Republican tea party at Nepal ex-king's palace
Tuesday, 17 June 2008
KATHMANDU, June 16 (AFP): There have been countless tea parties on the immaculate lawns of Kathmandu's royal palace but none like the latest one, when the edifice, now stripped of its monarch, officially became a museum.
On Sunday, Nepal's elderly prime minister raised the national flag over the stately complex as Maoist revolutionaries rubbed shoulders with army brass to watch the pink-hued building turned over to public use.
Veteran republican activist Ramraja Prasad Singh was visiting the sprawling palace grounds for a third time, but the first as a free man.
"I was here as a prisoner twice before," said the 73-year- old, who bombed royal statues in Kathmandu in 1985.
On Sunday, Nepal's elderly prime minister raised the national flag over the stately complex as Maoist revolutionaries rubbed shoulders with army brass to watch the pink-hued building turned over to public use.
Veteran republican activist Ramraja Prasad Singh was visiting the sprawling palace grounds for a third time, but the first as a free man.
"I was here as a prisoner twice before," said the 73-year- old, who bombed royal statues in Kathmandu in 1985.