Nepal’s new prime minister has called for calm and urged her compatriots to “get together to rebuild the country” after violent protests against corruption killed at least 72 people and injured hundreds more.
In her first public remarks since becoming the Himalayan nation’s interim prime minister on Friday, Sushila Karki said on Sunday that the country must listen to its young citizens.
“We have to work according to the thinking of the Gen Z generation,” the 73-year-old former chief justice said, referring to the demographic that led the anticorruption protests.
“What this group is demanding is the end of corruption, good governance and economic equality,” she noted.
Karki added that she had not wished to lead but her name was “brought from the streets”.
She was made interim prime minister after several days of negotiations among protest leaders, President Ramchandra Paudel and army chief Ashok Raj Sigdel.
Late on Friday, Paudel announced her appointment, saying parliament had been dissolved and elections had been set for March 5.
“We will not stay here more than six months in any situation. We will complete our responsibilities and pledge to hand over to the next parliament and ministers,” Karki said on Sunday.
State TV reported that the new prime minister, who held a minute of silence on Sunday for those killed in the protests, has promised the families of those slain by police that they will each receive about 1 million rupees (about $11,330).
The worst unrest in Nepal for decades was sparked by a short-lived social media ban. Tens of thousands of people took to the streets to show their anger over widespread graft and poverty.
Police opened fire on protesters on Monday in the Nepalese capital, Kathmandu. Demonstrators then torched the president’s office, ministry buildings and the homes of high-profile politicians.
Amid the chaos, KP Sharma Oli quit as prime minister on Tuesday.
Sudan Gurung, the 36-year-old founder of the NGO Hami Nepal (We Are Nepal), played a prominent role in the anticorruption demonstrations.
“I will make sure that the power lies with the people and bring every corrupt politician to justice,” he promised.
On Sunday, Gurung and his team were reportedly in meetings to help decide key government positions, according to members of Hami Nepal.
After the appointment of Karki as interim leader, international rights groups issued a joint statement demanding an end to the “impunity of the past”.
Nepal is “at a turning point where the hard work of securing human rights for all could be built upon or sent into reverse”, Amnesty International’s Isabelle Lassee said in the statement.
The death toll from the protests has risen to 72, the Nepalese Ministry of Health and Population said on Sunday.
Efforts are still being made to recover some of the bodies of those killed during the unrest, it added.
“Bodies of many people who died in shopping malls, houses and other buildings that were set on fire or attacked are now being discovered,” Health Ministry spokesperson Prakash Budathoki said.
Authorities have begun turning over some of the bodies to mourning families in recent days.
“While his friends backed off [from the protests], he decided to go ahead,” Karuna Budhathoki said of her 23-year-old nephew as she waited to collect his body at Kathmandu’s Teaching Hospital. “We were told he was brought dead to the hospital.”
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