The government has described a report (Dhivehi) released by the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) into the controversial change of power on February 7 as an “act of terrorism”.
The MDP released its report in counter to the timeline released last week by the three-member panel of the initial Commission of National Inquiry (CNI), which it had boycotted on grounds that the panel lacked credibility and independence. Facing pressure from the Commonwealth, the government had agreed to recompose the panel to include a nominee of former President Nasheed, a retired foreign judge, and UN and Commonwealth monitors.
President’s Office Spokesperson Abbas Adil Riza said that the MDP’s decision to release a report that included the names of police and MNDF officers it accused of being involved in the alleged coup was an “act of terrorism”, and called on the authorities to take action.
“The report is illegal and an act of terrorism. They can’t reveal the names of officers of the security forces like that and threaten their families,” he said, demanding criminal prosecution.
Asked about the allegations made in the report and whether the government would look into them, Riza responded: “I am saying it is illegal to release such a report, so whatever is mentioned in it is not something we are interested in looking into.”
Asked if the government intended to take action against the MDP, Abbas said “the security services will decide on the matter.”
The report was co-authored by two cabinent ministers during Nasheed’s administration: the former Minister of Housing and Environment Mohamed Aslam and former National Security Advisor Ameen Faisal.
The authors claimed that the report was composed on fact and that no information had been included that lacked a primary source.
The report was released in a ceremony held at Male’ City Council hall by the former President Mohamed Nasheed.
Speaking during the ceremony, former President Nasheed said that the authorities should look into the findings in the report, which highlights the actions of the police and Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF) officials on February 7, and who should be tried in the courts of law.
He further alleged that the perpetrators behind the ‘coup’ were political figures in opposition parties during his administration.
“This report very clearly states the names of those who were involved, and the roles they have played are stated in detail. I hope that the institutions of the state will look into it,” said Nasheed
He added that the report clearly underlines that the toppling of the government was illegitimate, and announced that the MDP would launch peaceful demonstrations and protests to ensure the findings in the report were looked into.
“The report reveals that during September 2011, the intelligence services and several other sources received information that opposition political figures had begun to collect the information of about 500 officers in the police and the military who were willing to help topple the government. So they have been planning this since last September,” alleged Nasheed.
He said that it was an obligation of the MDP to the people of the Maldives to ensure that the authorities took action on the findings of the report, even if that meant the launch of demonstrations.
Speaking during the ceremony, Interim Chairperson of MDP, MP Moosa ‘Reeko’ Manik said now that the report very clearly stated that the MDP government was toppled in a coup, and the MDP would not remain silent on the matter.
People deserve to know the truth: authors
One of the two co-authors of the report, Mohamed Aslam, stated that people across the country were talking about the transfer of power on February 7 and that “people deserved to know the truth”
He claimed that the reason behind releasing the report was to let the people know what really happened after the initial three member panel of the CNI has attempted to mislead the people about the happenings of the events, by releasing a timeline that lacked truth.
Aslam said that the timeline issued by the CNI lacked several key facts, which he alleged had been deliberately omitted.
“We found that the toppling of the government was the results of days of planning and discussions by several people,” he said.
Aslam alleged that those involved in planning the coup included several political figures, some media outlets, certain religious scholars and business tycoons in the country.
“They used the some police officers and MNDF officers to execute their plan,” he said.
Aslam also alleged that while Nasheed was inside the MNDF barracks, the rebelling officers tried to make Nasheed and the generals loyal to him believe that they had no control over the military, with units resorting to brutal violence outside the barracks committing several criminal offences inside police headquarters.
“Those involved in the coup believe that these events were carried out by a lot of people, and that they are protected by a large group of people, and therefore are safe. That is not going to be possible. This is not the same Maldives as years ago,” he told.
Aslam further claimed that some of the police and military officials who were against the coup were willing to give evidence in a court if deemed necessary.
Co-author of the report, Ameen Faisal said they collected information from several police officers of different ranks, and thanked the officers for their cooperation in formulating the report.
He expressed hope that those officers would also reveal the truth to the new CNI formed with the support of the Commonwealth, and followed fellow co-author Aslam in alleging that the timeline released by the initial three member panel of the CNI “lacked a lot of information”.
The report claimed that the genesis of the coup began during a meeting held in September 2011, between a dismissed MNDF warrant officer (grade 1), a retired brigadier general, a retired deputy police commissioner and some of the council members of former President Gayoom’s Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM), allegedly in an apartment owned by PPM Council Member Ahmed ‘Maaz’ Saleem.
“We always planned on toppling Nasheed’s government” – Umar Naseer
PPM Interim Vice President Umar Naseer has meanwhile admitted to local media that he had always been planning to topple Nasheed’s government since the new President was sworn in on November 11, 2008, following the country’s first democratic multiparty elections.
“From 12 November 2008, we were planning on a way to bring down Nasheed’s government. We talked to anybody who we felt was necessary. We talked on the podiums, the media. But we attempted to do that within the norms of the constitution,” He told local newspaper Haveeru.
He also said that at the end of the day, they had succeed in ousting Nasheed “within the boundaries of the constitution”.
Responding to the report, Naseer further said that the “biggest problem” of Nasheed’s administration was that he had been giving illegal orders to the security forces of the country, and that the opposition parties were giving the security officers the message to not to obey those orders.
“When Nasheed locked up the Supreme Court using the police, I said that it was an illegal order. I said that arresting Abdulla Yameen and Gasim Ibrahim was carried out through an illegal order. The police have the right to not obey to illegal orders under the constitution. That is a new right entitled in the green constitution [the new constitution ratified on August 2008],” he said.
“All I did was tell the police and the MNDF that there was this right entitled in the constitution,” Naseer said.
According to Haveeru, Naseer also admitted that accusations in the report that he had attempted to hold a large demonstration right after the conclusion of the “Save Islam’ rally on December 23 2011, were true.
“They did not want that [to hold demonstrations]. But even that night, we would have toppled Nasheed’s government from the street ‘constitutionally’,” he said.
Naseer in an interview given to the SBS dateline program “Mutiny in Maldives” in February explained in English what happened from the perspective of the opposition demonstrators on February 7.
“We had a small command centre where we do all the protests. I command from the centre and give instructions to my people. On the protesters’ side, we were informing and educating the police and army through our speeches and television programs,” Naseer told at the time.
Asked by journalist Mark Davis if the opposition had made any other inducements, such as promises that they and their families would be “looked after” if they switched sides, Naseer said “there were”.
“We called on the army and police and said that if a person was fired from his position because of their refusal to follow an unlawful order, the opposition would take care of them,” Naseer said.
“I had told Nasheed to resign, and that I was afraid for his life – because if Nasheed came out of the headquarters, people might beat him on the streets,” Naseer said.
Minivan News tried contacting Naseer, but he did not respond at time of press.
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It's really funny that those who overthrew an elected government are talking about terrorism. Guess it's a bit hard for them to face reality.
This is silly. As much I support Anni, the release of these documents does not help in proving the coup.
Of course the opposition would meet and discuss nothing else but to throw the government. As you are doing now.
Of course they would bribe every potential candidate they can.
Of course most of them would be unethical.
If it is any consolation, it happens everywhere, every country.
The real game is to step up your strategy and oust them as well.
By the way, I would support you, my President Anni, if not anything else, but for your liberal strategy.
I dare Abbas Adil Riza and the Coup leaders (the government) to press charge. This will only expose the coup leaders including Abbas Adil Riza.
From the reaction of Mr Riza, we can conclude that the report touched a raw nerve in the regime! The reaction from the regime can only be proportional to the effectiveness of the report and its contents.
Mr Riza is also threatening to contravene the Constitution. No action can be taken by "security forces". First the regime is trying to redefine the term "terrorism".
The people named in the report brought terror to the country on the 7th of February. That act of terrorism is our focus, i.e the focus of the peace loving Maldivians.
Ali Shiyam...
No it does not happen in every country. Since when does every country changes its government through a coup? its illegal, immoral and goes against basic democratic values. Who are you to talk about EVERY country? Have you studied the history of EVERY country. To over throw an elected government and to win an election are two different things. To murder someone vs to wait for the death of someone are two different things!
Who took over the state tv station before nasheed "resigned?"
@ahmed saeed:
The Parliament.
As much as it is important to account any police or MNDF officers whowere involved in the alleged coup, discrediting the police and MNDF institutions is wrong. and collectively referring to them as baaghees is wrong both morally and politically. It only would make the friends and family members of the police and MNDF hate MDP. I am against the strategy employed by MDP in accounting those responsible. This is not the way!
tsk tsk on Sun, 10th Jun 2012 8:29 PM
"The Parliament."
Since when did "The Parliament" get hand guns?
@Mald, sure agree with what you are saying. This is not the right or ideal way, but how long are we going to wait for those within the MNDF and Police to develop a conscience and come out and say that they are against what is happening and what their beloved institutions are being used for? If the "baghees" within these institutions are not representative of these institutions, then why don't the rest of them come forward or speak out against what they very well know is wrong? It takes guts, sure, and it these officers lack those guts, then they don't belong in these institutions in the first place! Hating MDP will be easy, just as it is for so many of us to hate the Police and Defence collectively, and these officers and their families want to protect their reputation, then do something about it rather than just staying on the job and enjoying all the benefits.
“The report is illegal and an act of terrorism. They can’t reveal the names of officers of the security forces like that and threaten their families,”
Is this some kind of a nightmare, or did I really read this correctly?
It is criminal to speak out against people who threaten your family? The tyrants who threaten innocent life are protected by Maldivian law, and speaking against such terrifying evil, which anywhere else would be considered an act of heroic self sacrificial justice, is criminal?
I don't have words to desribe how horrendously deep the darkness of the tyranny here is.
I feel this article particularly strongly, it hurts me so much to read this, because, I also have had my family threatened!
Indeed, families are threatened, my family had been threatened because of the stuff I had said here. My Wife and KIDS need to return to Maldives, for some EXTRMELY important reasons, yet are frightened too. The grief of feeling separated from Beloved Maldives and family through fear is killing us! It is because I had said some truths, and I wish I could take it back. YES, I am a total irresponsible fool, naive, idealistic to the point of insanity, a very stupid person. I got a hell of a lot wrong, 99 percent of it! BUT I am not the evil one here! Can anybody not see that! I had been constructed as the evil one myself in all of this! I have been blamed as though it was I that caused the grief! And they who threatened my family, are the evil ones, not I, yet everyone is so eager to blame me because they are hurting so badly, yet not strong enough to stand up to the real evil! So they take it out one me because I am a soft target, a liberal Westerner, but poor, and powerless, can anybody else not see how cowardly the whole thing is! The powerful in Maldives exploiting and bullying the weak in the name of defending Islam!
I understood the essence of the Islamic religion to be a struggle against tyranny. But, the cowardly, tyrannical despots who control the gangs and support Islamic extremism, and those who want power at any cost, are the most un-Islamic, cowardly dogs on the planet!
For all those whose families have been threatened, who live in fear, we have to fight back! FEEL the impulse for Justice within your souls. Revive that fire in your hearts! Look at your loved ones. Surely, your love for them teaches you that they, your loved ones, are something greater than the mere products of chance, they are, we are, the products of something eternal, we will never die, unless we yield and bow to the darkness of fear! We must embrace this experience of eternity as our source of courage, as the reservoir of our dignity! We shall never fear because we shall never die! They cannot kill us, so there is nothing to fear but fear itself! There is a positive and negative reaction to every thing, every suffering we go through standing for the cause of justice, against the tyrants, has its eternal rewards!
I feel this article particularly strongly, it hurts me so much to read this, because, I also have had my family threatened!
Indeed, families are threatened, my family had been threatened because of the stuff I had said here. My Wife and KIDS need to return to Maldives, for some EXTRMELY important reasons, yet are frightened too. The grief of feeling separated from Beloved Maldives and family through fear is killing us! It is because I had said some truths, and I wish I could take it back. YES, I am a total irresponsible fool, naive, idealistic to the point of insanity, a very stupid person. I got a hell of a lot wrong, 99 percent of it! BUT I am not the evil one here! Can anybody not see that! I had been constructed as the evil one myself in all of this! I have been blamed as though it was I that caused the grief! And they who threatened my family, are the evil ones, not I, yet everyone is so eager to blame me because they are hurting so badly, yet not strong enough to stand up to the real evil! So they take it out one me because I am a soft target, a liberal Westerner, but poor, and powerless, can anybody else not see how cowardly the whole thing is! The powerful in Maldives exploiting and bullying the weak in the name of defending Islam!
I understood the essence of the Islamic religion to be a struggle against tyranny. But, the cowardly, tyrannical despots who control the gangs and support Islamic extremism, and those who want power at any cost, are the most un-Islamic, cowardly dogs on the planet!
For all those whose families have been threatened, who live in fear, we have to fight back! FEEL the impulse for Justice within your souls. Revive that fire in your hearts! Look at your loved ones. Surely, your love for them teaches you that they, your loved ones, are something greater than the mere products of chance, they are, we are, the products of something eternal, we will never die, unless we yield and bow to the darkness of fear! We must embrace this experience of eternity as our source of courage, as the reservoir of our dignity! We shall never fear because we shall never die! They cannot kill us, so there is nothing to fear but fear itself! There is a positive and negative reaction to every thing, every suffering we go through standing for the cause of justice, against the tyrants, has its eternal rewards!
@Tsk Tsk
Are you telling us that it wsas the Speaker of the Parliament who sent the man with the gun to shoot the gate door open and sent President Waheeds brother Ali Waheed to take over the station?
Do you know Tis Tis, that the television station was taken over by these terrorists BEFORE President Nasheed redsigned?