Author: JJ Robinson

Prosecutions delayed due to Criminal Court budget shortage: PG

The Prosecutor General (PG)’s Office has been unable to pursue 273 pending cases due to budget shortages at the Criminal Court, PG Ahmed Muizz has revealed to parliament’s Independent Commissions Committee.

“The court will sometimes tell us that it cannot hold trials that require witnesses to be brought to Male from the islands,” Muizz told the committee, according to local media reports. “Sometimes the court will reject the cases. We haven’t prosecuted some cases because we need to find a solution to this issue.”

The prospect of an imminent budget crisis in the judicial system was highlighted by UN Special Rapporteur for the Independence of Judges and Lawyers, Gabriela Knaul, in her extensive report on the Maldivian judiciary published in May.

“The immediate implications of the budget cuts on the judiciary are appalling. For instance, the Department of Judicial Administration only has funds to pay staff salaries until November 2013 and it had to cancel training this year,” Knaul wrote.

“The Civil Court reported that it would not have sufficient funds to pay its staff salaries after October 2013; furthermore, existing budgetary resources would not be sufficient to pay for utilities and facilities after June 2013,” she added.

The Criminal Court spokesperson was not responding at time of press.

Court website hacked

Hackers meanwhile this morning compromised the Criminal Court website, changing it to a black screen with text identifying themselves as Algerian.

“Attacker frOm AlGeria. This server was hacked by Yacine Jocker & xDjamil Jocker ;). skype:xDjamil.Jocker. Nothing Is Impossible [#] Greets: All my Friends,” read the message.

At time of press the Criminal Court website had been taken down and there was no site displaying at the address.

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Parliament rejects two of three cabinet ministers submitted for approval

Parliament has narrowly voted to reject the appointments of two of President Waheed’s cabinet ministers submitted to the chamber for approval.

Transport Minister Ameen Ibrahim was approved by 33 votes in favour to 32 against, with one MP abstaining.

However Human Rights, Family and Gender Minster Azima Shukoor was rejected 33 votes against to 31 in favour, with no abstention, while her replacement as Attorney General, Aishath Bisham, was rejected 32-32, with Speaker Abdulla Shahid casting the deciding vote not to approve her appointment.

Waheed subsequently re-appointed Shukoor as Attorney General.

Ministers appointed by the President are required to be formally approved by parliament, However unlike no-confidence motions, parliament’s failure to approve cabinet ministers has not always led to their departure from office.

During the first few years of former President Nasheed’s administration, the then-opposition dominated parliament repeatedly voted to dismiss cabinet ministers submitted for approval.

On several occasions Nasheed immediately reappointed these ministers and again submitted their names for approval, with those individuals continuing in their posts undisrupted.

In mid-2010, following a tense political standoff between the Nasheed administration and members of the former dictatorship whom he had attempted to arrest on charges of corruption, Nasheed’s ministers resigned en-masse in a protest against what they contended were the “scorched earth politics” of the opposition-dominated parliament.

At the time parliament had levelled successive no-confidence motions against Nasheed’s ministers, and Nasheed’s Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) had accused these members of the opposition of attempting to buy the votes of six of its MPs to secure the two-thirds majority needed to impeach the new president.

With parliamentary regulation preventing the arrest of MPs while no-confidence motions against ministers were pending, Nasheed’s ministers suddenly resigned en-masse in protest over what they contended were the “scorched earth politics” of the opposition-dominated parliament.

The half-brother of former President Gayoom – Abdulla Yameen, currently the Progressive Party of the Maldives (PPM)’s presidential candidate – and Jumhoree Party (JP) leader Gasim Ibrahim – also a current presidential candidate – were arrested and detained by police on charges of bribery, treason, and “attempting to topple the government illegally”.

Yameen was defended in court by Azima Shukoor – whose appointment was today rejected – while Gasim was defended by Dhivehi Qaumee Party (DQP) leader and current Special Advisor to President Waheed, Dr Hassan Saeed.

The Criminal Court, which had opened in the early hours of the morning to hear the cases shortly after Yameen and Gasim were detained, declared their arrests unlawful and ordered their release.

Later in 2010, after three weeks of political stalemate, parliament called an approval vote for all Nasheed’s ministers who had resigned in protest against its disruption of government.

Seven of Nasheed’s 12 ministers – Finance Minister Ali Hashim, Education Minister Dr Musthafa Luthfy, Foreign Minister Dr Ahmed Shaheed, Fisheries Minister Dr Ibrahim Didi, Home Minister Mohamed Shihab, Defence Minister Ameen Faisal and Attorney General Dr Ahmed Ali Sawad – were dismissed after the MDP boycotted the vote in protest.

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Two-thirds of Maldivians back moratorium on flogging: survey

Nearly two-thirds of Maldivians support a moratorium on flogging, according to the results of a survey conducted by Asia Research Partners and social activism website Avaaz.org.

The survey, the first of its kind to be conducted in the Maldives, found an “overwhelming” 92 percent of Maldivians believe that laws and systems to protect women from sexual assault should be reformed.

Of those polled, 62 percent supported an outright moratorium on the practice of flogging, while 73 percent declared existing punishments for sexual crimes were unfair to women.

Moreover, only one in five of those surveyed said current systems and laws were “adequate or fair”, according to a statement issued by Avaaz.

“While honeymooners relax in paradise, a war against women is being waged in the Maldives which the government is refusing to stop. Over two million people from around the world want them to act and now 92 percent of Maldivians want laws against rape and sexual abuse. President Waheed can easily pass a law banning flogging but refuses to act to end this medieval practice,” said Avaaz Campaign Director, Alice Jay.

“The poll flies in the face of the country’s parliamentarians who have claimed it would be “political suicide” to outlaw flogging and have done nothing to stop the practice, but instead given in to hard-line Islamist calls for harsher Sharia punishments.”

The survey was conducted across Male’ and Hithadhoo in Seenu Atoll in May 2013 by Asia Research Partners, both over the phone and through face-to-face interviews. All respondents were aged over 18 years.

‘Horror in paradise’ petition

The survey comes months after a case in which a 15 year-old rape victim was sentenced to 100 lashes and eight months’ house arrest for a separate offence of fornication garnered substantial international attention and condemnation.

The 15 year-old’s case attracted worldwide media attention and was widely condemned by international organisations and other nation states. Media condemnation was particularly strong in the UK and Germany, two of the Maldives’ most significant tourism markets.

In March, an Avaaz petition calling for the repeal of the sentence and a moratorium on flogging in the Maldives collected more than two million signatures – a figure more than double the number of tourists who visit the country annually.

“Since the campaign launched four months ago, Avaaz has been in discussions with the Maldivian government officials who have so far refused to take action on this issue,” the organisation said in a statement.

“Despite promises from the Gender Ministry, the President’s Office, the Attorney General’s office and the Foreign Ministry, this 15-year old child still faces the flogging sentence and far from ending this practice, some Maldivian political parties are calling for even harsher punishments.

“As a result of their failure to act, Avaaz is now planning to run hard hitting targeted adverts urging President Waheed and several parliamentarians who own some of the major Maldivian resorts, to act,” the organisation declared.

Stalling

After the sentencing initially made international headlines, President Mohamed Waheed issued a statement expressing “deep concern” over the verdict and pledging an appeal.

At the same time his coalition partner, the Adhaalath Party, warned that “Allah has decreed that expressing disapproval of issues such as this contradicts with faith in Islam”, and cautioned that “If such sinful activities are to become this common, the society will break down and we may become deserving of divine wrath.”

Then-Attorney General Azima Shukoor – now Minister for Human Rights, Gender and Family – subsequently lodged an appeal of the decision in the High Court arguing that the girl’s confession to the fornication offence had been taken in violation of established procedure.

The first hearing was held on April 29 behind closed doors, with no apparent movement in the case since.

Avaaz meanwhile moved to pressure the government into entertaining a moratorium on the practice of flogging.

The most recent Avaaz statement cited UK-based religious scholar Sheikh Dr Usama Hasan, who said “Sharia is not a fixed set of laws that can never be changed. Modern penal codes are thus fully Islamic if they share the values of justice and compassion, even if they do not include amputations, floggings or stonings to death. The latter punishments should be seen as ancient cultural practices, not essentially Islamic.”

The government’s position has meanwhile wavered between broad support for a moratorium and legal reforms to suspicion over the motivations of the Avaaz campaign and allegations of politicisation.

President’s Office Spokesperson Masood Imad was not responding to calls at time of press, but has previously noted that the Maldives had for over 50 years turned away from practicing Sharia punishments such as stoning, amputation and the death penalty, and suggested similar space for a debate on flogging.

However he cautioned that all authorities involved in proposed legal reforms would have to tread “a very fine line” in order to tackle long standing “traditions” and beliefs in the country.

At the same time, recently dismissed Deputy Tourism Minister Dr Maleeh Jamal has called for “negative news to be minimised”, emphasising that “People should not be doing anything to damage the industry. In Switzerland, you would not see a campaign designed to damage Swiss chocolate.”

A parliament committee currently reviewing the new penal code has meanwhile come under pressure from conservative religious elements, including the Adhaalath Party, to ensure Hadd punishments were included in the code – including flogging and amputation.

Speaking recently to Minivan News, one member of the committee said he feared not including such punishments would lead to backlash from conservative groups and amount to “political suicide”.

“We want to remove it as well. But, our hands are tied. Only public pressure can stop it,” he said.

Flogging stats

Almost 90 percent of the people found guilty of “Zina” – fornication – and sentenced to flogging in 2011 were female, according to statistics from the Department of Judicial Administration.

A total of 129 fornication cases were filed in 2011 and 104 people sentenced, out of which 93 were female.

These included 10 underage girls (below 18), 79 women aged 18-40, and four women aged above 40 years.

Gender Ministry statistics meanwhile show 1 in 3 Maldivian women between the ages of 15 and 49 have suffered either physical or sexual abuse over the past five years. At the same time, there has not been a single conviction for rape in the last three years.

Read about the practice of flogging in the Maldives

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Maldives given final chance to avoid tier 3 in human trafficking report, face possible sanctions

The Maldives has been placed on the US State Department’s Tier Two Watch List for Human Trafficking for the fourth consecutive year.

As with last year’s report, the country avoided a downgrade to the lowest tier “because [the] government has a written plan that, if implemented, would constitute making significant efforts to meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking.”

However US Ambassador-at-large for the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, Luis CdeBaca, noted during the release of the report that the six countries again spared a downgrade would not be eligible next year – including Afghanistan, Barbados, Chad, Malaysia, Thailand and the Maldives.

This was, he noted, intended to prompt action in countries that were “getting comfortable being on Tier 2 Watch List, doing a minimum amount, not really doing all that much, not on the upward trajectory of a Tier 2 or a Tier 1 country.”

Tier 3 countries are defined by the State Department as those which “neither satisfy the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking nor demonstrate a significant effort to do so”, and are open to non-humanitarian and non-trade international sanctions.

Human trafficking in the Maldives

The Maldives is a destination country for human trafficking, including sex trafficking and particularly forced labour and debt bondage. Maldivian children were also trafficked within the country, the State Department noted.

“An unknown number of the approximate 150,000 documented and undocumented foreign workers in Maldives – primarily Bangladeshi and Indian men in the construction and service sectors – face conditions of forced labor: fraudulent recruitment, confiscation of identity and travel documents, withholding or nonpayment of wages, and debt bondage,” the report stated.

“Migrant workers pay the equivalent of approximately US$1,000 to US$4,000 in recruitment fees in order to migrate to Maldives, contributing to their risk of debt bondage inside the country.

“In addition to Bangladeshis and Indians, some migrants from Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and Nepal reportedly experienced recruitment fraud before arriving in Maldives.

“Recruitment agents in source countries collude with employers and agents in Maldives to facilitate fraudulent recruitment and forced labor of migrant workers.”

Despite widespread acknowledgement of the practice and the government’s submission of a draft anti-trafficking bill to parliament in December 2012, the Maldives still has no specific laws prohibiting human trafficking and “the government of the Maldives made minimal anti-trafficking enforcement efforts during the year.”

While forced labour was prohibited under the 2009 Employment Act, it was not penalised, the report noted.

“The government reported investigating four and prosecuting two sex trafficking cases in 2012, compared to no prosecutions recorded in 2011,” the report stated.

However “the government did not report any prosecutions of government employees for alleged complicity in trafficking-related offenses [and] the absence of government translators prevented foreign trafficking victims from pursuing recourse through the Maldivian legal system.”

Deport first, ask questions later

Instead, the government focused on deporting undocumented immigrants without screening them for indications of human trafficking.

“Some of these immigrants subsequently were identified by a civil society group as trafficking victims,” the report noted. “Due to a lack of comprehensive victim identification procedures, trafficking victims may have been inappropriately incarcerated, fined, or otherwise penalised for unlawful acts committed as a direct result of their being trafficked.”

The State Department report specifically noted that between March and December 2012 the government “arrested, imprisoned, and deported 29 foreign females for prostitution at beauty salons without first identifying whether they were sex trafficking victims.”

“The government did not provide foreign victims with legal alternatives to their removal to countries where they might face hardship or retribution. Authorities did not encourage victims to participate in the investigation or prosecution of trafficking offenders. Police officers reported that suspected trafficking victims were fearful of being arrested or deported by the police,” the report stated.

The focus on deportation was noted, with government officials even observing that the Maldives “had not meaningfully addressed the role Maldivian recruitment agents play in facilitating human trafficking.”

Police were reported to have fined three local recruitment agencies found to have engaged in fraud and forgery, however “no labor recruiter or agency was criminally prosecuted for fraudulent recruitment practices”, despite the creation of a recruitment agency oversight body in April 2011.

Sex trafficking

The report noted that a “small number” of women from Sri Lanka, Thailand, India, China, the Philippines, Eastern Europe, and former Soviet countries, as well as some girls from Bangladesh and Maldives, “are subjected to sex trafficking in Male.”

Domestic trafficking involved the transport of children from their home islands to the capital Male for the purposes of forced domestic servitude, with some also facing sexual abuse.

The report noted that while the 2009 Child Sex Abuse Act criminalised the prostitution of children with a penalty of up to 25 years’ imprisonment for violations, Article 14 of the same act “provides that if a person is legally married to a child under Islamic Sharia, none of the offenses specified in the legislation, including child prostitution, would be considered a crime.”

“The government did not report any efforts to reduce the demand for commercial sex acts during the year,” the report noted.

Recommendations

The Maldives’ entry in the State Department’s report concluded with a long list of specific recommendations for the Maldives to combat human trafficking, and avoid the now otherwise inevitable downgrade to Tier 3 in June 2014.

These recommendations included:

  • Pass and enact legislation prohibiting and punishing all forms of trafficking in persons;
  • clearly distinguish between human trafficking, human smuggling and the presence of undocumented migrants in legislation, policies, and programs;
  • develop and implement systematic procedures for government officials to proactively identify victims of trafficking among vulnerable groups, such as undocumented migrants and females in prostitution;
  • ensure that trafficking victims are not penalized for acts committed as a result of being trafficked;
  • increase efforts to investigate and prosecute suspected trafficking offenses respecting due process;
  • work to ensure that identified victims of trafficking are provided access to victim services;
  • enforce prohibitions of passport retention by employers;
  • raise public awareness of human trafficking through media campaigns;
  • provide translators to police and other law enforcement authorities to ensure foreign workers are able to participate in investigations and prosecutions against their alleged traffickers;
  • improve inter-ministerial coordination on human trafficking issues;
  • ensure that changes to labor migration policies for the purpose of reducing human trafficking do not restrict legal migration;
  • take steps to ensure that employers and labor brokers do not abuse labor recruitment or sponsorship processes in order to subject migrant workers to forced labor;
  • accede to the 2000 UN TIP Protocol.
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Female resort worker dies after being hit by dive boat propeller

A 27 year-old female resort worker died yesterday after she was hit by the propeller of a diving boat near the island of Hinmafushi.

Police said Aishath Safa, who worked as a telephone operator at the Four Seasons Kudu Huraa resort 20 minutes from Male’, was hit by the propeller while on a diving excursion after the boat pulled over to pick up another person in the water.

Four Seasons Kuda Huraa issued a statement confirming the incident, and noting that the police investigation was ongoing.

“The Senior Management of the resort extends it deepest sympathies and has offered its fullest support and assistance to the family of Ms Aishath Safa,” the statement read.

The resort stated that Safa was a certified Open Water diver and had joined the afternoon dive session on her day off from work.

During a rally last night former President Mohamed Nasheed expressed sorrow over Safa’s death and praised her contribution to campaigning for the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP).

“Safa was a young woman who worked in numerous ways for the MDP and reform in the Maldives. May God grant her Paradise and give patience to her family,” Nasheed tweeted.

The incident is the fourth serious accident involving a boat propeller this year, and the second fatality.

On June 1, a German woman on honeymoon at Reethi Beach Resort suffered serious leg injuries after she was hit by the propeller of a dive boat.

A 51 year-old Italian woman died on January 31 while snorkeling near Elaa Island in Thaa Atoll, suffering major head injuries after she was hit by a boat propeller.

An 18 year-old Maldivian man was also seriously injured trying to disentangle a fishing line from a dhoni propeller on April 23.

Nauf Ibrahim was hit in the head by the propeller and suffered serious injuries including a skull fracture and internal bleeding. He was taken to Laamu Atoll regional hospital and later transfer to Indira Gandhi Memorial Hospital (IGMH) by Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF) helicopter.

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GMR compensation claim of US$1.4 billion eclipses annual state budget

Indian infrastructure giant GMR has filed a claim for US$1.4 billion in compensation from the Maldives, following the government’s sudden termination of its concession agreement to manage and upgrade Ibrahim Nasir International Airport (INIA).

According to Indian media, the 75 page claim for “wrongful termination” of the concession agreement includes payments to subcontractors and loss of profits over the lifespan of the 25 year agreement.

Both the government and the state-owned Maldives Airports Company Limited (MACL) will be invited to respond, with a final court order in the case expected in March 2014.

In separate Singapore-based arbitration proceedings one of the project’s lenders, Axis Bank, is also seeking payment of US$160 million for a loan guaranteed by the Maldivian Finance Ministry.

Axis Bank recently raised concerns with MACL and the government, after President Mohamed Waheed moved to create a state-owned airport company and transfer to it MACL’s management responsibilities.

The prospect of MACL’s assets being dissipated led Airports Council International (ACI), the global body representing the world’s airports, to advise its members to exercise caution before making any investment in the Maldives relating to INIA, warning of “legal and financial risks”.

The government subsequently dropped the attempt, after its Attorney General Aishath Bisham warned that President Waheed had exceeded his authority in appointing board members to the new entity.

The lead up to eviction

GMR, in consortium with Malaysia Airports, narrowly won the International Finance Corporation (IFC)-managed bid for the airport in 2010, and signed the agreement with MACL under the former government of Mohamed Nasheed

The then-opposition, including the Progressive Party of the Maldives (PPM), People’s Alliance (PA), Dhivehi Qaumee Party (DQP) and Adhaalath Party (AP), opposed the agreement primarily on nationalistic grounds, and alleged corruption in the bidding process.

Other concerns raised by the opposition at the time included the prospect of GMR allowing Israeli military aircraft to stop over in the Maldives and refuel “after bombing Arab countries”.

The DQP then filed a civil court case, managing to block the developer’s charging of an Airport Development Charge (ADC) stipulated in the concession agreement, on the grounds it was a tax and therefore required parliamentary approval.

Backing the concession agreement, the Nasheed government permitted the airport developer to deduct the ADC from its share of the revenue as a stopgap measure, while it sought to appeal.

However shortly afterwards the Nasheed government was deposed during February 7 2012’s controversial transfer of power, and the opposition parties assumed control of the government – and the prospect of paying GMR for the development of the airport.

The government received US$525,355 from the airport for the first quarter of 2012, compared to the US$8.7 million it was expecting, at time it was facing a crippling budget deficit, a foreign currency shortage, plummeting investor confidence, spiraling expenditure, and a drop off in foreign aid.

In the second quarter GMR presented MACL with a bill for US$1.5 million, and in the third quarter, US$2.2 million.

“The net result of this is that the Maldivian government now has to pay GMR for running the airport,” wrote DQP Leader and newly-appointed Special Advisor to President Mohamed Waheed, Dr Hassan Saeed, in a self-described “candid” letter to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

A subsequent report by the government’s own Auditor General (AG) found concession revenue due the government had plummeted fourfold as a result of the court verdict sought by Saeed’s own party while it was in opposition.

According to the report, net concession revenue to the government had fallen to just US$6,058,848 in 2012, compared to US$25,424,877 in 2011.

Rather than appeal the Civil Court verdict obstructing the ADC, “The new government took the view that it would not be proper for it to intervene in the legal process for the benefit of a private concern,” the report noted, and instead, on April 19 2012, the informed the developer it was “retracting the previous agreement [to offset the ADC] on the grounds that the then Chairman of MACL did not have the approval of the MACL board to make the agreement.”

GMR asserted that this decision was a political event as defined within its concession agreement, and warned that this would amount to a breach of the agreement by the government.

“The government did not accept this argument,” noted the AG.

Seeking a way out of the agreement but wary of the heavy penalties in the termination clause, the government accused the World Bank’s IFC of “irresponsibility” and “negligence” in its conduct of the bidding process.

“The government must also consider how much money has to be paid back as compensation if terminating the agreement,” said Attorney General at the time, Azima Shukoor, during a prescient press conference in September 2012.

“It is clear to all of you that the Maldives financial and economic situation is at a critical level, and in this situation [termination] is not an easy thing to do,” Shukoor said.

In August 2012, with the new terminal and refurbishment 25 percent complete according to the government’s outside engineering assessment, the government ordered a halt to construction pending new ‘regulatory approvals’, and demanded a second runway not included in the original agreement.

GMR agreed to construct an emergency runway and proposed exempting Maldivian nationals from paying the ADC as a compromise. The company received no response to the offer.

Dr Hassan Saeed meanwhile issued a pamphlet calling for the cancellation of the agreement, likening it to “taking bitter medicine to cure a disease” or “amputating an organ to stop the spread of cancer.”

In his letter to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, dated September 19 2012 and obtained by Minivan News, Saeed further claimed that “GMR and India ‘bashing’ is becoming popular politics”, and warned that “as a result, “the Maldives is becoming fertile ground for nationalistic and extremist politicians.”

“I want to warn you now that there is a real danger that the current situation could create the opportunity for these extremist politicians to be elected to prominent positions, including the Presidency and Parliament on an anti-GMR and anti-India platform,” Saeed informed Singh.

Saeed went on to accuse GMR of extensive bribery, including the payment of “millions of dollars to buy MPs to get a parliamentary majority for the then ruling Maldivian Democratic Party”.

He claimed that “politicians and MPs who end up in GMR’s pocket keep silent but no one – with the exception of former President Nasheed and his key associates – have defended the indefensible GMR deal in public.”

Eviction

In late 2012 the government declared the concession agreement ‘void ab initio’ (invalid from the outset), and gave GMR seven days’ notice to leave the country.

The move swiftly followed the Singapore Supreme Court’s lifting of an injunction blocking MACL from taking over the airport pending arbitration proceedings, on the grounds the arbitration court had no jurisdiction to prevent the Maldives as a sovereign state from expropriating the airport.

The full verdict however did not exempt the government from compensation for this maneuver. In fact, according to the verdict document, Financial Controller for the Ministry of Finance Mohamed Ahmed “affirmed in an affidavit that the Maldives government would honour any valid and legitimate claim against it. He also stressed that the Maldives government had never defaulted on any of its payments.”

Moreover, lawyer representing MACL, Christopher Anand Daniel, “also accepted that if the arbitration tribunal found that the Appellants were wrong in their asserted case that the Concession Agreement was void ab initio and/or had been frustrated, but the Appellants had by then already gone ahead with the taking over of the airport, they would at least be liable to compensate the respondent for having expropriated the airport” (emphasis retained).

ACC exonerates airport deal

The Auditor General’s report acknowledged allegations of corruption in the deal, but finding the evidence “not conclusive on this point”, deferred to the judgement of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC).

That arrived on June 17, 2013, in the form of a 61 page investigative report that concluded that the bidding process was conducted fairly by the IFC, and that the GMR-MAHB consortium won the contract by proposing the highest net present value of the concession fee.

The ACC further concluded that the awarding of the contract did not contravene amendments brought to the Public Finance Act requiring parliamentary approval for such agreements.

Furthermore,  “Considering the situation (2008, 2009 and 2010) when the decision was made to privatise the Male’ International Airport,” the ACC’s calculations showed that MACL would make a profit of about US$254 million in 25 years if the airport was operated by the government-owned company.

Conversely, the government would receive about US$534 million in the same period from the GMR consortium if the airport was privatised, the ACC found.

Reactions

Following publication of the ACC’s report, the government has backed away from allegations of corruption and instead declared to evict the developer was made due to its impact on state finances.

“Back before the government took back control of the airport from GMR, the reason we gave was that the deal was bleeding the country’s economy. We were paying GMR to keep them here,” President’s Office Spokesperson Masood Imad told Minivan News last week.

Azima Shukoor meanwhile labelled ACC’s report “incomplete” and “lacking professionalism”, in an interview with local media.

“There’s no contradiction between the government’s decision and the ACC report. We never levelled any corruption charge in terminating the agreement,” said the former Attorney General, in an interview with local media.

“Did [the ACC] omit the factors deliberately or unknowingly or simply just overlooked them? But a lot of factors have been overlooked and omitted from the report. The state will suffer great losses because of it. Especially when the country is tied up in [arbitration proceedings],” Shukoor was reported as saying.

“The state did a thorough investigation of the contract, including what happened during and after the signing of the agreement. So the government’s legal position doesn’t and shouldn’t change due to the report. We made a very firm decision,” she said.

Speaking at a campaign rally on the island of Thimarafushi in Thaa Atoll, former President Nasheed observed that the figure sought by GMR as compensation amounted to more than the annual state budget of the Maldives.

“Even today in my view it is one of the most important duties of the People’s Majlis to renew the contract, find a way to hold discussions with the company over [renewal], and save the Maldives from the great misfortune our people are about to face,” he said.

Former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom’s PPM have meanwhile laid the blame for the airport debacle on President Waheed, accusing him of “ignoring advice”.

“We told the next President Mr Waheed that he should hold discussions with the GMR Group and the Indian government to arrive at an acceptable solution, after which the government was free to act on its own,” he said. “Unfortunately, this was not done and suddenly there was this unhappy ending,” Gayoom was reported as saying in the Hindu, following a visit to India and a meeting with Prime Minister Singh.

Following the PPM’s apparent turnaround on the GMR issue, Parliamentary Group Leader of the Waheed-aligned Dhivehi Rayithunge Party, Dr Abdulla Mausoom, said it was in fact senior figures in the PPM who were among the most vocal supporters for terminating the GMR agreement.

“It is ironic that we are hearing these statements from the PPM, whose leader has been witnessed supporting rallies demanding the cancellation of the [GMR] agreement,” he said.

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Council will respect sister-city agreement with Taiwanese city of Kaosiung: Mayor Manik

Male City Council Mayor Ali Manik has said the council will respect its sister-city agreement with Kaosiung City in Taiwan, despite the government’s denouncement of the move.

Following the signing of the agreement in Male’ on June 9 with a delegation from Kaosiung, the Maldives’ Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement reaffirming its “commitment and support to China’s national unity and to the one-China Policy.”

“The Maldives’ firm conviction of one-China policy is guided by the principles of respect for sovereignty, territorial integrity and non-interference in the internal affairs of states and considers Taiwan as an integral part of the People’s Republic of China,” the government stated.

“This is an agreement between cities, not countries,” said Mayor Manik. “Our constitution does not say anything about not being able to make such agreements.”

“The attorney general has said we need to get permission from the president. This is not true. We don’t have to get permission. That is not in the constitution,” he added.

Following the signing of the sister-city agreement and the delegations inspection of Male, Manik said Kaosiung would report on the kind of assistance the city would be able to provide, such as technical assistance with waste management, roads, infrastructure, education and training.

“We ask the government not to obstruct us from doing something that is for the benefit of Male. [The agreement] is not illegal,” Manik said.

The agreement came about after the council met Kaosiung officials, including the Deputy Mayor, during a local councils conference held in Hyderabad in India last year.

That led to an invitation for a delegation from Male’ City Council to visit Kaosiung in November 2012, for which the host city provided tickets and accommodation, Manik said.

Male City Council is dominated by the opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), the leader of which contends he was ousted in a coup on February 7 2012 by current President Mohamed Waheed. The bitter political polarisation has put the council at loggerheads with the Maldivian government for more than a year.

The Taiwanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) has meanwhile disputed allegations that the Maldivian government’s decision to reject the agreement was made under Chinese pressure.

During a MOFA press conference reported by the China Post, spokesperson Anna Kao noted that Taiwanese cities had established sister-city ties with cities around the world without incident, and suggested that politics should not interfere with such exchanges.

“We urge the Maldivian government to respect its cities’ efforts to advance ties and business and people-to-people exchanges with Taiwanese cities,” said Kao.

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No satellite communications, no rescue tug, contaminated fuel: the final voyage of the MV Asian Express

A Maldivian cargo ship that sunk of the coast of Kochi was on its final voyage, reports Indian media.

The 35 year-old Lily Enterprises vessel, MV Asian Express, was travelling from Port Md Bin Qasim in Karachi to Male when it encountered engine trouble, reportedly after being fuelled with contaminated oil.

“Captain Ahmed Shakir told coast guard officials that the fuel filled from Port Bin Qasim could have been contaminated, which caused the vessel’s turbocharger to pack up, resulting in engine shutdown,” reported Indian newspaper The Hindu.

“For two days we were in deep trouble,” Captain Ahmed Shakir told the Indian Express. As per the original schedule, we were supposed to reach Maldives by June 10,” Shakir said.

“Adding to his troubles was the two-to-three-metre vertical crack on the starboard side of the ship below waterline and failure of the communication system,” reported the Deccan Chronicle.

According to marine tracking reports, the Indian Coast Guard ship Varuna arrived to assist but was forced to abandon attempts to fix the engines because of rapidly deteriorating weather conditions, with wind gusting at up to 50 kilometres an hour.

Commanding officer of the CGS Varuna, K M Arun Kumar, told the Hindu the rescue effort was also hampered by heavy swell and poor visibility.

“To top it all, Asian Express had no satellite phone and a message was relayed to it through a nearby vessel, MV Golden Shui, before we reached the area,” Kumar told the paper.

“The vessel’s agent, in the meantime, informed that tug Villa-2 which had been asked to tow the vessel to safety had not yet started from Male. In any case, the tug would not have reached the site before the morning of July 14. Meanwhile, the master informed us that the three hatches of the ship were flooded up to 10 metres after a wide crack on its starboard side.

“Soon, he said they would be abandoning the vessel and was instructed to use the life boats. However, the two lifeboats were non-operational and had to be pulled manually, even as the drifting vessel and the heavy swell posed a real danger to Varuna itself. It was already dark when every crewmember of the vessel in distress was taken on board Varuna and given food and medicines.”

Instead the coast guard evacuated all 22 crew members, including 18 Maldivians and four Indian nationals and transferred them to Kochi.

Its crew rescued, the vessel sank with its cargo of 4000 tons of cement and 2400 tons of sand.

The MV Asian Express was carrying aggregate imported from Pakistan, after a shortage began impacting the Maldives’ construction industry.

Aggregate was previously imported to the Maldives from India under a special quota, however this was temporarily revoked on February 15 amid a breakdown in the country’s relationship over the government’s eviction of Indian infrastructure giant GMR and ongoing mistreatment of Indian nationals working in the country.

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Indian coastguard rescues crew of Maldivian cargo vessel

The Maldivian cargo ship MV Asian Express sank on Wednesday evening 300 kilometres west of Kochi, after its hull reportedly cracked below the waterline.

The ship, which was travelling to the Maldives from Pakistan carrying a cargo of sand and cement, suffered an engine failure on Tuesday evening and began drifting, reported IBN Live.

According to marine tracking reports, the Indian Coast Guard ship Varuna arrived to assist but was forced to abandon attempts to fix the engines because of rapidly deteriorating weather conditions.

The Indian coast guard subsequently evacuated all 22 crew members, including 18 Maldivians and four Indian nationals.

The Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF) confirmed it had received the first distress reports, and said the Maldivian crew were being transferred to Kochi following total loss of the vessel.

The MV Asian Express was carrying aggregate imported from Pakistan, after a shortage began impacting the Maldives’ construction industry.

Aggregate was previously imported to the Maldives from India under a special quota, however this was temporarily revoked on February 15 amid a breakdown in the country’s relationship over the government’s eviction of Indian infrastructure giant GMR and ongoing mistreatment of Indian nationals working in the country.

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