To, Dr. Heinz Fischer Federal President of Austria Hofburg, Leopoldinischer Trakt A-1014 Vienna Memorandum on visit of the Nepalese prince to Austria Your Excellency, We Nepalese residents in Austria united under the Forum for Peace, Democracy and Human Rights extend our highest regards to the Office of your Excellency and request the kind attention to this memorandum in recognition of Austria's strong commitment to peace, democracy and human rights as well as traditional friendly relations between Nepal and Austria. We have learned that the Crown Prince of Nepal Mr. Paras Shah will be visiting Vienna soon. Probably not many Austrians know much about Paras. Gyanendra Shah was ascended to throne after the killing of all members of the Royal family but his own on 1 June 2001. It also made his son Paras the Crown Prince. The fact that Paras was the only member of the Royal family present to survive the massacre unscathed has generated strong believes among ordinary Nepalese that he was the true perpetrator of the crime ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paras_of_Nepal)! This belief has been even stronger in recent years as the political turmoil orchestrated by Gyanendra and Paras is being unfolded. Since that tragic massacre in the Royal palace, everything went wrong in this Himalayan Kingdom. Just after a year, in October 2003, Gyanendra consolidated the grip in military and political power. First he dissolved the parliament and sacked democratically elected government. Then he hand-picked government for two more years, but on 1 Feb 2005, King Gyanendra plotted a coup détat, sacked the government and took direct control, declared himself as a chairman of the council of ministers, a position that does not exist in the Constitution of Nepal, imposed state of emergency, imprisoned thousands of political leaders and activists, suppressed civil liberties guaranteed by the constitution, cut the telephone line, Internet and started an autocratic rule. International community including UN, EU, US, India condemned this move and never recognized the royal regime. The country already devastated by Maoist insurgency suffered further setback to its democratic system. Recently, on first anniversary of this move when political parties were planning a mass protest, the King declared a daylong curfew and again arrested thousands of political activists, many of them are still under house arrest or in jail. As many donors stopped their assistance to Nepal after royal coup, the royal regime is desperate to get international recognition. It is using any chance for its propaganda to show that it has gained some international recognition. However, the King Gyanendra was barred to attend UN general assembly after a strong protest inside and outside Nepal. Recently, Gyanendra also plotted a drama of local elections, a move described by international community as a "hollow exercise". The elections boycotted by all major political parties could not attract even 20% of voters according to the official counts. As the King continues to defy domestic political agitation and international pressure, the republic of Ireland has proposed European parliament to impose a smart sanction against the Royal regime of Nepal that would mean to forbid the members of the Royal family of Nepal from visiting Europe. Your Excellency, As the regime of the King Gyanendra is facing unprecedented international isolation, its any member is desperate to visit foreign land under any pretext. In a very surprising development, your government has invited Paras, the most notorious member of the royal family of Nepal, to visit Austria and the reason given for this is to handover a pair of rhinos of Nepalese wildlife park to Viennese zoo. The event should have no political significance however has been interpreted by the members of Royal regime in Nepal as a positive gesture of Austria as well as the European Union under the Presidency of Your Excellency towards its autocratic rules. The planned meeting of the Nepalese foreign minister accompanying Paras with the Austrian government representatives would help Gyanendra legitimize his extra-constitutional coup and the regime placed as its result. We believe that the visit of Paras to Austria, while it is assuming the role of Presidency of the European Union, goes to direct contravention to the ideal of democracy, human rights and the rule of law that you are committed to and the solidarity of the European Union that has been traditionally extended to democratic struggles of Nepalese people. We kindly request Your Excellency to use the high regard of Austrian people vested upon you and intervene for cancellation of the invitation of Austrian government to Paras in confirmation of the solidarity of Austrian people to struggle of friendly people of Nepal for peace and democracy. DPH-Forum (Forum for Democracy, Peace and Human Rights Due to security reason the members' names are not disclosed (The members can be contacted under nepal_democracy@yahoo.com or Tel. 0043-69981478501). 15 March 2006 Vienna CC: 1. Dr. Ursula Plassnik, Foreign Minister, Federal Ministry for Foreign Affairs (FMFA), Austria 2. Dr. iur. Nikolaus SCHERK, head of department -II.10 Asia, FMFA, Austria 3. Mag. Phil. Peter Storer, Department II.10.b for south and south-east Asia, FMFA, Austria 4 Dr. Pilz Peter Pilz, MP, Austria. 5. Dr. Michael Haeupl, Mayor of Vienna city council. 6. Dr. Helmut Pechlaner, Director of Viennese zoo