Nepal: Missing Girlfriend Fears for Her Life Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit source - CNN-June 14, 2001 Nepal massacre probe missing key witness By staff and wire reports KATMANDU, Nepal -- A report into the Nepal royal family massacre is expected to be completed without one key witness. A panel investigating the deaths of most of Nepal's royal family, including the king and queen, has asked the woman romantically linked to the suspected killer to appear for questioning. Reports have described Devyani Rana as the girlfriend of the late Crown Prince Dipendra, who is suspected of carrying out the June 1 murder-suicide because his family was unhappy with his relationship with her. Nine members of the royal family died in the massacre. A government official said a royal commission appointed by new King Gyanendra was on track to complete its report Thursday but an extension may be required if authorities are able to speak with Devyani. Devyani fled Nepal following the massacre and is believed to be in Europe, and according to one local newspaper is fearing for her life. The offical said Devyani Rana had been asked to appear before the two-man investigating committee through a letter to her father, Pashupati Shumshere Rana -- a member of parliament. Witness reprimanded The Kathmandu Post said Devyani's telephone number was one of the last 10 called by Dipendra from his mobile phone before he went on an apparent drunken rampage, the newspaper said. Other newspapers reported Wednesday that Dr Rajiv Shahi, a royal relative by marriage and a witness to the killings, was unlikely to face disciplinary action for holding a news conference in which he detailed how Dipendra carried out the murders. Although the official explanation for the massacre remains that it was an accident caused by an exploding automatic weapon, Shahi's testimony last week was the first public acknowledgment of what millions of people had been hearing through the grapevine. Kantipur newspaper said Shahi had been "reprimanded", but not disciplined, for his action. Hindu ceremonies continue The final traditional Hindu ceremony for Dipendra that is meant to purge his spirit of bad luck will be held on Thursday. A similar "katto" ceremony -- in which a priest eats forbidden food before exiling himself in a remote part of the Himalayan mountain kingdom -- has already been held for King Birendra. Dipendra was named king briefly as he lay in the coma, and so by tradition will also have the ceremony carried out for him. The ceremony for King Birendra was seen as a way to help soothe some of the anger and disbelief the massacre has caused in the nation of around 22 million people. But much of the anger remains and was evident when the new king's ascension was greeted with rude silence followed by violent rioting last week by a population unhappy with official explanations for the massacre. [Reuters contributed to this report.] ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytas-06.14.01-22:55:45-17851