Author: Minivan News

President expresses sympathy for victims of US storms

President Mohamed Nasheed has sent condolences to US President Barack Obama following violent storms that caused loss of life and destruction of property in the country’s south.

The storms affected states from Oklahoma to North Carolina and left at least 45 people dead, with 267 tornados recorded over a three day period. Two nuclear reactors were also shut down, leaving parts of the country without power.

“At this time of distress, the Government and the people of the Maldives join me in conveying our profound sympathy to you, the Government and the people of the United States of America and in conveying our condolences to the members of the bereaved families,” said President Nasheed.

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Crime Prevention Committee meets with HRCM, PIC

The government’s National Crime Prevention Committee met yesterday with the Human Rights Commission of the Maldives (HRCM) and the Police Integrity Commission (PIC), to discuss immediate measures required to reduce serious crime in the Maldives.

Both independent organisations highlighted the importance of a concerted effort from the whole country and the public to abate serious and violent crimes, according to a statement from the President’s Office.

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Islam and Dhivehi to remain mandatory at A’Level

Dhivehi and Islam will remain mandatory subjects at A’Level despite earlier plans by the Education Ministry’s steering committee to make them optional.

Controversy over the proposal led for condemnation of former Education Ministry Dr Mustafa Luthfy by religious groups and calls for his dismissal by the opposition last year.

A’Level students typically study between four to five subjects. Some university prerequisites demand as many as 3-4 subjects, particularly for university-level science courses. Luthfy had suggested that making the subjects optional would give A’Level students greater ability to pursue careers of their choosing, and become “world citizens”.

However he was accused of undermining the cultural and religious foundations of the country by the Adhaalath Party, an MDP coalition partner that runs the Islamic Ministry.

Member of the Steering Committee Dr Naashia Mohamed told Haveeru that the committee voted in favour of the decision after reviewing the practice in other countries.

“In most Islamic countries, the Islamic studies subject is compulsory for the students. So we decided to keep the current policy, under which these two subjects are compulsory for all the students,” she told Haveeru.

Education Ministry’s decision to make Dhivehi language and Islamic studies optional at higher secondary level sparked a public controversy and condemnations by the opposition as well as the religious conservative Adaalat Party of the ruling Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) coalition government.

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Nasheed ratifies Capital Islands Bill

Parliament has forced President Mohamed Nasheed to ratify the Bill on Capital Islands of Administrative Divisions of the Maldives, which he initially vetoed.

However parliament returned the bill to the President with a vote 39 in favour of ratification, Haveeru reported.

The Act requires that capital islands retain their status as capitals unless a two-thirds majority of the atoll council approves a public referendum.

The issue has led to clashes between island councils and government authorities over the relocation of island capitals to suit the newly-elected island councillors.

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MMA auctioning dollars to banks

The Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA) has begun auctioning dollars to banks, which are now able to sell them at up to Rf15.42.

The dollars distributed to banks were previously limited to set amounts. The MMA has declined to reveal which banks have won the first auction, held yesterday, or the exchange rate involved.

Haveeru reported that banks that did not win the auction had not traded dollars today.

The government last week implemented a managed float of the rufiya within a 20 percent band of the pegged rate of Rf12.85, a move praised by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

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Leaked UN report claims both Sri Lanka and rebels guilty of war crimes

A leaked UN report into the closing days of the war in Sri Lanka contains “credible allegations” that the Sri Lankan government shelled civilians after encouraging them to gather in no-fire zones.

The report also claims the army shelled hospitals, UN facilities and aid workers with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). The report further alleges that the government intimdated and in some cases silenced the media, even abducting journalists is “white vans”.

The report also accused Tamil rebels of using civilians as human shields, forcibly recruiting teenagers to fight, and of murdering civilians who tried to leave the war zone.

A former UN spokesperson for the UN in Sri Lanka was reported in the UK’s Independent newspaper as saying that the report “damns the government of Sri Lanka’s so-called war on terror, which incidentally killed many thousands of civilians. The Tamil Tigers were equally rotten in their disdain for life.”

The full report is expected to be released officially next week.

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Foreign Ministry drafting prisoner exchange legislation

Foreign Minister Ahmed Naseem has revealed that the government is working on prisoner exchange legislation in the hopes of repatriating 12 Maldivian nationals currently serving sentences overseas.

Local laws, Naseem told Haveeru, currently “don’t allow inmates, held in overseas prisons, to be transferred to the Maldives in order to complete their sentences. We cannot allow them in without making sure that they complete their sentences in the Maldives. That is only possible if the Maldives judiciary allows inmates to complete their sentence, handed in a foreign country, in Maldivian prisons.”

The Foreign Ministry said Maldivians were imprisoned in six countries.

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PA now welcoming DRP supporters to its ranks

The People’s Alliance (PA) has said it would welcome registered members from fellow opposition groups like coalition partner the Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) – currently embroiled in factional infighting – as it seeks to boost its support-base over the next year.

Party registrar Hiyaly Mohamed Rasheed told Minivan News that after agreeing though a council meeting back in 2009 to not take members from the DRP due to a coalition agreement between them, the group was now looking to bolster its current tally of 2,751 registered supporters from “all across the Maldives”.  He claimed this membership drive would now also include members from the DRP, which is the country’s main opposition party and headed by MP Ahmed Thasmeen Ali.

The DRP has in recent months become embroiled in a bitter war of words between serving leader Thasmeen and his predecessor and former Maldivian President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom. The split between the two men and their respective supporters is reportedly linked to the party’s dismissal of former deputy leader Umar Naseer by its disciplinary committee last December.

Just last week, the DRP’s Council announced it had take the decision to forward a number of party members including DRP MPs Ahmed Mahlouf, DRP Deputy leader MP Ilham Ahmed and former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom’s lawyer Mohamed Waheed to the party’s disciplinary committee.

The decision against the three men was taken over allegations that they had misled the public over the work and reputation of Thasmeen to further the interests of the so-called  Z-DRP faction said to support Gayoom.

MP Ilham claimed at the time that the DRP charter did not allow the party’s leader to dismiss anyone who criticises them.

”The charter states that a deputy leader can be dismissed only if a third of the party’s congress votes to dismiss him,” Ilham said. ”There will be internal disputes in political parties, but this is not how to solve it.”

Thasmeen was unavailable for comment when contacted by Minivan News at the time of going to press.

DRP “Problems”

Howver, the PA registrar claimed that the reports of DRP infighting had the potential to negatively set back wider political opposition in the country.

“I was once in the DRP,” Rasheed said. “Yet now the DRP has itself decided that there are two factions in the party, that means that it currently has problems,” he added.

The claims have been made as the PA announced that more than 100 people were registered as party members on Friday (April 15) as part of attempts to overtake the religious Adhaalath Party as the country’s third most supported political group. The PA is led by Abdulla Yamin, half brother of former President Gayoom.

Speaking to Haveeru yesterday, Mohamed Rasheed claimed that the PA was now working to almost double its membership base to 5,000 people by next month. Rasheed said he hoped the drive would bring the PA closer to matching the Adhaalath Party in terms of the size of support, which it estimates amounts to about 6000 members at present.

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AG appeals ruling on harbour plot sales

The Attorney General’s Office (AGO) last week appealed a Civil Court ruling that declared the President’s decision to auction plots from the southwestern harbour area in Male’ illegal.

Solicitor General Ibrahim Riffath told newspaper Haveeru that the court did not provide legal justification for its ruling, which held that the auction was invalid as a law governing sale of state assets and property as required by article 250(a) of the constitution was not in effect.

The state has however asked the High Court to rule that the existing Land Act should apply to property transactions.

The plot auction was challenged at the Civil Court last year by the short-lived alliance of opposition parties in parliament, consisting of main opposition Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party and minority opposition parties People’s Alliance, Dhivehi Qaumee Party and Republican Party.

The Civil Court ruling in favour of the opposition came after the government collected Rf100 million (US$7.7 million) in advance payments from five auction winners. Five plots of 2,000 square feet, three plots of 5,000 square feet, two plots of 7,500 square feet and one 10,000 square feet plot in front of T-jetty area was auctioned last year.

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