KATHMANDU Nepal The Slaughter of Nepal's Royal Family by Richard S. Ehrlich

KATHMANDU, Nepal — Two eyewitnesses who survived Nepal's palace massacre confirmed Thursday (June 7) that a drunk Prince Dipendra assassinated his father the king, then shot dead his mother the queen and other royal family members as they begged for mercy, before committing suicide.

In the first eyewitness accounts of the horrific bloodshed, Rajiv Shahi told a news conference, "He was just a murderer," referring to the chubby, bearded Dipendra.

Mr. Shahi, who is related to the royal family, said he was in the palace when the two-minute shooting erupted.

Confirming the multiple assassinations, another eyewitness related to the royal family, Maheswar Kumar Singh, 66, told journalists separately on Thursday that Dipendra was "very intoxicated" when he shot each relative at point-blank range.

Mr. Singh said he was also in the room when the killings occurred, initially having a pre-dinner drink with the late king and several others, when Dipendra stalked in wearing military fatigues and armed with an assault rifle.

In two separate interviews, Mr. Singh told CNN and the British Broadcasting Corporation details which matched Mr. Shahi's news conference.

The armed prince stood next to Mr. Shahi and initially fired a bullet at the palace ceiling, Mr. Shahi said.

Dipendra then aimed his assault rifle at his father, King Birendra, and opened fire, also spraying other royal family members in a long burst of bullets, Mr. Shahi said.

The drunk prince "was staggering and falling now and then," Mr. Shahi added.

Dipendra entered and exited the room several times, firing at family members each time he returned.

Mr. Shahi, a doctor, rushed to rescue the wounded constitutional monarch King Birendra, 55, and tried to stop his bleeding but was unable, due to the extensive injuries the king suffered.

"I took off my coat and pressed it against his (King Birendra's) neck where he was bleeding," Mr. Shahi said.

The prince's status-conscious mother, Queen Aishwarya, and one of the princesses screamed for help and fled the room, according to the other eyewitness, Mr. Singh.

Mr. Singh said he crawled behind a sofa alongside a survivor, Paras, the son of Nepal's new king, Gyanendra.

From his hiding place, Mr. Singh heard more shooting from the prince's assault rifle, and a few single shots, apparently from a garden next to the room.

Eton-educated Dipendra, silent and expressionless, gave no indication why murdered his entire immediate royal family. Both eyewitnesses refused to speculate on his motives.

Dipendra found his mother, the queen, nearby and when he was about to shoot her, Dipendra's younger brother, Prince Nirajan, 22, stepped between them and begged him to stop, Mr. Shahi said.

Ignoring his brother's pleas, Dipendra shot him in the back, killing him, and then shot dead the 51-year-old queen, Mr. Shahi said.

Dipendra also shot dead his sister Princess Shruti, 24, two aunts, two uncles and a female cousin, Mr. Shahi and Mr. Singh confirmed.

Dipendra killed a total of nine relatives, and injured several others.

The slaughter ended when Dipendra, 29, walked out of the room and shot himself. He collapsed in a coma, Mr. Shahi and Mr. Singh said.

Afterwards, in a macabre ceremony as he lay on life-support systems in an army hospital, the comatose Prince Dipendra was elevated to become king — in keeping with strict succession — before he died on Monday (June 4).

Mr. Shahi was related to the royal family as son-in-law of the late King Birendra's brother, slain prince Dhirendra, who was one of Dipendra's uncles.

Mr. Singh was the late King Birendra's uncle. Mr. Shahi said Dipendra admitted earlier in the evening to being drunk.

Rana Runs

Dipendra's bizarre behavior was apparently motivated, in part, by the disapproval voiced by his mother, the queen, to his desire to wed his gorgeous, gentle, twentysomething royal girlfriend, Devyani Rana.

Miss Rana, traumatized after hearing news of the killings, left Nepal and was reportedly grieving in London at the home of a relative.

She is the daughter of Nepal's former foreign minister Pashupati Shumshere Rana.

Miss Rana and Dipendra were said to have been deeply in love, but suffered a Romeo and Juliet form of misery.

The queen blocked their marriage plans because Miss Rana was the scion of two lesser royal families: Nepal's former ruling Rana dynasty, and India's Scindias, who lost their kingdom in central Madhya Pradesh state after India gained independence from Britain in 1947.

The two eyewitnesses' testimonies came after an earlier announcement that an official investigation would start on Friday (June 8) and make its findings public, possibly in three days.

Not willing to wait, the eyewitnesses were apparently alarmed that widespread conspiracy theories and Maoist communist propaganda had convinced many Nepalis that Dipendra was innocent and that the slayings were arranged by Nepal's new King Gyanendra and others.

Due to government's obsessive secrecy and news blackout after the murders, many Nepalis could only swap conspiracy theories and believe whatever they heard.

The official inquiry was to begin photographing whatever evidence, bloodstains and bullet holes remain inside Narayanhity Royal Palace, and question any survivors, relatives, guards, servants and others who may be linked to the tragic event.

All of the dead were hurriedly cremated earlier in the week, so the two-man investigation team was to concentrate on grilling medical staff who examined the bodies before the cremations.

A three-person investigation team was to begin on Wednesday but when one communist party investigator dropped out, the start date was postponed until Friday.

The CIA Did It

Thousands of rock-throwing people staged riots on Monday and Tuesday, insisting Dipendra was innocent.

After at least four people died in running street clashes, officials and the media attempted to quash all such rumors.

Several people were reportedly arrested, meanwhile, on suspicion of being anti-monarch Maoist communist guerrillas who may have shaved their heads as a sign of mourning simply to blend in with mobs to try and kill police.

During the past several years, Maoist insurgents and police have battled in the impoverished western countryside, leaving more than 1,600 people dead, including many innocent civilians.

Maoist guerrillas described the royal family's deaths as a well-planned palace coup by rightwing forces — led by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency and India's intelligence network — against King Birendra because he was soft on the Maoist rebellion.

Police arrested a local newspaper's editor and two co-publishers on Wednesday (June 6) on possible treason charges for publishing an opinion piece by Maoist leader Baburam Bhattari which expressed those views.

Mr. Bhattari warned Nepalis that their new king, Gyanendra, would be a puppet of India, and allow New Delhi to expand into this Tennessee-sized nation, which is wedged between India and China.

Nepal strongly denies any such conspiracy plots in the palace murders.

The Maoists want to end Nepal's fragile democracy and replace it with the one-party communist system which China abandoned as a disastrous model after the death of Chairman Mao Zedong.

Beijing apparently does not support the Maoist rebels.

Wary of fresh rioting, steel-helmeted army patrols guarded strategic points in Kathmandu on Thursday, but the capital was calm.

Nepalis, however, will be looking to see what the investigation says about Dipendra's drinking buddy and cousin, Paras, who hid behind the sofa and survived unharmed.

Paras's wealthy, rightwing father — the new king, Gyanendra — was brother of the slain King Birendra.

Gyanendra was away from Kathmandu at the time of the murders and emerged as the closest survivor.

A scowling Gyanendra was hurriedly crowned king on Monday (June 4) in a grim ceremony, much to the displeasure of rock-throwing mobs in the street and other Nepalis in offices, shops, homes and the bazaar who were outspokenly critical of his rapid ascension to the throne.

Paras, meanwhile, has not yet been coronated as prince, but is now next in line to inherit the throne.

He is widely despised because of alleged involvement in at least three fatal traffic accidents and other acts perceived as obnoxious and criminal.

"With his reputation for lawless behavior, the fact that Paras could be crown prince is unbearable for many Nepalis, who are additionally suspicious because the young man remained unscathed in Friday night's slaughter," the respected Nepali Times said.