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Ruling parties agree to investigate palace massacre; dub NA recruitment as a wrong move

The five parties in the coalition government have agreed to form a committee to investigate the Narayanhiti royal palace massacre which is still shrouded in mystery.

A meeting of the five ruling parties held at Baluwatar on Saturday morning reached an understanding to form the probe committee. The tragedy of June 1, 2001 saw the entire family of then King Birendra wiped out. The then crown prince Dipendra was accused of staging the massacre before killing himself.

This is the first time the political parties discussed about investigating the incident since monarchy was abolished from the country nine months ago.

On Thursday, while opening the Narayanhiti as museum, Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal had said the government would investigate the palace massacre.

Coincidently, ousted King Gyanendra Shah, who took over the throne after the massacre, is currently in foreign visit when the ruling parties have decided to launch an investigation into the tragedy.

The five-party meeting also discussed the issue of army integration on which the Supreme Court has given a stay order, formation of various commissions as prescribed by the interim constitution and formation of the local government.

The meeting of arrived at the conclusion that Nepal Army made a mistake by going ahead with its recruitment plan. According to leaders participating in the meeting, although the parties described the NA's move as being wrong, they agreed not to remove the already recruited army men from service.

The parties have entrusted PM Dahal to talk with opposition Nepali Congress and other parties to send their representatives for the commissions.

Formation of local government has been delayed after NC changed its stand from earlier agreement putting forth new condition that the local bodies must be reinstated only through elections. nepalnews.com ia Feb 28 09