Nepal: Royal family wiped out in drunken rage

The official report has been compiled and published. The surviving witnesses have had their say. The international media have tested the official line against every reasonable criteria and pronounced it sound. All agree: Nepal's royal family was all but exterminated on 1 June 2001 by Crown Prince Dipendra in a fit of drunken, psychotic rage.

Yet six months on, at the end of the most traumatic year in Nepal's modern history, the mass of ordinary Nepalis remain stubbornly sceptical about the official explanation. Their initial, reflexive disbelief has been strengthened by subsequent events.

It was during one of the royal family's regular fortnightly dinners that a gunman opened fire inside the Narayanhiti Palace in central Kathmandu, killing King Birendra, Queen Aishwarya and eight royal relatives. The account of survivors was that the Crown Prince, whose marriage was opposed by his mother, had a blazing row with his parents, which sparked the murderous attack.

From the outset, however, many Nepalese chose to believe otherwise. They pointed the finger at King Birendra's younger brother, Gyanendra, who survived because he happened to be in the city of Pokhara that night. His absence from Kathmandu, people argued, was no accident. Gyanendra, they said, was angry with his brother for selling Nepal down the river. Ten years before Birendra had surrendered before a popular uprising, giving up absolute power. Corrupt, feuding democratic politicians had subsequently eaten away at the country's stability. Since 1996 Nepal had been wracked by a Maoist insurgency, and in another demonstration of weakness, the King refused to send in the army to put it down. Gyanendra, according to the conspiracy theorists, had finally lost patience with his mild brother and plotted to eliminate him and all those close to him.

All the witnesses, all the circumstantial evidence contradicted this account. But when, two days after the massacre, Crown Prince Dipendra died of wounds the palace insisted were self-inflicted, riots broke out across the capital. Gyanendra was crowned king the same day.

Six months on, the theorists feel fully vindicated. In late November, peace talks with the Maoists broke down – the rebels had demanded an end to the monarchy – and King Gyanendra sent in the army. In the first month of true civil war, up to 500 rebels have been killed. The government now says the Maoists must stop opposing the monarchy before peace talks can resume. The rebels have rejected the demands. A conflict that has cost more than 2,000 lives in six years is escalating, and the king's subjects watch the bloody events unfold with a cynical eye.