Category: News in Brief

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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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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Maldivian Red Cresent elects board members

The Maldivian Red Crescent (MRC) on Saturday elected four members to its governing board, including Ali Nasheed of Machangoalhi Sisilfaru, Abdulla Ali from Shaviyani Funadhoo, Aishath Hussein Manik of Henveiru Reedhoo Kokaagehas.

Ibrahim Shafeeq was reelected as President, reported Haveeru.

The MRC’s Secretary General told the newspaper that while the organisation had a successful year, it had faced difficulties due to lack of finances.

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Six Senses and Biosphere Expeditions offering reef conservation scholarships

Biosphere Expeditions and Six Senses properties are offering two scholarships for Maldivians with dive qualifications and English language skills, to take part in a new coral reef and whale shark study being conducted in September 2011.

Scholarship recipients will be trained in reef and whale shark research techniques and assist scientists from around the world in a study designed to provide data to the Maldivian government so that it can make informed conservation decisions.

The project, based on the liveaboard Carpe Diem cruising the archipelago, will see Biosphere Expeditions working with the Maldives Marine Research Centre (MRC) of the Ministry of Fisheries and Agriculture, Reef Check and the Marine Conservation Society to study and safeguard the coral reefs and the resident whale shark population.

Biologist Matthias Hammer, Reef Check trainer and Executive Director of Biosphere Expeditions, described the reefs of the Maldives archipelago and its fish population as “extraordinarily diverse and rich. They are also in a relatively pristine state and having both these factors together is quite rare. As less than one per cent of the world’s oceans are protected, it is very important that we monitor and manage areas that are doing well.”

The economy and the well-being of the entire nation, Hammer said, “is largely dependent on a healthy and sustainably-managed marine environment.”

Marine Biologist Kate Wilsonat Six Senses’ property Soneva Fushi in Baa Atoll observed that the scholarships would allow Maldivians “to work alongside and learn from some top marine biologists, enabling them to get hands-on experience of monitoring coral reef ecosystems and whale sharks in the Maldives. It is a fantastic opportunity for keen and enthusiastic divers that want to develop skills in marine surveying, enabling them to continue surveying long after the scholarship ends.”

Six Senses said in a statement that successful scholarship applicants “need to be able to demonstrate a genuine interest in the marine environment and [show] that they will use the experience to the benefit of the Maldives’ marine resources, carrying the message to other people and multiplying the effect of their experience.”

The deadline for applications deadline is July 29, with the expedition taking place in September later this year. Applicants must be 18 or older. For more information visit www.biosphere-expeditions.org/scholarships

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Pension body CEO claims optional payment proposals endanger “social protection”

The CEO of the Pension Administration Office has attacked a proposed amendment to the 2009 Pension Act that would allow for optional payments into the scheme, claiming such a move would set back social protection in the country.

Haveeru today cited CEO Mohamed Hussein Manik as claiming  that although amendments may be needed to pension payments in the country, proposals forwarded by MPs to remove a mandatory seven percent wage payment from all state employees aged between 16 and 65 years would effectively undermine the scheme completely.

The claims were made following a week that has already seen changes made to the Pension Act; an amendment passed on Monday (April 11) served to delay inclusion to the pension scheme for expatriate workers employed within the Maldives by at least three years.

The sitting also saw an additional amendment proposed by minority opposition People’s Alliance (PA) MP Ahmed Nazim to exempt MPs from the pension scheme, however this did not pass after 41 MPs voted against it, while 29 voted in favour and five members abstained.

In considering amendments to allow certain individuals to opt out of the pensions scheme, Manik stressed reservations about optional payments

The pension body CEO also told journalists that he believed considerations to allow the removal of  funds from a pension scheme before an employee’s retirement would endanger the long-term stability of the national payment plan.

According to Haveeru’s report, every state employee is required under the Pension Act to be registered into the payment scheme, with an estimated 37,708 public workers currently contributing.  Some 2,500 private employers have also registered to pay into the pension programme ahead of a deadline scheduled for May 1 this year.

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Assault victim dies

Ahmed Mirza, 25, who was assaulted last Monday with an iron bars in Villingili after he allegedly made comments concerning a girl, died early this morning in Indira Gandi Memorial Hospital (IGMH).

Mirza was declared brain-dead after doctors at the IGMH examined him and was kept on life support according to the family’s wishes.

Yesterday Mirza’s sister said that doctors had said they had no hope that he would survive the severe injuries to his head.

Police arrested five persons in connection with the case.

Mirza was attacked last Monday night while he was sitting in a park in Villingili.

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UN security council favours anti-piracy court formation

The UN security council has pushed for the formation of international courts and prisons – as well as new laws to support their formation – in an effort to combat piracy that has spread from the coast of Somalia to regions like the Indian Ocean, according to news reports.

Agence France-Presse (AFP) has reported that the security council has this week approved a resolution forwarded by Russian delegates to try and curb huge levels of international piracy stemming from Somalia.

Fears have risen during the last year that the territorial waters of Indian Ocean nations like the Maldives could become a realistic target for pirates.

Security officials like the Maldivian National Defense Force (MNDF) last month claimed that there had been no recorded attacks by Somali pirates on vessels in the country’s territorial waters.

However, the AFP reported that the passing of UN security council resolution 1976 has led delegates to praise the initiative as a step towards installing a specialised anti-piracy court.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was also called upon by the council to prepare recommendations over the next few months on establishing a court system to focus on suspected acts of piracy.

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