President Mohamed Nasheed has said the Maldives will take prisoners released from Guantanamo Bay, the controversial American prison in Cuba that houses terror suspects.
In his weekly radio address on Friday, the president said the Obama administration came into power pledging to close down the prison and release a number of detainees.
“If a Muslim does not have a place to live in freedom, we will help in whatever way we can. We don’t want anyone to suffer any harm. We know that the Maldives, in helping just three people from Guantanamo Bay, does not mean that either the Maldives or the world would be free of inhumane treatment,” he said. “However this jail, Guantanamo jail, is very symbolic.”
He added the alleged torture that occurred in the offshore American jail made it notable in the same way as controversial Maldivian jails like Dhoonidhoo and Gaamaadho, believed to have tortured inmates.
“When the Americans bombed Afghanistan some time ago, a lot of Muslims were taken and jailed at Guantanamo Bay,” he said. “It is a promise of the new government to close the jail in one year. We have noted that the American president is doing a lot to fulfil that promise. However, the jail has still not been closed.”
The president said investigations have cleared most of the detainees of any involvement in terrorist activities, while the others will be taken to trial.
He said most of the detainees at Guantanamo Bay were innocent people caught up in the war in Afghanistan, and that offering assistance to other nations in whatever capacity was “a national duty.”
A political agreement to prevent dangerous climate change is critical and achievable.
The world is five days into one of the most important global conferences of our time: the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Copenhagen (COP15). Negotiators currently getting down to work are tasked with coming up with a replacement to the Kyoto Protocol that will prevent the nightmare scenarios that many climate scientists have predicted becoming a reality. A formidable challenge.
Overwhelming scientific evidence – endorsed by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) – shows that human activity is the primary force driving climate change. The UK recognises that the developed world has historic responsibility for climate change and must make ambitious commitments to tackle its effects, including through making funds available to developing countries.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown proposed, at last month’s Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, the establishment of an annual fund which would make available $10bn to assist developing countries in tacking climate climate immediately after an ambitious agreement at Copenhagen.
COP15 is a crucial engagement in the battle against dangerous climate change and the UK has taken an increasingly proactive position on pressing for an ambitious political agreement at Copenhagen. This year we became the world’s first country to have a legally binding long-term framework to cut emissions, adapt to climate change and commit to a low carbon economy: the UK Climate Change Act. And we have played a leading role in the European Union and the Commonwealth to encourage commitment to higher emission cuts and greater availability of resources to mitigate and adapt to the effects of climate change.
Collectively we need to agree an ambitious deal at Copenhagen to rise to this challenge. The UK believes that this should include:
A global recognition to reduce carbon emissions to 50% below 1990 levels by 2050
Global temperature rise limited to 2 Degrees above pre-industrial levels.
Developed Country reduction targets that add up to least 25% below 1990 levels by 2020
Developing country actions that add up to at least 15% below business as usual for 2020.
Low carbon growth plans to prepare for transition to a global low carbon economy.
The above ambitions are a reflection of the importance the UK gives to recognising the developed world’s historic responsibility for global CO2 emissions, and the priority we have given to limiting the impact of dangerous climate change.
The UK has worked with Sri Lanka and Maldives as partners in tackling this critical global issue, over the past the year. In Sri Lanka, we funded a conference bringing together local environmental NGOs and the government to discuss critical issues that would be on the negotiating table in Copenhagen. In Maldives, we regularly discuss climate issues with the government and have welcomed their immense efforts to highlight the importance of acting against climate change. In particular, President Nasheed’s announcement to go carbon neutral by 2020 and the way Maldivian civil society have taken the initiative to support global climate change campaigns such as 350.org’s international day of action on 24 October 2009 have helped Maldives to lead the way in international debates on climate change.
Developing country commitments and actions have shifted the terms of negotiation in the path to Copenhagen but to achieve our global ambitions against climate change a sustained effort is needed. We look forward to continuing to work with Sri Lanka and Maldives to keep up the pressure through COP15 and beyond so that we do not leave climate change as a problem for the next generation.
Dr Peter Hayes is the British High Commissioner to Sri Lanka/Maldives
President Mohamed Nasheed has called upon the Human Rights Commission of Maldives (HRCM) to investigate and uncover the injustices of the past to fulfill its mandate.
In his weekly radio address yesterday, President Nasheed said although the commission’s regulations stated that it could only investigate incidents dating from two years before its formation, the law gave HRCM the authority to conduct investigations before 2001.
“Until past injustices are investigated, the Human Rights Commission of Maldives will not be a commission that properly works for human rights in the country,” he said.
The president said grievous injury was done and serious injustices were perpetrated upon many citizens in the past 30 years.
“I am saying this as a person who has seen these things very closely. Many people have died. Many people were killed. The lives of many were ruined. A lot of people’s property was appropriated. Many people’s lives were destroyed to the point where they had no future,” he said.
“In truth, there is no way to find justice for these things. The time that was lost to them cannot be given back, the wrongs done to them cannot be set right. But, we have to carry out full investigations into these things to find out how it happened in order to ensure that it is not repeated.”
The president’s office continues to receive complaints from citizens about injustices done to them by the previous government.
Many senior officials of the government and MPs of the ruling Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) had “endured serious inhumane treatment”.
“I would like to note the harm done to MDP parliamentary group leader Reeko Moosa Manik,” he said. “The former government destroyed his life when he was very young.”
In 1983, Moosa was sentenced to death on charges of conspiring to overthrow the government.
In the run-up to last year’s presidential election and beyond, Moosa spoke extensively about his experiences in jail and how he was tortured.
The president said he was not asking the commission to investigate such cases based on a desire for vengeance on the part of either Moosa Manik or other MDP members. “We don’t wish for this to happen again to our children. Therefore, I believe that understanding how things happened in the past will give us the opportunity for us to stay clear of these things.”
Opening his address, the president said the biggest obstacle to progress and development of the country was the failure to secure human rights for citizens and the suppression of free expression.
Nasheed said the former government lost its way because people were not allowed to criticise or oppose its policies.
“It is very important for citizens to have their rights to keep the government on the right track; for everyone to know that they have certain rights,” he said.
The president said he wanted to assure citizens that anyone whose rights were violated in the past year of the first democratically elected government had the opportunity to seek redress for injustices.
Attorney General Husnu Suood has said the practice of female circumcision in the name of Islam has been revived in Addu atoll.
Speaking at a human rights function last night, Suood said although there have been significant successes in human rights in the past six years new problems and violations were emerging, “especially atrocities against women and children”.
Suood said “false scholars” were promoting anti-Islamic activities that also violated human rights principles.
“I will note one thing I learned in the past two weeks: religious scholars are going around to midwives giving fatwas that girls have to be circumcised. They’re giving fatwas saying it is religiously compulsory. According to my information, the circumcising of girls has started and is going on with a new spirit.”
He added it had to be stopped and “cannot be tolerated.”
“This is not something we can just stand by and watch. In the recent past, I would say this had ceased almost completely. But today in Addu atoll, the circumcision of girls is going on at some speed. I call upon the relevant authorities to stop this.”
Suood said one of violation the authorities have been alerted to was violence against women in the name of Islam.
“Violence against women and children in the name of Islam, or in the name of promoting Islam, is something we should be concerned about,” he said.
Suood said Islam is a religion that protects the dignity of human beings, and referred to the efforts to put an end to the practice of female infanticide during the early days of Islam.
Attorney General Husnu Suood
“Robbing people of their human rights or burying their rights in the name of religion is not acceptable,” he said. “I believe it is in defiance of our religion.”
He added there were cases of husbands forcing their wives to sleep on the floor “in the name of religion, saying, ‘this is how it is in Islam’.”
Further, some families were refusing to send girls to school or let them find employment across the country.
Another growing concern was the rise of human trafficking, he said, with a number of under-age girls recently brought to the country for sex trafficking.
“Human trafficking was certainly not something we have heard of in the Maldives in our recent history, especially the trafficking of women for sexual purposes,” Suood said, adding that the growth of the problem was something the government had to take immediate action against.
He further noted the rise of child abuse, referring to the recently passed law on special provisions for sex offenders as a step forward.
The attorney general also said that harassment and abuse of expatriate workers remained a serious problem.
A report by the Human Rights Commission revealed the dire situation of some expatriates in the country, who endure cramped and unsuitable living quarters and the non-payment of wages.
Opening his remarks, Suood said it was essential for Maldivians to change their mentality and ways of thinking to make progress on human rights issues.
The most important task at hand was to identify the areas where special measures were needed, he urged.
“Six years ago, our attention was mainly focused on political freedom and political rights, and how those rights could be won,” he said, adding there has been significant development in that area with the ratification of the new constitution.
But, he added, writing down rights on a piece of paper does not secure them. A bill of rights could not guarantee essential liberty unless Maldivians changed their “mentality and attitude”, he said, proposing human rights be taught as a school subject from pre-school to higher education.
The Maldives National Broadcasting Corporation (MNBC) has asked Television Maldives (TVM) to investigate its poll on religious freedom and take measures against those responsible.
Speaking to Minivan News today, Ibrahim Khaleel, managing director of MNBC, said the board has asked Mohamed Asif, deputy director general of MNBC currently in charge of running TVM, to look into the matter after opposition Dhivehi Qaumee Party (DQP) accused the government of attempting to establish other religions in the Maldives.
“I’ve asked Asif to investigate how it happened, and if anyone is responsible, to take measures [against them],” he said. “He will investigate to see if it happened the way they said it did, and take measures based on the findings.”
The poll asked whether freedom of religion should be allowed in the Maldives; the investigation will look into how the topic was chosen and for what purpose, Khaleel said.
In a press release on Monday, the DQP condemned the poll as unconstitutional and accused the government of attempting to introduce religions other than Islam into the Maldives.
The former coalition partner claimed the poll on Sunday night was part of “a devious scheme” intended to show that other religions could be practiced in the country.
The party referred to article 10 of the constitution, which states that Islam shall be the state religion and the basis of all the laws in the Maldives.
Khaleel said he has since watched the show and it was clear that the DQP had taken the poll out of context.
“The discussion was about differences of opinion within Islam, like different sects, and to what extent it should be allowed,” he said.
Two religious scholars, MP Dr Afrashim Ali of the opposition Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party and Sheikh Mohamed Shaheem Ali Saeed, state minister for Islamic affairs, were on the programme.
“If something unconstitutional was being talked about, I find it hard to believe these two scholars would stand by and let it happen,” said Khaleel.
He added it was apparent from DQP’s press release that they did not watch the programme.
Khaleel said it was “regrettable” that a political party was acting “irresponsibly” in issuing such press releases at a time when freedom of speech was in its infancy.
He denied the DQP’s allegation that the poll was taken on orders from the president’s office.
Mohamed Afruh Rasheed, producer of the show, told Minivan News it focuses on “controversial social issues” that were not being openly debated in society or suppressed.
Some of the issues discussed in the programme have included the rights of expatriates and neglect of the elderly as well as press freedom.
The results of Sunday night’s poll were 14 per cent in favour and 82 per cent against.
A sustained recruitment campaign in the atolls has led to a surge in the number of Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) members.
The party welcomed 5,000 members in the last few months, taking its total membership to 28,995 as of 10 December 2009. At such a pace the party will soon overtake the 30,215 tally of its rival, the Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP), which recorded a slight decline according to President of the Elections Commission Fuad Thaufeeq.
The grassroots MDP campaign involved establishing network coordinators for every atoll and enlisting existing members to recruit others, explained MDP registrar general Ahmed Shahid.
“We’re not going to stop until we’re on top,” Shahid said. “We have a further 600-800 applications currently processing, and there are many more coming in from the atolls. However the weather has been bad over the last few months and we’ve had some trouble collecting the applications.”
Despite the overall gain the party had also lost some members, he admitted.
Dr. Mohamed Mausoom, Secretary-General of DRP, questioned the recruitment tactics of the MDP.
“They have appointed island councillors to recruit members, paid for by the state. But despite this they’ve only gained 5000 members,” he said.
Mausoom suggested that the number of new “sincere” MDP recruits was no more “than about 2,000.”
“The rest of them – although they are yellow on the outside, their heart is blue,” he speculated, suggesting that in some cases people were being pressured to join the party in order to keep their jobs.
“There’s no direct instruction, but [in the case of some government workers] it can be ‘sign up [to the MDP], or quit,'” he alleged. “This is the type of environment people are working in. I really can’t say what the MDP is up to anymore, but we have noticed many of their members signing up with us.”
The MDP’s gain was irrelevant, Mausoom said, because “as a proportion of the voting population, political membership numbers are not significant in the country.”
If the MDP overtakes the DRP, “it will be a joke”, he added. “The Maldivian population are among the most politically educated in the world; if you walk around Male and you’ll find hardly anyone who voted for MDP.”
In the May parliamentary elections, MDP won a total of 48,000 votes or 31 per cent of the vote, while the DRP and its coalition partner People’s Alliance won a combined total of 47,400 votes.
The civil court yesterday ordered luxury yachting company Sultans of the Seas to pay over Rf654 million (US$50 million) in unpaid loans, fines and accumulated interest to the Bank of Maldives (BML) in the course of one year.
Ruling in favour of the bank, Judge Aisha Shujoon said the company was liable for loans of US$15.3 million, US$8.7 million and €12.5 million as well as US$500,000 in combined credit limit facilities as agreed upon in June 2008.
The judge ruled that records and documents presented to court proved that as of 7 December, Sultans owes US$18 million on the first demand loan, US$10 million on the second and €14 million on the third.
Sultans would have to pay the loans back in monthly instalments of about US$4.2 million, the court ruled. If the company failed to make the payments by 7 December 2010, yachts and property mortgaged by the company will be sold in auction after a 15 day period.
Minivan News was unavailable to reach senior officials of the company for a comment today.
In the BML audit report released in January, Auditor General Ibrahim Naeem revealed that defaults on bank loans issued to influential political players could jeopardise the entire financial system of the country.
Over 60 per cent of the US$633 million worth of loans issued in 2008 was granted to 12 parties, the report said.
According to the report, US$45 million was granted to Sultans of the Seas and US$36 million to Fonnadhoo Tuna Products, which comprised 13 per cent of the total loan amount in 2008.
It notes that Fonaddhoo is owned by Kendhoo MP Ahmed Thasmeen Ali, a former minister and now parliamentary group leader of the opposition Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party, while the owners of Sultans of the Seas were closely associated with the DRP deputy leader.
In September, Maldives Customs filed a case at civil court to recover US$8.5 million from Sultans of the Seas in unpaid duties and fines for allegedly defrauding customs to import two luxury yachts.
The opposition Dhivehi Qaumee Party (DQP) has condemned a poll on state television about freedom of religion, accusing the government of attempting to allow religions other than Islam into the Maldives and undermining Islamic faith.
A press release by the party yesterday states that the poll on a Television Maldives (TVM) programme on Sunday night was “a devious scheme” intended to show that other religions could be practiced.
“Maldivians have remained 100 per cent Muslims for over 800 years and no effort was made in the name of religious freedom to see whether Maldivians could practice religions other than Islam,” it reads. “We call upon [President Mohamed] Nasheed’s government to cease its efforts to show through TVM or any other state institution that there is space for religions other than Islam in the country.”
The party believes that the purpose of the poll was to “philosophically” weaken Maldivians’ faith and “encourage the people trying to bring other religions to the Maldives”.
It adds that Islam in the Maldives was under threat due to the government’s policies.
DQP is led by former presidential candidate Dr Hassan Saeed, who resigned as special advisor to the president on the anniversary of the government’s 100 days in power. In October, the party left the coalition government, arguing it was failing to deliver on campaign promises.
Speaking to Minivan News today, Mohamed Zuhair, the president’s office press secretary, said the president’s office had no connection to the poll.
“The[Maldives National Broadcasting Corporation] is a company now,” he said. “There is no official mechanism to interact with them, apart from inviting them to press conferences like everyone else.”
He added DQP’s line of attack was “a joke” and clearly politically motivated. “It’s like saying the dried buns sold at some teashop tasted too spicy today – let’s blame the president’s office.”
Zuhair claimed the party were resorting to the same attacks it deployed unsuccessfully in last year’s presidential election because “they can’t accept defeat”. He predicted the DQP would disseminate more press releases in the near future to prove it was an active party, as the Elections Commission will soon be allocating funds for political parties.
Ahmed Afruh Rasheed, editor of TVM news, told Minivan News today the DQP had taken the poll out of context as the programme hosted a discussion on disputes within Islam.
“Their press release shows that they didn’t even watch the programme,” he said. “The question wasn’t whether other religions should be allowed in Maldives. It was about whether space should be given to disagreements about Islam in our society.”
The show focuses on “controversial social issues” that were not spoken about publicly, he added, with the purpose of raising awareness in society.
Afruh denied the poll was meant to encourage religious freedom or that it was put up on the orders of the president’s office.
Other issues addressed by the programme have included the rights of expatriate workers, the neglect of the elderly and media freedom, he said.
Zuhair said there was no reason to harbour ill will towards the new government apart from “an inability to digest defeat”.
“This government hasn’t used devious means to torture an inmate to death. This government hasn’t used tried to meddle in a judicial trial. This government has not had high-level officials accused of corruption,” he said.
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