Things are happening

…very fast. But no-one seems to know exactly what.

There have been more army around Thamel today. Not right in Thamel itself. But close up against the edges. I’ve seen no police today, just army.

I’ve also seen more vehicles in the street. A couple of ambulances (although I heard yesterday evening that an ambulance had been attacked by the army and it turned out to be full of tomatoes. Where does one start with news like that?) and also army vehicles – not APVs this time, just trucks or vans.

About half an hour ago I went back to the guest house, the main street outside had a lot more people on it than yesterday or earlier. People seemed a lot more cheerful, a big group were playing football in the street, a Dutch guy from my hotel was passing and joined in, to general cheers.

Back at the hotel I was told that there was another 100,000 strong demonstration today. But that this time the police had let the demonstrators through and they were now in the city. Maybe at the gates of the palace. If the police are now co-operating with the people’s movement then the King only has the Army left.

All the pictures you saw last night on the news were police against the demonstrators – see the blue uniforms? The army wear a more khaki-looking camo. Look tonight and see which uniforms they’ve got on.

I quickly left the hotel to come out and find the internet again and get some food. The guys were still playing football in the street, this time there were even more people out, a guy was playing the guitar, there were lots of women out, people seemed very cheerful.

I walked past all this, to lots of friendly greetings, got half a minute round the corner and realised I’d forgotten something. When I came back to the street (it can’t have been more than a minute later) the happy people had all gone and there were just five soldiers in the street, all with guns (maybe semi-automatics? I’m no weapons expert – quite long, with a kind of cylinder with holes in it starting maybe a foot from the end of the barrel. They look ancient anyway but I wouldn’t start a fight with one.)

I paused, as you would, the nearest soldier looked towards me but didn’t make any aggressive gestures, so I reckoned I was probably alright. I could see people peeping round their doors and out of upper windows and laughing at the soldiers, without letting the soldiers see them. Two other tourists came from the other end of the street, from the alley where my guesthouse is and the soldiers did nothing to them, I carried on walking down the street. The soldiers just nodded at me as I walked past.

A couple of Nepalese lads were standing in an entranceway near my lane, grinning, they pulled a face at me, nodding towards the soldiers. I’m guessing the message was something like, ‘look at these idiots, they’ve lost’.

I got back to the hotel, picked stuff up, and by the time I was back out in the street again the soldiers had gone and the people were back. People were grinning again and there were many friendly greetings. Knots of men were standing around with radios or mobile phones (which I assume were working as radios) sharing their headphones. I asked a couple of people though and no-one seems to know exactly what’s going on.

All through Thamel though more people are out and people are looking more cheerful, clustered around their mobile phones.

There feels like loads more to write about, but that’s the main news for now, the rest will wait!

Oh no, I’d just like to add we watched BBC world and CNN last night. (Nepal was the lead story on the CNN news bulletin – this is not helping with my parents peace of mind!) And the news reports just didn’t seem to quite get it. Both of them, but especially the CNN anchor, kept asking if the Maoists had infiltrated the demonstrations. Actually the Army have been caught trying to infiltrate the demonstrations with grenades in their pockets to discredit the movement!

And both seemed to miss the point of how broad-based this movement is. Of how the security forces have been firing on unarmed, peaceful demonstrators. Of how it’s not just demonstrations but huge countrywide strikes that even the banks and civil servants have joined. How the King arrests political opponents, even former allies. Check the Amnesty report I’ve linked to at the side – the security forces have killed more people in the last ten years than the Maoists have!

It’s not about the bloody Maoists, they are just the bogeyman the King is using. Last night’s official Nepalese news didn’t mention the strikes and demonstrations (even though it was lead item on CNN!), but lead with the ‘discovery’ of a cache of explosives – allegedly belonging to Maoists. Nobody here believes a word of it.

Any of you who work in newsrooms - go mention this to the editors! I had a quick look earlier though and the Independent’s coverage today seems a lot closer to the mark.

I'm posting this just before 7pm KTM time, it's claimed the king is about to make a statement. Could be interesting...