It was Dipendra, says witness

WASHINGTON, JUNE 6. The late Crown Prince Dipendra had been tending bar at a family gathering in Nepal's Narayanhity Palace on Friday last before he opened fire with an Uzi submachine gun and an M-16 assault rifle, the Washington Post reported today, quoting the immediate relative of a witness to the massacre.

According to the account published in the paper, the Crown Prince slipped out of the family gathering around 9 p.m., reappearing a short time later, armed and wearing an Army uniform.

He strode into an adjacent room where his father, the king, was sitting and shot him with one of the automatic weapons, the paper quoted the relative of the witness as saying. Through the open door, the witness ``could see the King's face with utter astonishment on it,'' it reported.

The Post said the relative of the witness, a member of the royal family, spoke with The Post and The Times of London yesterday on a condition of anonymity.

The relative's account was the first detailed description of how Dipendra apparently shot King Birendra, 55, and seven other relatives dead, injured three others and then shot himself in the head.

Government officials initially blamed Dipendra for the killings, but then said they were accidental.

After killing his father, Dipendra sprayed machine-gun and rifle fire through the sitting rooms for 15 minutes, the paper said quoting the relative. ``The Prince said nothing at all throughout the whole episode, and there was no expression whatever on his face,'' the relative was quoted as saying. Queen Aishwarya and the Prince's younger brother, Prince Niranjan, followed him into the garden. ``That's when they got shot.''

When Dipendra moved back inside, his uncle, Prince Dhirendra, approached him and pleaded, ``put the gun down; you've done enough damage.'' That's when he got shot. Two women, an aunt and a cousin, rushed over to help Dhirendra and ``they were shot.'' Dhirendra died yesterday while the women are recovering in the military hospital, Kathmandu.

Finally, Dipendra went out to the garden again, and more shots were heard. ``That must have been the time he was shooting himself,'' the relative said.

Officials and other sources have said Dipendra was distraught because his mother refused to let him marry the girl of his choice.

But the relative of the witness said there was no discussion of the Prince's wedding plans that night.

``Why he did it, we may never know, but this is actually what happened,'' the relative said. ``It was a routine Friday night, and it all went wrong. The facts are quite clear. All that has to be done is to ask the survivors. The family knows the truth, so I am sure various family members will speak up.''

- Reuters

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