PRINCE WAS HIGH, SAYS MASSACRE REPORT

Nepalese Doubt Official Story After Panel Blames King's Son For
Unexplained Rampage That Killed 10 Members Of Royal Family

KATMANDU, Nepal -- Before he massacred the king, the queen and most
of the rest of Nepal's royal family, Crown Prince Dipendra was not
only tipsy from whiskey but also high on ``a special kind of
cigarette'' containing hashish, according to details released
Thursday by a panel of inquiry.

Then, after being escorted to his bedroom, he called his girlfriend,
Devyani Rana, three times from his mobile phone before returning to a
dinner party in combat dress, ``armed on both sides'' with rifles and
other guns.

His orderly saw his outfit and assumed the prince was about to go
out. When he asked if the prince required anything else, he replied,
``It's not necessary now,'' and went off to kill his family.

Thursday's official report on the June 1 palace blood bath, like the
unofficial accounts from witnesses that came before it, placed the
blame on Dipendra alone.

A synopsis of the findings was read in Nepali and English on state TV
and radio. Taranath Ranabhat, speaker of the House of Representatives
and a member of the committee, posed for cameras, at one point
holding the crown prince's automatic weapons. But he did not take
questions.

Report Of Few Facts

The six-page, single-spaced synopsis is a hurriedly assembled
document that would hardly satisfy an American audience schooled in
police dramas.

There were no lab reports, no toxicology details, no ballistics
results and no autopsies. An ``unnamed black substance'' that the
report said was mixed with the hashish in the prince's cigarettes
remains unidentified. And while the crown prince is undeniably dead,
the report includes no determination on whether he ended his shooting
rampage with a suicide.

Even the Nepalese are likely to doubt what they heard. ``I don't
believe even 10 percent of it,'' said Saroz Pant, an electrician.
``It's the same bull we heard last week. Why should we believe it
this week?''

Last week, riots broke out in Katmandu, capital of this impoverished
nation of 23 million people. The public had loved King Birendra, but
they did not want to believe that Dipendra, also well-liked, was the
shooter. They complained that Nepal was the victim of a conspiracy,
and the list of favored conspirators included the new king,
Gyanendra, Birendra's brother.

Thursday night, as the broadcast ended, the streets were quiet. A
seasonal downpour and a huge police presence helped explain why.

``You can bet there will be more trouble,'' a taxi driver, Amar
Gurun, predicted.

But first, people will have to weigh the plausibility of the latest
disclosures. A loose narrative can be assembled from the committee's
report, which is largely stitched together from interviews with
witnesses. It goes like this:

The royal family had a regular monthly gathering. On June 1, the
dinner was to be at Dipendra's residence in the palace compound. The
crown prince, 29, who had apparently argued with his parents about
whether he could marry Rana, arrived first and played billiards while
drinking ``one or two pegs of Famous Grouse whiskey neat.'' He also
ordered an aide to fetch him some of the drugged cigarettes.

Prince Unable To Stand

After a while, Dipendra found it hard ``to hold himself upright.''
Four guests, including the crown prince's brother Nirajan and his
cousin Paras, took him, swaying, to his bedroom before the king
arrived at the party.

In his bedroom, Dipendra began phoning Rana, who has since left
Katmandu and was interviewed for the committee by the Nepalese
ambassador to India. The young woman admitted to a ``close
relationship'' with Dipendra but considered it a personal matter and
refused to discuss it further.

According to phone records, Rana and the crown prince briefly spoke
three times within 29 minutes. His speech was slurred, enough so that
she phoned one of his aides to check on him. In the bedroom, Dipendra
was found on the ground, trying to undo his clothes. Later, retching
noises were heard from the bathroom. His final call to Rana lasted
only 32 seconds. By her account, he said he was going to sleep and
told her good night.

Soon after, rather than sleeping, the crown prince began shooting.
The king took the first volley from a submachine gun. Then the prince
changed weapons and ``fired rat-tat-tat again at His Majesty.''

From there, Dipendra selected other targets, moving from the billiard
hall to the dining room to the garden, methodically shooting his
brother, sister, aunts and other relatives.

Some aides burst into the billiard room by breaking a glass door, but
the report says little about them except that they tried to rescue
the wounded.

In all, 10 members of the royal family died. Dipendra was found
unconscious, wearing black army boots, a camouflage army jacket and
trousers, black leather gloves, black stockings and a camouflage
vest. He was the ninth of the royal victims to perish, dying on the
afternoon of June 4, about 40 hours after he himself became king in
an automatic line of succession.

His soul, presumed to be restless after death, was freed Thursday
morning from earthly attachments in a Hindu ceremony. The special
rite, reserved for kings, was performed in Nepal for only the fifth
time in 90 years -- but it was also the second such observance in
four days.