Sawt Falasteen - Nepal police clash with pro-monarchy demonstrators

The Himalayan nation adopted a federal and republican political system in 2008 after parliament abolished the monarchy as part of a peace deal that ended a decade-long civil war responsible for more than 16,000 deaths.

Support for the restoration of the monarchy re-enshrining Hinduism as the state religion has grown in tandem with popular dissatisfaction over political instability, corruption and lacklustre economic development.

"The country should have developed significantly. People should have had better job opportunities, peace and security and good governance. We should have been corruption-free," Mina Subedi, 55, who joined the demonstration, told AFP.

"But things have only deteriorated."

Protesters gathered near the national parliament chanting that the king and country were "dearer to us than life".

Police spokesman Dinesh Kumar Acharya told AFP that police fired tear gas and water cannon to clear the demonstrators after they broke into a restricted area and vandalised buildings.

Local authorities announced a curfew in the area after the clash.

Opposition parties marshalled thousands more people at a counter-demonstration elsewhere in the capital to "safeguard the republican system".

"Nepalis will not return to the past," said Pushpa Kamal Dahal, a former guerrilla chief who led the decade-long Maoist insurgency before entering politics and has since served as prime minister three times.

"Maybe they have dared to raise their heads because us republic supporters have not been able to deliver as per the wishes and wants of the people."

Abdicated king Gyanendra Shah, 77, had largely refrained from commenting on Nepal's fractious politics, but recently made several public appearances with supporters.

Shah was crowned in 2001 after his elder brother king Birendra Bir Bikram Shah and his family were killed in a palace massacre that wiped out most of the royal family.

His coronation took place as the Maoist insurgency was raging in far-flung corners of Nepal.

Shah suspended the constitution and dissolved parliament in 2005, triggering a democratic uprising in which the Maoists sided with Nepal's political establishment to orchestrate huge street protests.

That eventually precipitated the end of the conflict, with parliament voting in 2008 to abolish Nepal's 240-year-old Hindu monarchy.

P.AbuBaker--SF-PST