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India engaged in diplomatic fire-fighting as Maldives instability grows: Eurasia

Indian Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai’s visit to the Maldives was continuance of diplomatic fire-fighting where India has actually messed up big time, writes Rajeev Sharma for the Eurasia Review.

The official line taken by the Government of India is expectedly much different. The Ministry of External Affairs issued a press release on February 29 claiming that the representatives of all parties who met Mathai, individually and collectively, expressed the view that India had played “a very useful role” in taking the process forward as a facilitator and friend of the Maldivian people.

This has to be taken with a pinch of salt as India continued to be a fence sitter as the then President Mohammed Nasheed committed errors of judgment one after another and sought Indian help when he was neck deep in trouble. Maldives is the second SAARC country which has witnessed fall of President after he took on the judiciary of his country. The previous example was that of Pakistan where President Pervez Musharraf had to bow out of office after he unsuccessfully locked horns with Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Choudhry. But Maldives is not Pakistan. Unlike in Pakistan India could have, and should have, played a more pro-active role in Maldives and nipped the crisis in the bud which India failed to do.

The MEA has claimed that Mathai’s Male visit threw up a broad measure of agreement with all stakeholders. All parties agreed to continue dialogue on the way forward including possible amendment to the Constitution and enactment of legislation for institutional reforms. All Parties recognized the need to undertake the necessary amendments and legislation within a quick timeframe in the People’s Majlis. Maldives’s new President Mohammed Waheed Hassan, in his concluding meeting with Mathai, reiterated appreciation for India’s assistance and support to the reconciliation process and expressed further potential outcome of the continued consultations while agreeing that India would continue its role of facilitator.

But the ticklish situation remains as Nasheed continues to sulk and has refused to join the national government. Though Waheed has agreed on the need for early elections and continue further consultations among all major parties under the rubrique of All Party Consultative Committee (APCC), no fresh dates of elections have been announced. Waheed does not seem to be in a tearing hurry to holding fresh polls. Nasheed demonstrated his power and his intentions on March 1 when his supporters squatted in front of Majlis – Maldives’ Parliament – and prevented President Waheed from opening Parliament. The incident showed that Maldives’ political instability is going to exacerbate. That all parties have agreed to look at India as a ‘facilitator’ in bringing about national reconciliation has endowed a big responsibility on New Delhi. It is also a key opportunity for India which it cannot afford to whittle away. But the Indian path is laden with more of thorns and less of roses.

A delegation of the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG) that visited Maldives on February 17 recommended that early elections should be held in the country and preferably within this year itself. CMAG had urged President Waheed to commence an immediate dialogue without preconditions. Having come in the wake of the visit of the Indian Foreign Secretary and the subsequent roadmap that President Waheed’s Office itself had made public, it was expected that discussions would be held among the principal political players in this regard and dates would be firmed up at the earliest. However, this does not appear to be happening.

At a rally organised by the “December 23 Coalition” on February 24, an alliance of religious NGOs and political parties led by former President M A Gayoom’s Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM), President Waheed adopted a strident position on the issue. He declared that before declaration of a date for the elections, former President Nasheed should first establish the illegitimacy of the present Government. Earlier, Waheed had reacted to the suggestions of the CMAG by appointing his own Commission of Enquiry to go into the circumstances leading to transfer of power (events from January 14 to February 8).

The Commission is headed by Ismail Shafeeu, Minister of Defense and National Security in Gayoom’s regime. He had also said that the CMAG’s recommendations for international participation in such an inquiry were for the Commission to consider. In view of the volte face by President Waheed on the assurances given to the CMAG, the Commonwealth and foreign office as well as the international community is seriously considering sending observers to Male in order to oversee a smooth return to democracy by the convening of early elections. The international initiative has become urgent in view of what happened in Male on March 1 when the Majlis could not begin its scheduled session due to large-scale protests from Nasheed’s supporters.

India cannot afford to lower its guard in Maldives at a time when China has raised its strategic sweepstakes in this country and Pakistan too has become active. The Wahabi tremors that are already being felt in Maldives have accentuated the situation further. Any diplomatic blunder by India vis a vis Maldives will prove to be costly. If India were to display any diplomatic shortsightedness in Maldives, the results would be catastrophic. This will downsize India in its strategic backyard which is strategically located near busy, pirate-infested shipping lanes.

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Government assures Transparency Maldives of willingness to accept international assistance in inquiry

President Dr Mohamed Waheed Hassan has assured Transparency Maldives of his willingness to include international groups in the inquiry into the events surrounding his accession to the presidency.

In a meeting with the local NGO, President Waheed and Attorney General Azima Shukoor also welcomed requests for increased transparency in the workings of the Committee of National Inquiry (CNI) which is charged with looking into the legality and legitimacy of the transfer of presidential power.

Transparency Maldives Project Director Aiman Rasheed emerged from the meeting confident that Dr Waheed would respect the importance of transparency and accountability in the inquiry process.

Rasheed told Minivan News that Dr Waheed saw an independent and transparent process as the way forward, and recognised that an enquiry which did not have the support of the people would only further political discontent.

The inclusion of international experts in any such inquiry has been urged by numerous international actors as well as the party of  former President Nasheed. The Commonwealth Ministerial Action Committee (CMAG), in a statement released after its own inconclusive enquiry into recent events, had strongly recommended an international element to any future investigation, “as mutually agreed to by political parties in Maldives.”

The largest party in the People’s Majlis, Nasheed’s Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), yesterday criticised the CNI for “dragging its feet” on the issue, in what it said was “a clear violation” of the wishes of the international community.

“The MDP hopes that the international community will immediately call on the Dr Waheed regime and the CNI to commit to significant international assistance in the investigation,” the party said in a statement.

MDP said it had received reports of that members of the police force willing to talk to the CNI were facing intimidation. MDP International Affairs Spokesperson Hamid Abdul Ghafoor said he believed that such reports only increased the need for international experts, including witness protection specialists, to help bring investigations to a successful conclusion. Ghafoor has previously drawn unfavourable comparisons between this investigation and the 2003 Maafushi jail enquiry whose independence was questioned and whose outcome was censored.

The CNI currently consists of three members: Ismail Shafeeu, former minister of defence and national security during President Maumoon Abdul Gayyoom’s administration; Dr Ali Fawaz Shareef, Deputy Vice Chancellor at Maldives National University; and Dr Ibrahim Yasir, former Director General of Health Services.

One member of the commission has already been reappointed. Dr Ali Fawaz Shareef replaced Ahmed Mujuthaba, who said his position as the convener of the all-party consultative meetings was a conflict of interest.

Transparency Maldives, which is scheduled to meet the CNI tomorrow with three other NGOs, including the Maldivian Democracy Network, Maldives NGO Federation and Democracy House, has been active in raising awareness of the detrimental impact corruption and opaque governance on society.

The group’s current projects include Parliament Watch, a program that aims to increase public scrutiny of the procedures and processes used in the People’s Majlis, and the CRINIS Project advocating for changes to political party financing transparency. Others include the Right to Information Project, creating demand for right to information for greater transparency and accountability, the Decentralisation Project promoting accountability and increasing citizen engagement in local governments, and Advocacy and Legal Advice Centres Project, helping victims of corruption with the legal systems in place.

It has also produced reports on media, and conducted surveys on corruption perception. In pursuit of its stated goals of justice and democracy it asked the President to consider allowing it observer status on the CNI. It also requested that the CNI’s findings be made public.

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MMA accepts MDP MP Musthafa’s BCCI debt after the court rejected the money

The Civil Court has refused to accept payment of the debt it had ordered paid by Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) MP Mohamed Musthafa, after the ruling against him was last week upheld by the Supreme Court.

The case had been filed against him by Progressive Party of the Maldives (PPM) Deptuy Leader Umar Naseer, and the ruling meant that Musthafa was disqualified as an MP for the former ruling party, forcing a by-election in his seat of Thimarafushi.

Musthafa this morning sent a person to pay the debt to the court – a loan of US$31,231.66 (Rf 481,952) borrowed from the now defunct Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI).

The Civil Court has confirmed that a person had sought to pay the debt on Musthafa’s behalf, after the Supreme Court ruling did not mention that the money was to be paid to the former ‘Madhanee’, or Civil, Court.

Until President Nasheed signed the Judicature Act into law last year, the official name of the Civil Court had been Madhanee Court – ‘madhanee’ being the Arabic word for ‘civil’.

MDP MP Musthafa today told Minivan News that he had been trying to pay the money every day since losing the caase last Friday, but said the court had not accepted it.

‘’Today I thought I would inform that media and send someone to the court to pay the money, and the court did not accept it again,’’ Musthafa said. ‘’I wrote a letter to the court but they did not respond to it.’’

Later today, Musthafa said the Civil Court registrar had called him and met with him, and said the Supreme Court’s ruling did not specify who the recipient of the money was to be, and that the Civil Court did not know what they should do with it, Musthafa said.

‘’The Supreme Court told me to get assistance from the Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA) and the Attorney General,’’ he said. ‘’So then I sent the money to the MMA, and the MMA has received the money.’’

He also said that tomorrow he will file a case in the Civil Court asking the court to order the MMA to pay him the US$500,000 that the BCCI was obliged to pay Musthafa, in a separate case concerning the supply of meat and other goods.

‘’They have today proved that the MMA are the live parent of BCCI [despite BCCI being defunct],’’ he said. ‘’This is funny to me – because when they have to pay me something owed by BCCI, they deny they are the live parent, but when I have something to pay to BCCI they become the live parent of BCCI.’’

In November last year Musthafa threatened legal action against the Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA) if it did not pay the US$500,000 that BCCI owed his company Seafood International, alleging that the sum was due to be paid to his company according to a 1991 London court ruling.

Citing MMA as the “live branch of BCCI in the Maldives,” Musthafa previously stated that “the debt of a dead person has to be paid by a living legal parent.”

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Democracy must continue; “no return to autocratic rule”: UK High Commissioner

UK High Commissioner to the Maldives and Sri Lanka, John Rankin, has emphasised that democracy must continue in the Maldives, “and [there must be] no return to the autocratic rule that has been in existance prior to 2008.”

In his regular “Ask the High Commissioner” interview, Rankin said the UK had called on “all parties to exercise good faith to try to find a way throgugh the current problems and consensus for the way forward.”

“The UK recongises states, not governments,” he explained. “We made it very clear that it was for the government of the Maldives to establish democratic legitimacy both with its own people and the international community.”

Rankin said the UK backed the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG)’s call for early elections, and for agreement as to the constitutional changes required for that to happen.

“We have also joined calls for an independent inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the transfer of power,” Rankin said.

“We called for calm in the country and for demonstrations to be peaceful, and for the police to exercise maximum restraint.”

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Police arrest 13 in violent clash at MDP camp, after police stations vandalised

Police arrested 13 people after clashing with demonstrators at the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP)’s ongoing protest early on Wednesday morning.

The MDP accused police of vandalising the MDP’s protest camp near the tsunami monument and attacking the party’s supporters at 2:45am in the morning.

However police have said they were pursuing a a group of young people on motorcycles who had attacked police buildings that evening, before retreating to the MDP camp

An MDP supporter who witnessed the incident told Minivan News that the police arrived after a group of young people opened a ‘Youth Jagaha’ near the tsunami monument, and then left on motorcycles to ride around the streets.

“They apparently vandalised some police stations during the motorbike ride, and then the police came and attacked the protest camp,’’ he said. ‘’Police destroyed our podium in the area and the sound system, as well as chairs and other property,’’ he claimed.

One young person was thrown into the sea wall and was subsequently taken to hospital.

Police said a group of men armed with knives vandalised police stations in Male’, threatening officers in the traffic police station with knives and destroying a computer monitor. The group also threatened officers inside the Police Iskandhar Koshi.

Sub-Inspector Ahmed Shiyam told Minivan News that police had followed the group to the area on the side of the tsunami monument park furthest from the MDP camp, near the army medical centre, where they had been attacked.

“Police called for backup and by the time the pickup arrived, people were there with stones,” Shiyam said. “When police entered the [camp] to arrest the suspects forcefully, everyone in the area became hostile to police. There was a huge confrontation,” he added.

Several police officers sustained injuries, none serious, he said. Police arrested 13 people and withdrew from the area.

“This was a very serious thing and we are sad that it happened,” Shiyam said. “We have no interest in doing anything [to the MDP camp], and we don’t want to have a confrontation. But people are coming out of the area, committing acts of violence, and going back there to hide, which is not something to be accepted.”

Police had asked organisers of the protest to take responsibility for the actions of those gathered there, he added.

MDP supporters have held an ongoing protest near the tsunami monument, dubbing it ‘justice square’, following the resignation of former President Mohamed Nasheed in what they contend was a coup d’état.

MDP supporters have been sleeping and gathering in the area since Nasheed’s resignation, reportedly under duress.

The party has meanwhile released  pictures of injured protesters and vandalism of the square.

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India has “moral obligation to safeguard democracy” in the Maldives, Jameel tells PTI

India has a moral obligation to safeguard democracy in the Maldives, Home Minister Mohamed Jameel has told the Press Trust of India (PTI).

Jameel said it would be a blow to India if the nascent democracy in Maldives failed to live up to its promises, PTI reported.

“It will be a moral obligation on the part of India to see that democracy is sustained at Maldives, and if not it will be a blow to India as well as it the closest ally to our country,” Jameel told PTI, thanking
Indian Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai for brokering the roadmap negotiations.

Several political parties in the talks had accused India of interference in Maldivian internal affairs.

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Criminal court orders released of those arrested during March 1 protest

The Criminal Court has ordered the release of protesters arrested on March 1, after the expiry of the five day extension of detention.

Sun Online reported that 24 people were released who were, according to Sub Inspector Ahmed Shiyam, the last of those people arrested on March 1.

Investigations were ongoing and would be referred to the Prosecutor General, Shiyam said.

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PPM members files two cases against Nasheed

Former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom’s Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM)’s two members have filed cases requesting the police to investigate into major breach of laws committed by former President Mohamed Nasheed during his short-lived tenure, local newspaper Haveeru has reported.

According to Haveeru, the first case filed by the two PPM members Ahmed “Maaz” Saleem and Ahmed Siddeeq include the alleged transgression against the judiciary by locking up of the Supreme Court in 2008, allowing police entry into Judicial Service Commission (JSC), illegally appointing JSC members, ordering the removal of the interim Chief Justice.

The other case is about the leasing of Male’ International Airport to India’s GMR in 2010 for 50 years.

Saleem claimed that the filing of the cases had been delayed as it was understood that Nasheed would not have allowed the police to carry out the investigations, reported Haveeru.

“After Nasheed has resigned all institutions have now become independent and without any political influence. Hence I have filed the case to carry out a probe in accordance with the law,” Haveeru quoted Saleem as saying.

Siddeeq meanwhile has said that further constitutional violations by the Former President is under evaluation and will be filed with the police for subsequent investigation.

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Security forces use water cannon on MDP women’s sit-down protest

The Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF) and police used a salt water cannons to break up a gathering of nearly 100 female supporters of Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) outside President Office on Tuesday afternoon.

The women marched to the President Office around 3:15pm to deliver a set of letters requesting President Dr Mohamed Waheed Hassan to resign, while the rest of the female demonstrators sat down outside the office holding boards bearing slogans including “Where is my vote?” and “Justice now”.

The women from all ages continued to call for President Waheed’s resignation while the police and MNDF on the scene ordered the women to leave the area.

Video footage circulating over the social media then show that the police aimed a high-pressure salt water cannon at the crowd for at least five minutes, but this did little to deter the women, who were then physically picked up by policewomen. Others were pushed back by policemen armed with shields.

Several eye witnesses alleged to Minivan News that “some policeman groped the female demonstrators, tore their clothes and used foul language” during the removal.

“Two women’s clothes were torn from the shoulders when the policemen tried to grab them. One woman’s veil was taken off and I saw her shouting at the police,” one of the demonstrator told Minivan News over the phone.

Another eye witness reported seeing a woman who was “dragged by her feet” after she refused to leave. “The women tried to shove him off and cover her body because her blouse was torn, but the policeman grabbed her hands,” the source claimed.

Several women were seeing resisting arrest while the policewomen attempted to grab some of the women hosed down by the salt water. Although, the crowds were dispersed from the President Office, the women continued to voice their discontent on the nearby streets until nightfall.

Police media official, Sub-Inspector Ahmed Shiyam, told Minivan  News that female protesters forcibly crossed the police cordons and  “intimidated the police”.

Police Commissioner Abdulla Riyaz at a press conference yesterday had vowed that police would “become feared by the most dreaded criminals”.

“[The women] forcibly crossed into the area near the President Office after intimidating the police guards at the cordon blocking the area. They were ordered to leave the area repeatedly before the police used force to remove them,” Shiyam said.

Responding to allegations that police used excessive force to subdue the gathering, Shiyam said “If anyone has any complaints they can follow the due process and file a complaint.”

“What we used was water. It is the least brutal force used to disperse a gathering,” he further added.

Speaking to Minivan News today, former Tourism Minister Dr Mariyam Zulfa said that before the protest outside the President Office nearly 500 female MDP supporters went to the Human Rights Commission of the Maldives (HRCM) to file a complaint over the police brutality.

She claimed the commission has so far failed to take any action.

“As we were coming back some went to the President Office to deliver letters to request Waheed  resign. So while they did that, we sat down to peacefully protest. However, almost immediately police came and used a high pressure water hose,” said Dr  Zulfa, who was also at the sit-down demonstration.

“There is no way to end this brutality,” she said. “The international community has failed to see this day after day. Anywhere else in the world this would be a shameless military coup.”

Meanwhile, later in the evening HRCM had issued  a press statement condemning the police for using “excessive force” against the women while controlling today’s demonstration.

The commission also urged the police to to respect the people  right to peaceful demonstration and asked them to refrain from any actions that will harm the dignity of women.

Women have been at the front line in MDP’s political movement to bring early elections, since the party’s candidate, former President Mohamed Nasheed was deposed in what the party calls a bloodless coup.

Recently, Amnesty International has also condemned attacks on a group of MDP women supporters in Addu Atoll by the security forces, after obtaining testimonies from victims of a crackdown on demonstrators at a rally during the recent visit to the MDP stronghold by new President.

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