Pubdate: Fri, 15 Jun 2001
Source: San Jose Mercury News (CA)
Copyright: 2001 San Jose Mercury News
Contact:  http://www.sjmercury.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/390
Author: Barry Bearak, New York Times

PRINCE WAS HIGH, SAYS MASSACRE REPORT

Nepalese Doubt Official Story After Panel Blames King's Son For 
Unexplained Rampage That Killed 10 Members Of Royal Family

KATMANDU, Nepal -- Before he massacred the king, the queen and most 
of the rest of Nepal's royal family, Crown Prince Dipendra was not 
only tipsy from whiskey but also high on ``a special kind of 
cigarette'' containing hashish, according to details released 
Thursday by a panel of inquiry.

Then, after being escorted to his bedroom, he called his girlfriend, 
Devyani Rana, three times from his mobile phone before returning to a 
dinner party in combat dress, ``armed on both sides'' with rifles and 
other guns.

His orderly saw his outfit and assumed the prince was about to go 
out. When he asked if the prince required anything else, he replied, 
``It's not necessary now,'' and went off to kill his family.

Thursday's official report on the June 1 palace blood bath, like the 
unofficial accounts from witnesses that came before it, placed the 
blame on Dipendra alone.

A synopsis of the findings was read in Nepali and English on state TV 
and radio. Taranath Ranabhat, speaker of the House of Representatives 
and a member of the committee, posed for cameras, at one point 
holding the crown prince's automatic weapons. But he did not take 
questions.

Report Of Few Facts

The six-page, single-spaced synopsis is a hurriedly assembled 
document that would hardly satisfy an American audience schooled in 
police dramas.

There were no lab reports, no toxicology details, no ballistics 
results and no autopsies. An ``unnamed black substance'' that the 
report said was mixed with the hashish in the prince's cigarettes 
remains unidentified. And while the crown prince is undeniably dead, 
the report includes no determination on whether he ended his shooting 
rampage with a suicide.

Even the Nepalese are likely to doubt what they heard. ``I don't 
believe even 10 percent of it,'' said Saroz Pant, an electrician. 
``It's the same bull we heard last week. Why should we believe it 
this week?''

Last week, riots broke out in Katmandu, capital of this impoverished 
nation of 23 million people. The public had loved King Birendra, but 
they did not want to believe that Dipendra, also well-liked, was the 
shooter. They complained that Nepal was the victim of a conspiracy, 
and the list of favored conspirators included the new king, 
Gyanendra, Birendra's brother.

Thursday night, as the broadcast ended, the streets were quiet. A 
seasonal downpour and a huge police presence helped explain why.

``You can bet there will be more trouble,'' a taxi driver, Amar 
Gurun, predicted.

But first, people will have to weigh the plausibility of the latest 
disclosures. A loose narrative can be assembled from the committee's 
report, which is largely stitched together from interviews with 
witnesses. It goes like this:

The royal family had a regular monthly gathering. On June 1, the 
dinner was to be at Dipendra's residence in the palace compound. The 
crown prince, 29, who had apparently argued with his parents about 
whether he could marry Rana, arrived first and played billiards while 
drinking ``one or two pegs of Famous Grouse whiskey neat.'' He also 
ordered an aide to fetch him some of the drugged cigarettes.

Prince Unable To Stand

After a while, Dipendra found it hard ``to hold himself upright.'' 
Four guests, including the crown prince's brother Nirajan and his 
cousin Paras, took him, swaying, to his bedroom before the king 
arrived at the party.

In his bedroom, Dipendra began phoning Rana, who has since left 
Katmandu and was interviewed for the committee by the Nepalese 
ambassador to India. The young woman admitted to a ``close 
relationship'' with Dipendra but considered it a personal matter and 
refused to discuss it further.

According to phone records, Rana and the crown prince briefly spoke 
three times within 29 minutes. His speech was slurred, enough so that 
she phoned one of his aides to check on him. In the bedroom, Dipendra 
was found on the ground, trying to undo his clothes. Later, retching 
noises were heard from the bathroom. His final call to Rana lasted 
only 32 seconds. By her account, he said he was going to sleep and 
told her good night.

Soon after, rather than sleeping, the crown prince began shooting. 
The king took the first volley from a submachine gun. Then the prince 
changed weapons and ``fired rat-tat-tat again at His Majesty.''

 From there, Dipendra selected other targets, moving from the billiard 
hall to the dining room to the garden, methodically shooting his 
brother, sister, aunts and other relatives.

Some aides burst into the billiard room by breaking a glass door, but 
the report says little about them except that they tried to rescue 
the wounded.

In all, 10 members of the royal family died. Dipendra was found 
unconscious, wearing black army boots, a camouflage army jacket and 
trousers, black leather gloves, black stockings and a camouflage 
vest. He was the ninth of the royal victims to perish, dying on the 
afternoon of June 4, about 40 hours after he himself became king in 
an automatic line of succession.

His soul, presumed to be restless after death, was freed Thursday 
morning from earthly attachments in a Hindu ceremony. The special 
rite, reserved for kings, was performed in Nepal for only the fifth 
time in 90 years -- but it was also the second such observance in 
four days.
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MAP posted-by: Josh Sutcliffe