The prince who loved guns

By Hasan Suroor

LONDON, JUNE 3. Even as a schoolboy, Crown Prince Dipendra had a passion for guns and kept a loaded revolver in his room, his schoolmates at Eton recalled today. They remembered ``Dippy'', as he was then known, as a friendly ``bloke'' but easily provoked. Once he was caught selling alcohol illegally to boys and was fined eight pounds. That also earned him a headline in The Sun.

``Guns and Girls for Prince at Eton'' said a headline in The Independent on Sunday recalling that Dipendra became an object of envy as the only boy to have a gun and ``his own concubines''. ``When we were 16, he used to tell us about them when we came back from holidays'', a contemporary told the newspaper.

Another Etonian, Mr. Oliver Pool, recalled the impact ``Dippy'' made on his arrival at the school. ``It caused a stir when it emerged that the new boy had a loaded revolved in his room. But then he had concubines in the palace back home'', he wrote in The Sunday Telegraph.

The gun, which he proudly showed to visitors, was apparently there on the instructions of the Nepalese embassy, which feared that he might be kidnapped. There was also a posse of bodyguards, who kept a watch from a distance.

``He knew how to enjoy himself. It was usual for him to have bottles of illegal booze around him, brought in - many of us believed - by his bodyguards'', Mr. Oliver said. The Times, however, had a different version. ``He was said to sneak into nearby Slough and buy up stocks of beer, martini and vodka which he would then sell on to other boys'', it said in a report, ``The god Who Sold Alcohol to His Classmates''.

He spent three years at Eton, one of Britain's most prestigious public schools and his father's alma mater. He is remembered more for his extra-curricular activities-particularly his interest in karate-than any academic achievement. Generally, the impression is of an outgoing young man who loved the good things of life, and could be ``intimidating'' if provoked. ``He was a very proud, strong bloke, quite intimidating. I once teased him when he was doing skipping exercises and he lifted me off the ground by my jaw'', Mr. Daniel Kruger, now a political consultant, who was with him at Eton told The Sunday Times.

According to an unnamed contemporary in The Observer, he was ``frightening''. ``I'm not surprised by what's happened. He was a squat and muscular boy, very sullen and quite isolated. He was quite a frightening guy''. Another contemporary said he ``led a pretty weird life''.

The massacre in Kathmandu was extensively reported in the British media today, with focus on Crown Prince Dipendra's stint at Eton, his friendship with Prince Charles, and the political intrigue in Nepal's royal family.

A journalist who interviewed late King Birendra in 1999 described the atmosphere at the Palace as ``bizarre''. ``I tumbled out into the streets of Kathmandu with the impression that anyone who had to live in such a bizarre, intrigue-laden environment would eventually lose their mind'', said Mr. Jonathan Gregson whose book on Nepal is to be published this week.

The Sunday Times ran a long story on what it called a ``Palace riven with family feuds'' where ``the plotting and scheming'' were commonplace though it said ``nobody could have foreseen that it would end in such a tragedy''.

The official Nepalese announcement that the bloodbath was an ``accident'' has been greeted with scepticism, and questions have been raised about what really happened and how. ``What provoked the slaughter? Was the Crown Prince, as some say, just a twisted lunatic? Were other forces at work? And what does the massacre mean for the beautiful but poor mountain kingdom of 22 million people?'' The Observer asked.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : International
Previous : Nepalese scoff at official explanations
Next     : A great tragedy