Nepal Protests and Demonstrations

March 24, 2003: Students affiliated to the Nepal Majdoor Kishan Party (NMKP) staged an anti-United States protest rally in Bhaktapur condemning the US-led strikes on Iraq. NMKP central-level leader and former Mayor of Bhaktapur, Prem Suwal, also inaugurated an anti-American photo exhibition.

March 23, 2003: Various organisations of indigenous people and other nationalities, in the capital Kathmandu, opposed the United States-led war on Iraq. Issuing a joint statement, the Akhil Nepal Janajati Sammelan, Nepal Janjati Mukti Andolan, Nepal Adibashi Janajati Sangh and Nepal Rastriya Andolan said the war was a "naked interference on [the] sovereignty of a nation". They also strongly criticised the Nepalese government for not opposing the war. Besides, they demanded an immediate end to the war.

March 21, 2003: At a meeting in the capital Kathmandu, seven left-wing parties criticised the US for leading the attacks on Iraq. They gave a call to stage an anti-war rally in front of the American Embassy in Kathmandu on March 24. Parties that attended the meeting included Communist Party of Nepal (CPN) Masal, CPN-Marxist, CPN-Marxist-Leninist, Nepal Workers’ and Peasants’ Party (NWPP), CPN (United), CPN––Marxist-Leninist-Maoist and Socialist Movement Nepal (SMN). They termed the attacks as a gross violation of international law, and the United Nations Charter. Participants at the meeting issued a joint statement and said the attacks were brutal and were made on an independent and sovereign country, against world opinion.

Separately, the People’s Front: Nepal (PFN) condemned the war on Iraq and burnt President George Bush’s effigy. Besides, the All Nepal National Free Students’ Union (ANFSU), the student wing of CPN-Unified-Marxist-Leninist also organised a meeting at a college in Kathmandu and burnt the American flag to protest the US attack on Iraq.

Compiled from the English language media from Nepal