Day: November 16, 2004

Protests around the world for Maldives detainees

Following Friends of Maldives’ protests outside the Maldivian High Commission and Hilton Hotel in London last week, a further protest was held outside the Maldivian High Commission in Colombo on Sunday, 14th September.

The protest in Colombo was organised by Sri Lankans sympathetic to the democracy struggle in the Maldives and wishing to show solidarity with fellow Maldivians democrats jailed in the Maldives.

It was reported to Minivan News that at 5pm around 20-25 people descended upon the Maldivian High Commission in Colombo with placards demanding the release of the hunger-strikers still held in jail in the Maldives after the Maldivian government’s crack-down of the August 12-13th pro-democracy rally.

After about 10 minutes of protest, traffic police came with a public address system and told the protestors to leave the area as they were disrupting the Maldivian High Commissioner’s Eid party. The protestors then left and regrouped around the corner at the Euro Cinema. Around 100 demonstrators are thought to have taken part in the protest outside the cinema.

Meanwhile in London, Friends of Maldives staged another protest outside the Maldivian High Commission in London, which took place yesterday (Monday). A spokesperson for Friends of Maldives stated that “as long as pro-democracy prisoners remain in jail in the Maldives, we will do our utmost to disrupt the functioning of the Maldivian High Commission in London.”

The protestors wore black hoods and were chained together outside the embassy in central London, symbolising the way pro-democracy activists were arrested and held on Black Friday.

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Schools remain under-funded, students accuse Gayoom of “destroying our generation”

Students at the Centre for Higher Secondary Education (CHSE) in Male’ have accused President Gayoom of systematically trying to destroy their future by keeping their school grossly under-funded.

CHSE students have complained that in their school of 1,300 pupils only 2 computers have internet access. They also highlight damaging cut-backs by the Ministry for Education in recent months. “Before there was pocket-money given for the students who come from the atolls to study but this has been abolished. The pocket money was especially important for students who came from poorer families” reported students, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“It’s the government’s responsibility to provide better education but they are trying to deprive us of an education.” The students went on to say. “They are trying to keep our generation uneducated.”

The Maldivian Democratic Party has come out in support of the students. In an interview with Minivan News, Mohamed Nasheed said “the MDP feels the under-funding of schools, especially secondary schools, is a component part of a broader government policy to keep Maldivians in the dark. School under-funding is accompanied with a state-controlled media that is banned from criticising Gayoom, draconian checks on books to weed out anything that might challenge the government, and a ban on teaching regime-threatening subjects such as politics. It is a disgraceful situation that benefits Gayoom and his cronies at the expense of the country’s future – its children.”

Students and parents have also previously accused the President of under-funding schools in a direct attempt to keep the population under-educated and therefore less able to criticise his regime.

Whilst Gayoom spends $30,000 per day on personal expenses and CHSE gets less than $2 per student per day, is it surprising students feel Gayoom is stealing their future?

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MDP regrets Maldives regime insults of eminent and brotherly Sri Lankans

The Maldivian Democratic Party expresses profound regret that the Maldives regime officials and their sponsored publications have insulted eminent and brotherly Sri Lankans who organized the peaceful demonstration of 14th November in the vicinity of the Maldives High Commission in Pamankada, Sri Lanka.

Maldives High Commission officials were reported to have foul-mouthed high profile Sri Lankans who were among the organizers of the demonstration, including film maker Manik Sandarasagara, and his colleagues.

A group of about 25 Sri Lankans carrying placards gathered in front of the Maldives High Commission in Sri Lanka on Sunday and voiced concern for political detainees in Maldives. They called for the restoration of electoral and civil rights of would-be candidates being barred by the government to contest general elections for which the application deadline is November 15. The Sri Lankan traffic police dispersed the group as the street leading to the Maldives High Commission was a narrow lane and vehicles carrying invitees to Eid (Ramazan festival) there were having difficulties accessing the road, a Sri Lankan news reporter on the scene told MDP officials.

The demonstrators later regrouped in front of the Euro Cinema in the vicinity of the Maldives High Commission. “By then the group was about 70 strong. They stayed there about an hour and a half before peacefully dispersing”, a journalist said.

“They (High Commission officials) called us impotent idiots and coup-plotters and kept saying it was Sri Lankans like us who sponsored the attacks in Male in 1983”, a spokesperson for the organizers complained to the MDP. Maldives regime sponsored publications described participants of the demonstration as “People who were barefooted, wearing sarongs and chewing puak or betel leaf, ….. riff raff- the equivalent of partey’s (a Maldivian jargon for drug dealers)”

An eminent Sri Lankan who called the MDP offices in Beddegana explained : “The demonstration was not planned to coincide with any national or religious functions but with November 14th, (a Sunday) which was the last day of forwarding applications to stand for the forthcoming general elections. It was deplorable that they would revile Sri Lankans in such a manner”.

Many would-be candidates for the forthcoming general elections are being barred from their civil and electoral rights, pending trials or release from arrest, a spokesperson for the organizers noted. “The government is thereby depriving the constitutional rights of thousands of their supporters” he said.

The Maldivian Democratic Party extends its gratitude for the sympathy expressed by the demonstrators for political detainees and their solidarity with us for condemning violations of human, civil and electoral rights by the Maldives government.

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