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CNN Sunday Morning

Nepal Government Contradicts Reports of Royal Deaths

Aired June 03, 2001 - 07:02   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LINDA STOUFFER, CNN ANCHOR: Now, we move on to Nepal where there have been funeral pyres for the king, the queen and other members of the royal family following Friday's fatal shooting.

Today, there is a new official explanation of just how they died. The government says an automatic weapon in the hands of Crown Prince Dipendra went off accidentally. For the latest on all of this, CNN's Kasra Naji joins us on the phone right now from Kathmandu.

Hello, what can you tell us about all this?

KASRA NAJI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Linda, as you just said, the palace and the officials here seem to have completely changed their story of what has happened. Earlier, we had named officials and also sources close to the palace who spoke to us on the condition of anonymity, saying that at 9:00 p.m. -- around 9:00 p.m. on Friday night.

The family had gathered for a dinner party. The crown prince walked in with the automatic weapon in his hand and opened fire on everyone before turning the gun to himself. And now two days later, we've been told that no, no, no, this is not what has happened. It was a complete accident.

We have the regent, who is now in effect the acting king, issued a statement saying that it was all an accident. And a palace official a short time ago told me that it was strictly a family gathering and an accidental blast of machine gun fire that was responsible for killing and injuring 14 people, including the king, the queen, their son, their daughter, two sisters of the king, a cousin of the king. So it's all sort of fantastic and bizarre, really.

I spoke to people outside the palace here who are -- many people are cuing up with -- signing memorial books at the entrance of the palace. These are basically strong supporters of the monarchy there.

I asked them about this and they are saying that they are prepared to accept this version of events because they believe the crowned prince was a good man after all. But there are also people who believe that the truth may have become a causality too here and that now we may never know what really happened in that palace on that special night -- Linda.

STOUFFER: Kasra Naji with the very latest on that. Thank you very much for the update.

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