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Police in row with opposition MP over tweet

Police have accused opposition MP Rozaina Adam of posting a photo of a police officer on Twitter to intimidate security personnel.

Rozaina had accused the officer in question of obstructing her car on Wednesday night while she was heading to the parliament for a committee meeting.

The MDP said in a statement today that police officers had refused to remove a barricade set up near Dharumavantha School to allow Rozaina’s car through.

When one officer tried to let the car pass, another officer insisted that they must seek permission from a superior officer, the party said.

However, he removed the barricade after talking on a handheld transceiver.

Rozaina posted a tweet with a photo of the officer, her account of the incident, and an article from the parliamentary privileges law, urging police to “keep officers near barricades after teaching them the law.”

“If we are stopped on the way to Majlis, police will have the opportunity to stop us on the road until a vote is taken,” she argued.

However, police said a fire evacuation drill was ongoing at a nearby school at the time and said the officer had informed the senior officer in charge that a car will be passing through as the students were preparing to rush out.

Police criticized Rozaina for posting the photo of the officer, saying her intent was to intimidate, undermine public confidence in police, and bring the institution into disrepute.

The MDP said the police statement was symptomatic of the politicisation of the institution and its senior officers, whom it accused of bearing personal animosity towards opposition MPs.

The opposition party advised senior officers against exerting “political influence” over junior officers and against encouraging illegal actions.

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Gayoom’s son seeks PPM ticket for Dhiggaru by-election

Former president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom’s eldest son, Farish Maumoon, is seeking the ruling party’s ticket for the upcoming by-election for the vacant Dhiggaru constituency parliament seat.

The by-election, scheduled for June 6, was triggered by the conviction of former Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) MP Ahmed Nazim on corruption charges. The Supreme Court sentenced Nazim to 25 years in prison on April 6 for defrauding the state of MVR1.4 million (US$91,400).

Ahead of a 4:00pm deadline today, four others have submitted applications to contest the primary, including Meemu atoll councillor Moosa Naseer, Imran Ismail, Moosa Naseer Ahmed, and deputy environment minister Mohamed Hanim.

The candidates are to be first vetted on their loyalty to the party, role in campaigning for the party’s candidate in the 2013 presidential election, and the duration of membership in the party.

A primary will only take place if more than one candidate receives over 75 percent or higher.

The opposition coalition, made up of the main opposition Maldivian Democratic Party, religious conservative Adhaalath Party, and leaders of the Jumhooree Party, are meanwhile holding discussions on fielding a single candidate.

Adhaalath spokesperson Ali Zahir told the press today that he will contest the by-election.

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Second victim of link road accident dies

A second victim of a motorcycle accident in southern Addu City died while undergoing treatment in India last night.

Ahmed Sammah, 20, suffered severe head injuries in the accident on Addu City’s link road on April 1o.

Mamdhoon Ahmed Ali Didi ‘Mandey,’ who was sitting on the back seat of Sammah’s bike died within a few hours of the accident. He had also suffered severe head injuries.

Sammah was treated at the Hithadhoo Regional Hospital and Malé’s Indhira Gandhi Memorial Hospital before he was flown to India on April 12.

The accident occurred when Sammah attempted to overtake a car.

His death is the third fatality in Addu this month. A 16-year-old victim of an accident died of injuries on March 30 while undergoing treatment at the regional hospital.

Hussein Hilmy, an Addu City councillor, said more police officers are needed to effectively control traffic.

However, police said most accidents in Addu City were caused by speeding rather than traffic congestion.

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Visiting specialist doctors to improve healthcare services

The government is enlisting the services of visiting specialist doctors to improve healthcare services in the Maldives.

The ‘Super Specialist Service’ will employ neurologists, cardiologists, urologists, neurosurgeons, ENT doctos and pediatricians to provide consultations in different parts of the country.

The CEO of the national social protection agency, Mujthaba Jaleel, said twenty two foreign hospitals registered with the government’s health insurance scheme, Aasandha, have applied to send specialist doctors to the Maldives.

The visiting doctors will improve healthcare for people suffering from serious conditions, he said.

“Teams of Super Specialists have arrived today morning and have started work at the blood services unit and the Thalasseimia center. Some will start work at hospitals in the north and south tomorrow,” Mujthaba said.

President Abdulla Yameen inaugurated the Super Specialist service on Wednesday and handed over agreement copies to the overseas hospitals contributing to the super specialist program.

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Comment: International community must not ignore the plight of ‘Mandela of the Maldives’

The following op-ed was written by Anders Henriksen and Lykke Friss from the University of Copenhagen and first appeared on The Conversation. Republished with permission.  

This year has been anything but tranquil in paradise. In March, after a prolonged period of tension in the Maldives – the Indian Ocean island nation better known as a honeymoon paradise – a panel of judges found the former president, Mohamed Nasheed, guilty of terrorism and sentenced him to 13 years imprisonment.

The international community has condemned Nasheed’s trial as a farce. The charges against him were highly dubious, he was denied the right to legal counsel, given just a few days to prepare his defence – and two of the presiding judges even testified on behalf of the prosecution. Amnesty International labelled the trial as “a travesty of justice”.

As numerous UN reports have shown, the Maldivian judiciary is highly corrupt. It is a judiciary that is loyal not to the rule of law, but to the regime that has been in charge since a coup d’état in 2012. Nasheed is now back in the same jail where he spent years as a prisoner of conscience during the former Maldives dictatorship.

Shattered dreams

At the end of 2008, when democracy swept aside 30 years of dictatorship, it all looked so promising. The Maldivian people chose Nasheed as president in their first democratic elections and, for a brief moment, freedom blossomed.

During Nasheed’s presidency, Maldivians could speak freely for the first time, enjoy new found political freedoms, and express themselves through art and culture. Internationally, the charismatic new leader gained fame for his remarkable efforts to persuade the world to combat climate change, which threatens low-lying Maldives. Nasheed toured the world as a political rock-star, receiving accolades from the White House to Windsor Castle.

But it did not take long for the old regime to move against the young democratic government. On February 7 2012, Nasheed was forced to resign and the presidency was handed to Mohamed Waheed, a puppet of the former regime. The Maldivessoon reverted to type: journalists were targeted, protesters beaten up, and opposition politicians threatened and murdered.

The subsequent presidential elections 2013 were marred by widespread allegations of vote-rigging. The former dictator’s half brother, Abdulla Yameen, won – despite an overwhelming expectation that Nasheed would be returned.

Democracy trampled

Nasheed’s incarceration should be cause for concern to anyone who cares about democracy, liberty or the rights of women. In the Maldives, the moderate, freedom-oriented version of Islam that Nasheed espoused is under threat from a regime that colludes with Islamic extremists.

Unless the current trajectory is turned, the liberal forces in the countries will lose the on-going battle with fundamentalist Islam. In the last year alone, Islamic State supporters have rallied in the streets of Male, the Maldivian capital, and a growing number of Maldivians – some with experience of terrorist training camps in Pakistan – have gone to Syria to fight for Islamic State. Only Nasheed and his Maldivian Democratic Party have been willing to tackle the growing problems of Islamic radicalism.

There are few statesmen of Nasheed’s stature. Many foreign journalists, with good reason, refer to him as the “Mandela of the Maldives”. In the interests of democracy and stability, the international community must take a clear stand. Unless Nasheed is swiftly released from prison, the European Union and other nations should impose targeted sanctions against those in power.

These sanctions should include travel bans and foreign asset freezes. The sanctions should target President Yameen, his cabinet ministers, including the minister of tourism, and the corrupt judges who imprisoned Nasheed, and members of the security forces responsible for attacks on peaceful protesters.

Furthermore, since the survival of the regime depends on the annual arrival of the more than a million foreign tourists, individual countries should also supplement sanctions with a tourism boycott. Just like potential tourists should think twice before spending their money on the atolls. Yameen’s regime is baring its teeth. It is time for the international community to respond in kind.

Anders Henriksen is an associate professor of public international law and Lykke Friis is the prorector for education at the University of Copenhagen.

All comment pieces are the sole view of the author and do not reflect the editorial policy of Minivan News. If you would like to write an opinion piece, please send proposals to [email protected]

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Maldives faces second crippling payout in airport dispute

The Maldives faces a payout of US$170million to a bank in the dispute over the government’s abrupt takeover of the main airport from an Indian developer in 2012, Minivan News can exclusively reveal.

India’s Axis bank, which loaned US$160million for airport development in 2011, is seeking repayment of the loan and an additional US$10million in interest and fees from the Maldives, according to submissions made to a Singaporean arbitration tribunal.

The airport developer, GMR group, is meanwhile claiming US$803million from the Maldives in a separate arbitration after the tribunal ruled the government had “wrongfully” terminated the concession agreement.

President Abdulla Yameen estimates Maldives will be required to pay a much lower figure of US$300million to GMR. If the Axis Bank wins its claim, the payout of US$470million may cripple the domestic economy.

Although total foreign reserves stood at US$614.7million by the end of 2014, usable reserves stood at only US$143.9million, according to the central bank.

Public debt meanwhile stands at 75 percent of GDP and is likely to increase this year with the government seeking additional loans to finance key projects including a US$600million loan for airport development.

The attorney general’s office last year denied receiving notice of the arbitration, but since then has been silent on the proceedings.

The office declined to comment on the arbitration today, and the ministry of finance was not available for comment at the time of going to press.

A verdict is expected in both the GMR and Axis Bank arbitrations by June.

Early termination?

The Axis bank, in a submission in February, said it is entitled to recover the US$170million from the government under an agreement that states the Maldives state is liable for the loan in the event of an early termination or an expropriation of the airport.

But the government in its first statements in 2013 denied having knowledge of the agreement with the Axis Bank.

When the signed agreement was produced, the government said declaring the concession void ab initio or invalid from the outset does not amount to an early termination.

When the separate tribunal in the first phase of the GMR arbitration said the concession agreement was valid and constituted a “wrongful repudiation” (refusal to honor the contract), the government in March this year claimed that “repudiation” alone does not lead to termination.

The government went on to blame the GMR for terminating the concession agreement by “accepting” the government’s repudiation, and said no force was used in the takeover.

Axis Bank is “perfectly entitled to recover the loaned sums from the party to which it loaned them” i.e. GMR, it continued.

However, the Axis Bank contended the Maldives argument to be “highly semantic” and said: “what words were used by the government to characterize its own acts are irrelevant to establishing whether the acts of the government amounted to an expropriation.”

The bank also pointed out the Maldives civil aviation authority had cancelled GMR’s aerodrome certificate from December 7, 2012, making it “legally impossible for GMR to continue to operate the airport.”

The government also accused the Axis Bank and GMR of colluding to extract large sums of money, claiming the infrastructure giant had paid for the bank’s litigation fees for the separate arbitration process.

As an Indian Bank for whom GMR was a major customer, the Axis Bank wanted to cement its relationship with GMR “by assisting it in making a very substantial claim for damages,” the government alleged.

The Axis Bank has dismissed the allegations as baseless.

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Toxic fumes shut down Malé school

A school located a block away from Malé’s powerhouse was shut down today after teachers and hundreds of students complained of headaches and vomiting due to toxic fumes.

The principal of Kalaafaanu School, Nazleen Wafir, said the school will be closed until Saturday as officials from the environment ministry determine the source of the fumes.

Wafir said six students had complained of toxic fumes on Tuesday, but there were more complaints today with at least two students throwing up.

“No one is in critical condition, however, heavy fumes rose from the whole school area, so we decided to call off sessions,” she said.

A Kalaafaanu student, Nuha Naseer, 15, said the smell was very strong throughout the school today. “I saw one student fall from dizziness. It was as if something had exploded inside the school.”

Another student in eighth grade, who wished to remain anonymous, said many of his classmates complained of headaches today, and all students were sent home at 10:00am.

The state electricity company’s managing director Abdul Shakoor said STELCO had turned off two power generators on Tuesday when the smell was first reported. This is the first case of its kind in 25 years, he added.

The power generators are located 30-40 meters above ground, Shukoor said, suggesting that the incident may have occurred due to a lack of wind in the dry season.

April and May are the hottest months of the year in the Maldives.

Officials from the environmental protection agency will make public a report into the source of fumes by Saturday, he said.

The education ministry said the school is scheduled to re-open on Sunday.

A senior teacher at Kalaafaanu, Abdul Fahthaah, said; “These days without the school sessions are, of course, a loss. However, we hope we are able to resume classes on Sunday.”

President of the Teacher’s Association of Maldives, Athif Abdul Hakeem, said he hoped the situation is resolved as soon as possible, and said: “I believe the school is going to organise classes on Saturdays to make up for the classes that were missed, however, it is quite a burden for people to come to school and go back again due to such mishaps.”

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Dismissed principal to sue education ministry

The former principal of Aminiya School has said she will sue the education ministry for unfair dismissal.

Athiya Naseer was sacked on Monday without warning after the education ministry deemed her a threat to the school. Her dismissal sparked outrage with dozens of teachers signing a petition demanding an explanation from the ministry.

Speaking to Haveeru today, Athiya said she was “shocked” by the dismissal and said: ““Honestly, I have no idea what the issue is.”

Aathiyaa said in her four years as the principal, the only “damages” she had caused were increasing the number of students who passed tenth grade exams and improving the students’ discipline and the school’s reputation.

Several teachers have alleged the move was politically motivated as Athiya is the wife of former opposition MP Ahmed Abdulla.

Parents of students attending Aminiya school have also criticised the education ministry’s decision. Some students told Haveeru they saw Athiya more as a friend than a principal.

The education ministry has declined to comment on the issue.

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Police dogs to be used at airport and seaports

Police are planning to conduct operations to combat drug smuggling using its new dog squad at the country’s airports and seaports.

The Maldives Police Service signed Memorandums of Understanding with the ports authority, airports company, immigration department, and the customs authority yesterday to use the sniffer dogs to locate drugs.

The MoUs outline mechanisms for relaying information, conducting joint operations, and sharing resources, according to police.

In an exclusive interview with Minivan News last year, home minister Umar Naseer said tackling the country’s entrenched drug problem was his main priority and vowed to “seal” the gateways to the Maldives.

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