the eighth day of pro-democracy demonstrations.
(AP, 4/13/06)
2006 Apr 16, Nepal's sidelined
political parties called for a massive pro-democracy protest in the
capital on April 20 and urged citizens to stop paying taxes and utility
bills to help bring down the royal government.
(AP, 4/16/06)
2006 Apr 17, In Nepal security
forces in a southern town shot into a crowd marching on the main
highway to protest the royal dictatorship, killing one and wounding
five. Nepal deployed the army to ensure that food reaches the capital
and threatened to impose a new state of emergency, the 12th day of a
strike in which neither the king or opposition is backing down.
(AP, 4/17/06)(AFP, 4/17/06)
2006 Apr 19, In southeastern Nepal
security forces opened fire on thousands of pro-democracy protesters,
killing at least 4 and wounding several others.
(AFP, 4/19/06)
2006 Apr 20, Nepalese police
opened fire on thousands of pro-democracy protesters march-ing toward
the capital in defiance of a government-imposed curfew, killing at
least three and wounding dozens.
(AP, 4/20/06)
2006 Apr 21, Nepal's king vowed to
return power to the people of this Himalayan kingdom af-ter weeks of
massive protests and increasing international pressure. King Gyanendra
called on the seven main political parties to name a prime minister as
soon as possible.
(AP, 4/21/06)
2006 Apr 22, Nepali security
opened fire on tens of thousands of protesters marching toward the
royal palace in defiance of a curfew, as opposition leaders rejected
the king's proposals for restoring democracy.
(AP, 4/22/06)
2006 Apr 23, Nepali police fired
rubber bullets at thousands of protesters, struggling to en-force a
curfew imposed to keep persistent pro-democracy demonstrators off the
streets in the Himalayan country's deepening crisis.
(AP, 4/23/06)
2006 Apr 24, In northern Nepal
communist rebels stormed army bases and government build-ings in a bold
assault. A night-long gunfight left six people dead. In the capital,
security forces fired rubber bullets on crowds of pro-democracy
protesters. King Gayendra appeared on na-tional television shortly
before midnight and read words that restored the parliament.
(AP, 4/24/06)(Econ, 4/29/06, p.44)
2006 Apr 25, In Nepal tens of
thousands of people celebrated in the streets and weeks of
pro-democracy protests were called off after the king gave in to a key
demand to reinstate parlia-ment.
(AP, 4/25/06)
2006 Apr 26, In southwestern Nepal
soldiers killed six villagers after thousands of civilians tried to
overrun an army camp. The killings were not believed to be connected to
the political turmoil that has gripped Nepal for weeks.
(AP, 4/26/06)
2006 Apr 27, Nepal's communist
rebels pledged to halt attacks for three months to give the Himalayan
country a chance for peace as a new government takes over in the wake
of bloody protests that forced the king to reinstate parliament.
(AP, 4/27/06)
2006 Apr 28, Nepal's Parliament
reconvened for the first time in four years, and legislators proposed a
cease-fire with the Himalayan country's Maoist rebels and elections for
a constitu-tional assembly.
(AP, 4/28/06)
2006 Apr 29, Newly returned
Nepalese legislators demanded that King Gyanendra be stripped of
control over the 90,000-strong army, fearing he could use it to regain
power after his recent concession to weeks of pro-democracy protests.
(AP, 4/29/06)
2006 Apr 30, Nepal's Parliament
called for a cease-fire with Maoist insurgents and elections for an
assembly to rewrite the constitution, as the new PM Girija Prasad
Koirala (84) urged the rebels to sit down for talks.
(AP, 4/30/06)
2006 May 2, Nepal's new prime
minister announced a seven-member Cabinet, designating a communist as
his deputy and foreign minister.
(AP, 5/2/06)
2006 May 3, Nepal's Cabinet
declared a cease-fire with communist rebels and will no longer
designate them as a terrorist group. Nepal's rebel chief ruled out
disarming his forces and launched a scathing attack on the nation's new
political leadership, according to the Maoists' website.
(AP, 5/3/06)(AFP, 5/3/06)
2006 May 4, In Nepal Communist
rebels agreed to a new round of peace talks with the gov-ernment,
raising hopes for an end to a decade-old insurgency that has killed
13,000 people.
(AP, 5/4/06)
2006 May 9, In eastern Nepal a
school van plunged into a canal, killing at least nine students and
leaving several others missing.
(AP, 5/9/06)
2006 May 11, In Nepal Matrika
Yadhav and Suresh Ale Magar, 2 top rebel Maoist leaders, walked free
from jail after the new government dropped murder charges against them,
marking the administration's first major release of militants.
(AFP, 5/11/06)
2006 May 13, Nepal's communist
rebel chief put forth a peace plan that seeks the release of political
prisoners, the dissolution of parliament and the constitution and the
restructuring of the national army.
(AP, 5/13/06)
2006 May 15, David Sharp (34), a
British engineer, died at about 1,000 feet into his descent from
the summit of Mt. Everest. Dozens of people walked right past him,
unwilling to risk their own ascents.
(AP, 5/26/06)
2006 May 18, In Nepal lawmakers
moved to reduce dramatically the powers of the king, call-ing for him
to be stripped of his legal immunity, authority over the army and
exemption from paying taxes. The proclamation also declared Nepal a
secular state, ending its unique status as the world's last Hindu
kingdom.
(AP, 5/18/06)(AFP, 5/19/06)
2006 May 19, Nepal's new
government declared a public holiday after parliament passed a
proclamation stripping King Gyanendra of his powers and thousands of
people staged a cele-bration rally.
(AFP, 5/19/06)
2006 Jun 2, In Nepal tens of
thousands of Maoist rebels and supporters thronged the heart of
Kathmandu for their first mass meeting here to be addressed by senior
leaders.
(AFP, 6/2/06)
2006 Jun 9, India announced a
218-million-dollar economic package to help Nepal's new gov-ernment
rebuild the troubled Himalayan country.
(AFP, 6/9/06)
2006 Jun 10, Nepal's Parliament
stripped King Gyanendra of his veto power over the legisla-ture, the
latest measure to curtail his authority. Lawmakers also will no longer
need to seek the approval of the king before signing a bill into law.
(AP, 6/11/06)
2006 Jun 11, Amnesty International
released a report saying China's sales of military vehicles and weapons
to Sudan, Nepal and Myanmar have aggravated conflicts and abetted
violence and repressive rule in those countries.
(AP, 6/11/06)
2006 Jun 13, Nepal freed 190
jailed communist rebels after withdrawing terrorism cases against them
as part of efforts to forge peace with the insurgents.
(AP, 6/13/06)
2006 Jun 16, Nepal’s rebel leader
Prachanda met with top government officials and said the Maoist rebels
will join an interim government to be formed shortly.
(AP, 6/16/06)
2006 Jun 21, In Nepal a small
plane carrying nine Nepalese crashed into a mountain as it was
approaching an airstrip.
(AP, 6/21/06)
2006 Jun 22, Nepal's Maoist rebels
said they are not prepared to disarm but are willing to put their army
and their weapons under the supervision of the United Nations.
(AP, 6/22/06)
2006 Jul 11, Nepal's Maoists
revealed for the first time how many soldiers they have, 36,000, in
published remarks.
(AP, 7/11/06)
2006 Jul 15, Heavy clashes between
Iraqi soldiers and gunmen in downtown Baghdad left 11 people wounded.
Provincial police in Ramadi confirmed that gunmen had killed a member
of the Iraqi Islamic Party. Gunmen kidnapped the head of Iraq's Olympic
committee and more than a dozen employees storming a sports conference
in Baghdad. The kidnappers wore cam-ouflage Iraqi police uniforms and
security guards outside the meeting said they did not interfere because
they thought the gunmen were legitimate law enforcement.
(AP, 7/15/06)
2006 Jul 28, In Nepal Communist
rebels and the government have extended a cease-fire for another three
months to allow talks aimed at ending a decade-long conflict to
continue.
(AP, 7/28/06)
2006 Aug 5, A minister said Nepal
plans to seize lands owned by King Gyanendra and other royal family
members and distribute them to the poor as it moves toward treating the
monarch like a "normal citizen."
(AFP, 8/5/06)
2006 Aug 9, Maoist rebels and the
Nepal government said they had settled a dispute over monitoring each
other's fighters and weapons, a move which revives their peace process
and power-sharing plans.
(AFP, 8/9/06)
2006 Aug 19, Demonstrations
erupted in Kathmandu, Nepal, after the government hiked fuel prices by
as much as 25% in a bid to save state-owned Nepal Oil Corp (NOC) from
bankruptcy.
(AFP, 8/19/06)
2006 Aug 20, Nepal’s government
withdrew hikes in gasoline, diesel and cooking fuel prices after
thousands of protesters clashed with police, blocked traffic and
vandalized government vehicles.
(AP, 8/20/06)
2006 Aug 26, In Nepal a landslide
in a mountainous western village killed at least 10 people and injured
three others.
(AP, 8/26/06)
2006 Sep 22, Nepal's interim
parliament passed a new law imposing tighter civilian control over the
army which was once fiercely loyal to the nation's royal family.
(AP, 9/22/06)
2006 Sep 23, In Nepal's
mountainous east a helicopter with 24 people aboard went missing.
Searchers found the wreckage on Sep 25. The 24 dead included 2
Americans, Nepalese For-estry Minister Gopal Rai, Finnish Embassy
Charge d'Affaires Pauli Mustonen and Canadian Jennifer Headley, a
coordinator for WWF, several Nepali journalists, government officials
and four crew members, two Russians and two Nepalis.
(AP, 9/23/06)(AP, 9/25/06)
2006 Sep, In Nepal a warrant was
issued for the arrest of Sitaram Prasain, who was accused of stealing
$4.3 million from his own bank. Members of the Young Communist League
kid-napped Prasain in June, 2007, and handed him over to the police.
(Econ, 6/16/07, p.51)
2006 Oct 8, Nepal's government and
communist rebel leaders resumed peace talks after a four-month stall,
trying to resolve a dispute over whether the guerrillas should disarm.
(AP, 10/8/06)
2006 Oct 28, In western Nepal an
overcrowded bus plunged off a mountain road, leaving at least 42 people
dead and 45 injured.
(AP, 10/28/06)
2006 Nov 5, Nepal's rebel leader
Prachanda said they have made significant progress in peace talks with
the government and have informally agreed to lock up weapons under
United Nations supervision.
(AP, 11/5/06)
2006 Nov 7, In Nepal peacemakers
produced a deal supported by both Maoist rebels and the coalition
government.
(Econ, 11/11/06, p.49)
2006 Nov 8, Nepal's Maoists
declared an end to a decade of armed struggle and renounced violence
following a landmark peace deal with the Himalayan nation's ruling
parties.
(AFP, 11/8/06)
2006 Nov 21, Nepal's government
and rebels signed a peace deal to end a decade-long in-surgency, paving
the way for the guerrillas to join the country's interim government.
(AP, 11/21/06)
2007 Jan 15, Nepal’s Parliament
was dissolved and replaced by an interim legislature includ-ing former
communist rebels, a major step to co-opt the ex-guerrillas into
mainstream Nepalese politics after they agreed to end their decade-long
insurgency.
(AP, 1/15/07)
2007 Jan 17, Nepal's former
communist guerrillas began an orderly handover of weapons to UN
monitors, putting in motion a landmark peace deal that calls for
thousands of fighters to disarm and be confined to camps.
(AP, 1/17/07)
2007 Feb 3, The Mahadhesi ethnic
community in southeastern Nepal demanded that the re-gion be turned
into an autonomous state to end two weeks of unrest that has claimed at
least 13 lives.
(AFP, 2/3/07)(Econ, 1/27/07, p.43)
2007 Feb 4, In Nepal police opened
fire on protesters in two towns, killing at least three peo-ple and
wounding several more.
(AP, 2/4/07)
2007 Feb 8, Nepal's government
decided to replace the image of embattled King Gyanendra with an image
of Everest, the world's highest mountain, on 10 rupee (13 cent) bills.
(AFP, 2/9/07)
2007 Feb 24, In southern Nepal
police arrested at least 14 people after violence broke out between
Maoists and supporters of ethnic groups.
(AP, 2/24/07)
2007 Feb 26, Nepal’s Cabinet
appointed Gopal Man Shrestha to head the three-member committee, which
will have a month to investigate, locate, seize and nationalize King
Gyanen-dra's property.
(AP, 2/27/07)
2007 Feb 27, In southwestern Nepal
at least two people were killed in a clash between former Maoist rebels
and ethnic activists. A bus veered off a mountain highway and plunged
into a river, killing at least 13 people and injuring another 25.
(AP, 2/27/07)(AFP, 2/28/07)
2007 Mar 8, The British government
bowed to pressure to improve conditions for Nepalese Gurkha soldiers
who have served in the British armed forces for two centuries, granting
them full pensions and other rights. Gurkhas began serving as part of
the Indian army in British-run India in 1815. Since Indian independence
in 1947, Gurkha pensions have been linked to those who served in the
Indian army, not those in the British army.
(AFP, 3/8/07)
2007 Mar 21, In southern Nepal a
fierce gunbattle near Gaur between former communist re-bels and ethnic
rights activists, the Madhesi People’s Rights Forum (MPRF), left 29
dead, mostly Maoists, and 35 wounded.
(AP, 3/22/07)(Econ, 3/31/07, p.51)
2007 Mar 23, Maoist demonstrators
displayed the bodies of 25 slain activists in open trucks to protest
their killings in Nepal's restive south. Thousands demonstrated on the
streets of the capital Katmandu two days after a fierce battle between
the former communist rebels and sup-porters of an ethnic rights
organization left 28 dead and more than 30 wounded in the town of Gaur.
(AP, 3/23/07)
2007 Mar 30, Nepal's seven ruling
political parties and the country's former Maoist rebels agreed to form
a joint government, the latest step in ending a decade of civil war.
(AP, 3/30/07)
2007 Mar, In Nepal a team of
international researchers, tipped by a local sheep herder, dis-covered
caves in the Mustang area containing manuscripts and paintings of
Buddha dating back at least to the 12th century.
(AP, 5/4/07)
2007 Mar, Nepal’s population
numbered some 28 million people. Brahmins, a priestly caste, and
Chhetris, a warrior caste, comprised Nepal’s 2 highest Hindu castes.
They made up about 28% of the population and have controlled the
country since it was unified in the 18th century.
(Econ, 3/10/07, p.39)
2007 Apr 1, Nepal's communist
rebels joined an interim government as part of a landmark peace deal
that ended their decade-long insurgency, pledging to ensure development
in the Himalayan nation and hold credible elections.
(AP, 4/1/07)
2007 Apr 16, Nepal's Maoists
demanded that the country immediately scrap the monarchy and declare
itself a republic amid probable delays in an election over the issue.
(AFP, 4/16/07)
2007 Apr 17, A roadside bomb hit a
United Nations vehicle in southern Afghanistan's main city, killing
four Nepalese guards and an Afghan driver. An old artillery shell
exploded outside a school compound in the western city of Herat,
killing four children and wounding five others.
(AP, 4/17/07)
2007 May 1, The leader of Nepal's
Maoists threatened to push the nation back into turmoil by launching
huge nationwide protests unless parliament immediately ousts the king
and declares a republic.
(AP, 5/1/07)
2007 May 22, The UN's top refugee
official arrived in Nepal for a visit aimed at resolving the fate of
around 100,000 refugees from Bhutan stuck in Nepal for 16 years.
(AP, 5/22/07)
2007 May 30, In Nepal some 10,000
Bhutanese refugees demonstrated at the India-Nepal border, where a day
earlier Indian troops had opened fire, killing one refugee.
(AP, 5/30/07)
2007 Jun 4, Experts warned at a
conference in Nepal's capital that Himalayan glaciers are retreating
fast and could disappear within the next 50 years.
(AFP, 6/4/07)
2007 Jul 6, In rural southern
Nepal 9 children and two adults died when a tractor pulling a trailer
carrying guests in a wedding procession skidded off a road and into a
canal.
(AP, 7/7/07)
2007 Jul 7, Nepal's king
celebrated his 60th birthday with a lavish ceremony at his palace that
set off protests in the streets of Katmandu.
(AP, 7/7/07)
2007 Jul 13, In Nepal landslides
in two mountainous districts killed at least 26 people and in-jured 17
more.
(AP, 7/13/07)
2007 Aug 4, In Nepal the toll from
monsoon-triggered flooding and landslides stood at 91, with most of the
deaths in the Terai plains region on Nepal's southern border with India.
(AP, 8/4/07)
2007 Aug 7, The toll from severe
floods across South Asia soared to nearly 1,900 and al-though water
levels in the region's swollen rivers started to recede, millions of
people in Bang-ladesh, India and Nepal still faced hunger. About 40% of
Bangladesh was under water.
(AFP, 8/7/07)(Econ, 8/11/07, p.34)
2007 Aug 9, The death toll from
the worst monsoon floods to hit South Asia in decades passed 2,000 even
as torrents of muddy water receded from millions of acres of farmland
and rains shifted west.
(AFP, 8/9/07)
2007 Aug 20, A crowded bus veered
off a mountainous road in western Nepal, killing at least 19 people.
(AP, 8/20/07)
2007 Aug 31, In southern Nepal
tainted liquor killed at least 15 people and sickened several others on
the outskirts of Janakpur over the last 2 days.
(AP, 9/1/07)
2007 Sep 2, In Nepal 3 bombs
exploded almost simultaneously in and around Katmandu, kill-ing at
least two people and injuring 13 in the first attack on Katmandu since
a communist insur-gency ended last year.
(AP, 9/2/07)
2007 Sep 15, Officials said nearly
13.5 million people have been marooned or displaced by floods in India
and Bangladesh. The flooding in South Asia caused by the
June-to-September monsoon has been described as the worst in decades,
with more than 3,300 people killed. Landslides and floods in Nepal
killed at least another 185 people since the start of monsoon.
(AP, 9/15/07)
2007 Sep 17, Nepal's political
leaders held emergency talks with former rebel Maoists to try to
persuade the ultra-leftists not to storm out of the government and
launch nationwide protests.
(AFP, 9/17/07)
2007 Sep 18, Maoists stormed out
of Nepal's government and vowed to disrupt upcoming elections after
other parties refused to bow to the ex-rebels' demand for the monarchy
to be immediately abolished.
(AFP, 9/18/07)
2007 Sep 19, Nepal's Maoists
kicked off a controversial campaign to oust the monarchy, a day after
the ex-rebels stormed out of government in a blow to the Himalayan
country's peace process.
(AP, 9/19/07)
2007 Sep 26, The Nepali Congress
party, the Maoists' main partner in last November's peace deal,
endorsed a republican agenda, ending a traditional position of support
for some kind of royal role in the impoverished Himalayan nation.
(AFP, 9/27/07)
2007 Sep 30, A trade union
affiliated with former communist rebels attacked Nepal's largest
newspaper office, destroying property and forcing a halt to
publication. The Kantipur Publica-tion, which publishes the privately
run Nepali language newspaper Kantipur and English edition The
Kathmandu Post, was attacked by supporters of the All Nepal Printing
and Publication Workers' Union.
(AP, 10/1/07)
2007 Oct 5, Nepal's ruling parties
reluctantly agreed to Maoist demands to postpone upcom-ing elections,
ending one political crisis in the Himalayan nation but still leaving
the two sides deadlocked over other issues. 3 communist rebels shot and
killed Birendra Shah a crusading journalist. The group's leadership
later said they did not order the slaying and that the three men who
took part have been kicked out of the Maoist political party.
(AP, 10/5/07)(AP, 11/6/07)
2007 Dec 23, Nepal's major
political parties agreed to abolish the world's last Hindu monarchy as
part of a deal to bring former communist rebels back into the
government.
(AP, 12/24/07)
2007 Dec 25, In western Nepal a
steel footbridge collapsed when its suspension cables snapped, sending
scores of people into the river below. At least 15 people were
confirmed dead and over 50 were missing and dozens injured.
(AP, 12/25/07)(AP, 12/26/07)
2007 Dec 28, Nepal's parliament
voted in favor of abolishing the centuries-old monarchy and turning
this Himalayan nation into a republic.
(AP, 12/28/07)
2007 Dec 30, Former communist
rebels rejoined Nepal's government, ending a political crisis that
began when the ex-guerrillas walked out of a ruling coalition three
months ago.
(AP, 12/30/07)
2007 Dec 31, In Nepal 4 former
communist rebels were sworn in as Cabinet ministers, ending a political
crisis that began when the ex-guerrillas walked out of a coalition
government three-months ago.
(AP, 12/31/07)
2008 Jan 23, Nepal's government
reversed a fuel price hike after two days of nationwide pro-tests and
clashes in the capital.
(AP, 1/23/08)
2008 Jan 30, In southern Nepal 34
people were wounded in a bomb attack at a political rally.
(AFP, 1/30/08)
2008 Feb 7, Nepalese authorities
arrested Amit Kumar, the alleged mastermind of a shadowy organ
transplant operation in India that illegally removed hundreds of
kidneys, sometimes from unwilling donors, at a jungle resort in
southern Nepal.
(AP, 2/8/08)
2008 Feb 13, In Nepal a shortage
of fuel prompted by strikes and protests in the south forced the
shutdown of much of the capital's public transportation system.
(AP, 2/13/08)
2008 Feb 28, The Madhesi in
southern Nepal pledged to end violent protests and a paralyzing general
strike after reaching an agreement with the government to establish
autonomous re-gions in the Himalayan nation. 2 days after the Madhesi
agreement the government signed an-other agreement with a 2nd alliance
of ethnic and regional groups.
(AP, 2/28/08)(Econ, 3/8/08, p.50)
2008 Mar 1, In Nepal some 1,300
makeshift bamboo huts were destroyed at the Goldhap refugee camp before
the blaze was brought under control. The fire left estimated 10,000
refu-gees without shelter.
(AP, 3/3/08)
2008 Mar 3, A UN helicopter
crashed while flying in bad weather in Nepal's mountainous east,
killing at least 10 people.
(AP, 3/3/08)
2008 Mar 19, In southern Nepal
masked gunmen shot and killed Kamal Prasad Adhikari, a candidate from a
small communist party contesting upcoming elections.
(AP, 3/19/08)
2008 Mar 25, In Nepal police armed
with bamboo sticks stopped a protest by Tibetan refu-gees and monks in
front of the Chinese Embassy and arrested about 100 participants.
(AP, 3/25/08)
2008 Mar 29, In Kathmandu, Nepal,
around 80 Tibetan protesters shouting "stop the killing in Tibet" were
hauled away in police vehicles and detained after demonstrating outside
the Chi-nese embassy.
(AP, 3/29/08)
2008 Apr 7, Nepal was rocked by
two bombings, the latest violence to hit campaigning for this week's
vote on the country's political future following a peace deal with
Maoist rebels.
(AFP, 4/7/08)
2008 Apr 8, In Nepal police shot
dead seven Maoists, and a man protesting the killing of an election
candidate was also shot dead by police. An election candidate was
assassinated in the west of the country.
(AFP, 4/9/08)
2008 Apr 9, Nepal was hit by fresh
violence, the eve of a landmark vote to decide the impov-erished
country's political destiny and scrap the monarchy.
(AFP, 4/9/08)
2008 Apr 10, Nepal gave an
historic vote of support for a peace process that is set to abolish an
unpopular monarchy and reshape the impoverished country. The final
results were not ex-pected for several weeks. Sporadic violence,
including two deaths in the ethnically tense south, was reported.
(AFP, 4/10/08)
2008 Apr 12, Election officials
said Nepal's communist former rebels have won control in 11 of the 21
constituencies where vote counting has been completed in the election
for an assembly to write a new constitution.
(AP, 4/12/08)
2008 Apr 13, Election officials
said Nepal's Maoists had extended a stunning early lead in his-toric
polls, as vote counting continued.
(AP, 4/13/08)
2008 Apr 15, Nepal's former rebels
surprised observers by winning more than half of the di-rectly elected
seats where counting was complete in an assembly that will shape the
Himalayan nation's political future. Re-voting was held in six
constituencies.
(AP, 4/15/08)
2008 Apr 18, In southern Nepal
Rudra Bahadur Singh, a candidate in last week's election from a party
that supports Nepal's discredited king, was fatally shot.
(AP, 4/19/08)
2008 Apr 24, Nepal's former
communist rebels were declared the biggest party in a new gov-erning
assembly. While the Maoists won't have a majority, they are expected to
usher in sweep-ing changes for the poor Himalayan nation.
(AP, 4/24/08)
2008 Apr 30, An official said
Nepal will give the families of the 13,000 people killed in the
country's decade-long civil war more than 1,500 dollars each in
compensation.
(AP, 4/30/08)
2008 May 8, In Nepal Ram Hari
Shrestha, a Kathmandu businessman and supporter of the former rebels,
died after he was abducted and beaten by Maoist cadre.
(AFP,
5/21/08)(www.nepalhorizons.com/beta/news.php?newsid=2851)
2008 May 11, In Nepal police
detained more than 600 female Tibetan protesters, including many
Buddhist nuns, after breaking up several demonstrations against China's
recent crack-down in Tibet.
(AP, 5/11/08)
2008 May 19, In western Nepal 36
people were killed when an overcrowded bus careened off a mountain
highway into a river. Another 10 were presumed dead.
(AFP, 5/20/08)
2008 May 27, Nepal swore in 575
lawmakers who planned to declare a republic, which would automatically
displace the world’s last Hindu king.
(SFC, 5/28/08, p.A8)
2008 May 28, In Nepal lawmakers
voted just before midnight to abolish the 240-year-old Hindu monarchy
and establish a secular republic.
(AFP, 5/29/08)
2008 Jun 11, In Nepal deposed King
Gyanendra left his palace in Kathmandu for the last time. The mistress
(94) of his long dead grandfather, King Tribhuwan (d.1955), was allowed
to stay in the palace because she had no relatives or house to move to.
(SFC, 6/12/08, p.A11)
2008 Jun 26, Nepal's PM Koirala
announced his long-delayed resignation, clearing the way for the
formation of a new coalition government led by former communist rebels.
A general strike to protest an increase in fuel prices shut down the
Nepalese capital, with schools, busi-nesses and markets closed and
streets empty of vehicles.
(AP, 6/26/08)
2008 Jul 12, In western Nepal
about 500 riot policemen took senior officers hostage in a revolt over
ill treatment and poor food. They released their captives and
surrendered after a two-day standoff.
(AP, 7/13/08)(AP, 7/14/08)
2008 Jul 19, In Nepal lawmakers
failed to elect the country's first president and end weeks of
political deadlock. No candidate won the 298 votes necessary. A bus
veered off a mountain road and plunged into a river in central Nepal
killing 14 passengers and leaving many missing.
(AFP, 7/19/08)(AP, 7/19/08)
2008 Jul 21, Lawmakers in Nepal
voted in the Himalayan nation's first post-royal president, but their
rejection of a candidate backed by the Maoists was likely to lead to
more political deadlock. Ram Baran Yadav, who was supported by the
centrist Nepali Congress party, won 308 out of 590 votes cast in
Nepal's constitutional assembly.
(AFP, 7/21/08)
2008 Jul 22, Nepal's Maoists said
they would not form the Himalayan nation's first post-royal government
after the defeat of their candidate for president, setting off a new
political crisis.
(AFP, 7/22/08)
2008 Jul 27, Ram Baran Yadav,
Nepal's first president, appealed for rival parties in the
newly-republican nation to form a consensus government and end weeks of
political deadlock, in his maiden address to the people.
(AFP, 7/27/08)
2008 Jul 28, In Nepal protesters
blocked traffic and held demonstrations to protest the deci-sion by
Paramananda Jha, the newly elected vice president, to take his oath of
office in Hindi,which is not recognized as an official language.
(AP, 7/28/08)
2008 Jul 31, At least 36 Hindu
pilgrims from Nepal were killed when their bus plunged into a river in
the mountainous northern Indian state of Uttarakhand.
(AFP, 7/31/08)
2008 Aug 2, In Sri Lanka a two-day
summit of leaders of the 15th South Asian Association for Regional
Cooperation (SAARC), opened amid extraordinary security. Leaders of
Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, The Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan
and Sri Lanka attended the summit. Government troops captured
rebel-held Vellankulam village in Mannar, the last rebel stronghold in
the area. Fresh fighting between Sri Lankan troops and Tamil Tiger
separatists killed 14 re-bels and two soldiers across the embattled
northern region.
(AP, 8/2/08)(AP, 8/3/08)
2008 Aug 6, In Nepal a contest to
choose the next "Miss Nepal," slated August 7, was can-celled after
Maoist female lawmakers denounced the beauty pageant.
(AFP, 8/6/08)
2008 Aug 7, Critics of China's
human rights record made sure they were not forgotten, a day before the
grand opening of the Beijing Olympics, with protest actions the world
over and in China itself. Thousands of Tibetan exiles demonstrated in
Nepal and India.
(AFP, 8/7/08)(AP, 8/7/08)
2008 Aug 15, Officials said
Nepal's lawmakers have voted in Prachanda, the leader of the former
Maoist rebels, as the Himalayan country's new prime minister.
(AFP, 8/15/08)
2008 Aug 18, The leader of Nepal's
Maoists, Prachanda, was sworn in as prime minister, fi-nalizing his
transformation from warlord to the country's most powerful politician.
(AFP, 8/18/08)
2008 Aug 18, The river Kosi, a
tributary to the Ganges, burst an embankment on the Nepali side of the
border with India and flowed into a channel it had abandoned a century
earlier. Wa-ter flooded into Bihar state and displaced over 3 million
people.
(Econ, 9/6/08, p.51)
2008 Sep 8, Nepal's Maoist-led
government vowed to end slave-like conditions for around 150,000 bonded
laborers in the far west of the country who have been paying off debt
for gen-erations.
(AFP, 9/8/08)
2008 Sep 11, Nepalese officials
said Tibetan exiles living in Kathmandu illegally are to be de-ported
in a bid to curb anti-China protests threatening Nepal's ties with its
giant neighbor.
(AFP, 9/11/08)
2008 Sep 13, Nepalese police said
at least six people have been killed in southern Nepal in rampages by
wild elephants in the last two days.
(AFP, 9/13/08)
2008 Sep 15, Hundreds of disco
workers protested in Kathmandu against a government crackdown on "nude
dancing" in its bid to improve the deteriorating law and order.
(Reuters, 9/15/08)
2008 Sep 19, In central Nepal a
bus rolled off a mountain highway and crashed into a river, killing at
least 14 people and injuring 25 others.
(AP, 9/19/08)
2008 Sep 30, Former Nepalese
Gurkha soldiers won a legal test case on their bid for the right to
settle in Britain.
(AFP, 9/30/08)
2008 Oct 8, In Nepal a small
airplane crashed and caught fire as it tried to land in foggy weather
at a tiny mountain airport near Mount Everest, killing 18 people,
including 16 tourists from Germany, Australia and Nepal.
(AP, 10/8/08)
2008 Dec 11, In southern Nepal a
crowded school bus skidded off a bridge on a highway, kill-ing at least
20 students and two teachers. At least 57 others were injured.
(AP, 12/11/08)
2008 Dec 21, In Nepal 12 staff at
a prominent newspaper and magazine publisher were in-jured when they
were attacked by dozens of Maoist activists angered by critical
coverage.
(AFP, 12/21/08)
2009 Jan 4, In eastern Nepal
dozens of people were missing after an overcrowded boat carry-ing
mostly women and children capsized in the Saptakosi river. More than 50
people were be-lieved on board the boat and only 14 were rescued.
(AP, 1/4/09)(SFC, 1/5/09, p.A12)
2009 Mar 23, In southwest Nepal at
least one person was killed and another injured when a bomb exploded
inside a government building.
(AFP, 3/23/09)
2009 May 3, Nepal's PM Pushpa
Kamal Dahal, former Maoist rebel leader, fired army chief Rookmangud
Katawal after accusing him of defying government orders, prompting a
key party to quit the coalition government and plunging the Himalayan
country into a political crisis that could endanger its peace process.
Dahal’s firing of the army chief was rejected by President Ram Baran
Yadav, who officially leads the army.
(AP, 5/3/09)(AP, 5/4/09)
2009 May 4, Nepal's PM Pushpa
Kamal Dahal resigned amid a power struggle over his firing of the army
chief, saying he was stepping down to "save the peace process" that
brought the Himalayan nation out of a bloody decade-long civil war.
(AP, 5/4/09)
2009 May 5, In Nepal thousands of
Maoist supporters took to the streets of Kathmandu, a day after
Prachanda, the leader of the ex-rebels, quit as prime minister
following a bitter row over the country's army chief.
(AFP, 5/5/09)
2009 May 6, In Nepal police
clashed with protesting Maoists, who vowed to prevent a new government
from being formed unless the president supports the firing of the
country's army chief. The key dispute has thrown the Himalayan country
into crisis.
(AP, 5/6/09)
2009 May 7, In Nepal riot police
beat back hundreds of women from the Maoist party who pro-tested in
front of the president's house to demand that he fire the country's
army chief.
(AP, 5/7/09)
2009 May 17, In Nepal an alliance
of 22 political parties claimed to have enough support to form a new
coalition government and called for a parliamentary vote to elect its
candidate as the new prime minister.
(AP, 5/17/09)
2009 May 18, In Nepal Maoist
lawmakers stormed the parliament and demonstrated inside the assembly
hall to block a vote for a new prime minister, a move that could
prolong the coun-try's political crisis.
(AP, 5/18/09)
2009 May 21, Nepal's Maoists
agreed to stop blocking parliamentary proceedings so lawmak-ers can
choose a new government to ease the country's political crisis.
Lawmakers from the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) said that although
they had agreed to lift their protests, they would permanently end them
only if the chamber takes up a motion censuring President Ram Baran
Yadav.
(AP, 5/21/09)
2009 May 21, The British
government announced a climbdown over settlement rights for Gurkha
veterans, saying all of the Nepalese fighters who have served at least
four years can apply to live here.
(AFP, 5/21/09)
2009 May 23, Nepal’s lawmakers
elected communist party leader Madhav Kumar Nepal (56) as the new prime
minister in a move aimed at ending weeks of political turmoil. 2 people
were killed, one of them a teenager, and 14 wounded when a bomb
exploded in a packed Roman Catholic church on the outskirts of
Kathmandu.
(AFP, 5/23/09)
2009 Jun 8, In Nepal a strike
called by Maoist sympathizers paralyzed large swathes of Ne-pal,
forcing schools and businesses to shut and stranding tourists.
(AFP, 6/8/09)
2009 Jun 15, In Nepal Maoist
demonstrators clashed with police in Kathmandu as a general strike
called by the former guerrillas' youth wing brought Kathmandu to a
standstill.
(AFP, 6/15/09)
2009 Jul 2, In Nepal landslides
triggered by monsoon rains swept through three villages in the
mountainous west, burying homes and killing at least nine people.
(AP, 7/2/09)
2009 Jul 6, Nepal's national
assembly sat for the first time in more than two months after the
Maoist party agreed to halt protests that have paralyzed parliament.
(AFP, 7/6/09)
2009 Jul 31, Anuradha Koirala, the
founder of Nepalese charity Maiti Nepal, said British ac-tress Joanna
Lumley has agreed to be its international ambassador. The charity helps
victims of human trafficking.
(AFP, 7/31/09)
2009 Aug 7, Nepal's Maoists
launched a fresh round of protests, paralyzing parliament and accusing
the new government of failing to address their demands.
(AFP, 8/7/09)
2009 Aug 22, India and Nepal
agreed to a new trade treaty as PM Madhav Kumar Nepal ended a five-day
official visit to the regional giant that both countries hailed a great
success.
(AFP, 8/22/09)
2009 Aug 31, Nepal's PM Madhav
Kumar Nepal opened the first climate change conference of Himalayan
nations with a warning about the dangers of melting glaciers, floods
and violent storms for the region.
(AFP, 8/31/09)
2009 Sep 10, In northeast Nepal a
bus veered off a highway and plunged into a river, killing at least 11
people and leaving about 20 missing and feared dead.
(AP, 9/10/09)
2009 Sep 13, Costa Rican
authorities detained 54 US-bound migrants from Africa and Nepal after
their boat arrived on the country's coast. Authorities also took into
custody three suspected Colombian smugglers who were traveling with
them.
(AP, 9/13/09)
2009 Oct 6, In Nepal landslides
triggered by 4 days of torrential rains killed at least 34 people in
various western districts.
(AP, 10/7/09)
2009 Nov 14, Tomaz Humar (40), a
veteran Slovenian climber, was found dead on Langtang Lirung in the
Nepalese Himalayas days after he was injured and stranded on the
23,710-foot (7,227m) mountain.
(AP, 11/14/09)
2009 Nov 24, In Nepal the 2-day
Gadhimai festival, celebrated every five years, was attended by many
Hindus from India as well as Nepal. More than 200,000 buffaloes, pigs,
goats, chick-ens and pigeons were expected to be slaughtered this year.
(AP, 11/20/09)(AP, 11/24/09)
2009 Dec 4, Nepal's top
politicians strapped on oxygen tanks and held a Cabinet meeting amid
Mount Everest's frigid, thin air to highlight the danger global warming
poses to glaciers.
(AP, 12/4/09)
2009 Dec 5, In western Nepal
hundreds of protesters torched vehicles and vandalized shops after
three people died in clashes between police and illegal forest settlers.
(AP, 12/5/09)
2009 Nepal’s population was
estimated to be about 29.5 million.
(www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/print/np.html)
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Subject = Nepal
End of file.