85-year-old peace broker mourned in Nepal

Girija Prasad Koirala, the former prime minister who brokered Nepal's peace agreement and led a protest movement against his country's autocratic king, died yesterday aged 85.

Koirala, who had been suffering from respiratory disease for many years, died surrounded by family members at his daughter's home in Kathmandu, aide Gokarna Poudel told AFP.

Thousands of people gathered outside to pay their respects to the elder statesman of Nepalese politics, whose lasting legacy began in 2006 when he sided with Maoist rebels to force former king Gyanendra to relinquish dictatorial powers.

Koirala staked his political career on turning against the autocratic monarch and making peace with Maoist rebels to bring an end to a decade of civil war in which more than 16,000 people had died.

Political change ensued at a breakneck pace, with the former rebel Maoists winning landmark elections in 2008, abolishing the 240-year-old Hindu monarchy and transforming the impoverished country into a secular republic.

"Koirala was a mass leader and a statesman, whose knowledge and wisdom guided the polity of Nepal in the right direction at critical junctures in the country's history," said India's prime minister Manmohan Singh.

Koirala began his political career as a union organiser and was imprisoned for seven years in 1960 after a failed uprising against the monarchy.

Upon his release he went into exile in India, where he masterminded the 1973 hijacking of a Royal Nepal Airlines plane known to be carrying hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash to fund his banned Nepali Congress party.

As prime minister, Koirala led the Himalayan nation through some of its biggest upheavals, including its most notorious upset when 10 members of the royal family were shot dead by the crown prince in a drunken rampage.

He was seen as a stabilising force in a country that has seen 18 governments in the last 20 years - although like many politicians in Nepal he faced frequent allegations of corruption.