| lola |
Posted
on 30-Jun-01 12:57 AM
I was hit. Sruti cradled me.Then Dipendra came and shot her.”
- Kumar Gorakh
The details are so horrific and gory that reading it is not for the faint-hearted. The 300+ page report is made up mostly of raw unedited testimonies from eyewitnesses, medical personnel and security staff. Some of the accounts are rambling and confused, others are contradictory. The royal relatives who were in the Tribhuvan Room were interviewed less than a week after the massacre. Many said they could not recall exact details because things happened so fast, and also because of the shock and grief.
There are unconfirmed details: did the fatally wounded King Birendra try to reach for a gun that Dipendra threw? Was the person in the red sari seen by a waiter running into the garden Queen Aishwarya? How many times did Dipendra go out of the room, and why? Where exactly were the ADC’s during the whole episode? How long did the shooting last? Any eyewitnesses to Dipendra’s suicide? Why wasn’t the queen mother interviewed?
There is inconsistency in the exact timing of various events. There are differences in the recollections of eyewitnesses, but none of them have any doubts about who did it.
The Nepali public has an image of Dipendra which is a composite of what the palace wanted us to know. But family members are now coming out with hush-hush stories about Dipendra’s past behaviour: an easy-going and pampered crown prince used to getting what he wanted, his gun fetish, his previous shooting sprees, his violent outbursts in which Princess Sruti and other relatives and friends had been victims, his frequent drink and drug-induced rage. One bout of viciousness was on his birthday almost exactly a year ago. Dipendra carried his MP-5 submachine guns wherever he went. Palace officials were used to him frequently blazing away at crows, cats and bats in the palace grounds. In fact, when the first shots were fired, sources told us the Queen Mother remarked: “There he goes shooting cats again.”
- The following is an unofficial translation by Nepali Times of excerpts from the commission’s transcripts of eyewitness testimonies:
Queen Komal: “I was present at the family gathering at Tribhuvan Sadan that day. I learnt that the crown prince had gone to rest early. Sometime later there was a burst of gunfire and the bullets hit the ceiling. After that I saw that King Birendra had been hit on the right side of his neck. Kumar Khadga and Kumar Gorakh were also shot. Then I was hit in the back and I fell down… (Princess) Shanti had fallen over me, and I could not see anything after that.”
Princess Helen Shah (King Birendra’s aunt): (She was sitting with the Queen Mother in the anteroom, heard gunshots and some people running in the garden. She thought the youngsters were playing. In the end she heard one or two shots. Then there was silence.) “About 7-8 minutes after that Paras came running (and told us). After hearing that ‘Amumuma dai-le ta Thulobuba dekhi liyara sabai jana lai goli hanyo’ (Dipendra shot King Birendra and all the others), I opened the door and stepped out. The Queen Mother was behind me…I then entered the Billiard Room…and looked all around. Everyone was on the ground. Dhirendra was crying in pain. I rushed back to the Queen Mother and told her everyone except Dhirendra were dead. She asked where is the king. Paras said I have sent him to hospital already. Then she asked where were the queen and Nirajan. At that time the two stepped out. The Queen was in front and Nirajan was following…I don’t know where. Then we went to hospital.”
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