Month: July 2007

Torture victim Abdulla Mahir, who made headlines earlier this month after throwing an egg at President Gayoom during the latter’s official trip to Britain, has vowed to continue his campaign of direct action against the president.

During an exclusive interview with Minivan News in London, Mahir said he would continue to hound Gayoom “until he takes responsibility for what he has done.”

Mahir is demanding that the president affords him “justice and compensation” for injuries Mahir says he sustained at the hands of Gayoom’s security services.

“Every time Gayoom comes to Britain I will confront him,” said Mahir, who has been awarded refugee status in the United Kingdom and granted indefinite leave to remain in the country.

Broken Spine

‘Backbone’ Mahir, as he is ominously referred to by his friends, coined the nickname after his spine was broken by Gayoom’s National Security Service (NSS) guards in on 18 January 1995, his eighteenth birthday.

The interrogation team that Mahir says tortured him was headed by former NSS Sergeant – and now Islamic Democratic Party chief – Umar Naseer.

“Umar Naseer came forward and punched me in the side of the face. Immediately after that Atheef picked me up from my belt and threw me to the floor. I tried to stand but they started kicking me with their military boots. My two friends with me were made to remain sitting in their chairs while I was being beaten.” That is one of the milder extracts from Mahir’s horrific testimony of his time courtesy of the NSS.

Mahir holds Umar Naseer – who denies charges of using torture during his NSS career – responsible for his injuries. Mahir also says Gayoom is culpable because he headed the regime that left Mahir permanently disabled.

Egg Attack

Mahir threw the egg during a Presidential address to the Royal Commonwealth Society in London. Gayoom was nearing the end of a speech on climate change when Mahir, sitting two rows back in the audience, took aim and released his projectile.

Mahir was quickly apprehended by Gayoom’s Maldivian security personnel before he was able to throw a second egg at the president. British police arrived on the scene soon afterwards and took Mahir into custody.

Mahir says he asked officials at the Commonwealth Society to call the British police because he was fearful of the president’s Maldivian personal security guards, who Mahir says manhandled him following the egg attack.

“One man grabbed my neck and head and another tried to hit me,” Mahir said, recounting the incident that has made him famous across the Maldives. “They were pushing their fists into my face and threatening me. When they took me outside of the hall, I thought they would beat me up.”

But Commonwealth Society staff intervened and, according to Mahir, told Gayoom’s security guards to “leave him alone” and “calm down.”

The Commonwealth Society staff took Mahir into a room. The presidential security guards were told to wait outside. “I asked the staff to call English police otherwise Gayoom’s people might do something,” Mahir said.

“When the police came, they said they were there to ‘protect all citizens of this country’ and told me ‘nothing will happen to you.’”

The police asked Mahir why he threw the egg at the president. Mahir explained that it was a protest against the torture he suffered at the hands of Gayoom’s security forces.

The Commonwealth Society staff allegedly confirmed to the police that the egg hit Gayoom on the left hand side of the chest and splattered across his jacket.

A Laughing Matter

“The police took me to Charing Cross Police Station. They said they had to arrest me because it is common assault to hit a person with an egg. The police said that if the egg had missed, they would not have arrested me,” said Mahir.

“The police released me after questioning and said I have to return to the station on 21 August to see if Gayoom has decided to press charges.”

“The police treated me very nicely. One officer said to me ‘I hope things work out in your favour.’”

“Another policeman was laughing throughout the interview,” Mahir added.

“It was 99% different being under British custody compared to being questioned by Maldivian police. The interview technique was different. I was allowed my lawyer to sit with me throughout the interview and the whole thing was tape recorded. At the end, my lawyer was given a copy of the tape recording. Then a doctor and a nurse came to check that Gayoom’s bodyguards hadn’t hurt me.”

Abdulla Mahir Vs Maumoon Gayoom?

Mahir says he hopes President Gayoom decides to press charges against him. He points out that his defence lawyers would be given a copy of the prosecution’s evidence, which would likely include a video recording of the moment when the egg hit the president. The incident was almost certainly captured by the president’s cameraman but the tape has not been made public.

During a trial, the judge may ask for the video images to be shown in court. Mahir says he relishes the prospect of inviting journalists to observe the trial, “So the whole of Maldives can watch the video of the President being hit by an egg.”

If convicted of common assault, Mahir will be issued with a fine or asked to do community service, a punishment that involves civic work such as cleaning graffiti from walls. However, Mahir would most likely be issued with a small fine, as his disability would almost certainly preclude him from carrying out community service.

“Gayoom’s people can’t interfere with justice here, like they do in Maldives. If Gayoom’s people try to interfere with the British legal system, they will be arrested,” Mahir warned.

Quest For Justice

Mahir says he wants compensation from Gayoom for the physical and mental torture that he endured and for the knock-on impact that had on his education.

“Every time Gayoom comes to Britain I will confront him. I can do lots of things to embarrass him. I can go and ask him difficult questions in public; I can shout and throw eggs. He can’t stop me here because Britain is a democracy.”

Mahir believes his vocal stand against Gayoom will “give people more courage” in the Maldives. “I want people to have the courage to protest against Gayoom – but nicely and without violence.”

“I was very close to the President. I could have hit him in the face with that egg. But I was being nice, I didn’t want to hurt his eyes,” Mahir said.

“And I won’t give up. Whether Gayoom is president or not, I will confront him. He has to take responsibility for dozens of people like me who were tortured under his regime.”

Likes(0)Dislikes(0)

For eight days in June, Maldivians woke to news of an ever growing hunger strike in Maafushi prison, as inmates demanded improved conditions and rehabilitation for drug addicts.

The strike started with the death of inmate Muslih Abbas during a prison break.

It ended with the country’s largest prison exposed as a place where inmates exercise control, everything is available at a price, and guards and police ignore inmates to fight out their own rivalry.

One of the strike leaders, released from a month’s confinement in Dhoonidhoo for his role, tells Minivan News what really happened to Muslih, why inmates went on strike, and how a government “culture change” is needed to control drugs.

”No Control, Nothing To Do”

“Maafushi is like a government funded resort to produce hardened criminals. There is nothing to do, and for a hundred rufiyaa you can bribe a guard to bring you anything you want.” says ‘Moosa’ (name changed.)

The prison is divided into six blocks, with the largest containing just over a hundred inmates. But within each block prisoners have complete freedom.

“All the guard stations are positioned outside. They can’t see what’s going on inside. And because they have no secure space inside, they can only enter in numbers, in force. The way the blocks are laid out forces confrontation.”

In March and April this year, inmates were given control of the whole prison when guards retreated to their quarters in one corner of the island. “I was amazed, but others told me it had happened several times over the years,” says Moosa.

“And it was official. The warden came out and said: as long as you stay within the perimeter you can move between blocks. It was only when people started escaping that they forced us back into our blocks.”

”We decided to break them out”

After Star Force [paramilitary police] were brought to Maafushi in April to restore control, twenty inmates were isolated in Maafushi’s notorious Unit Two. Prisoners are kept in unventilated four by eight feet cells twenty four hours a day, often two at a time.

The treatment of prisoners in Unit Two has caused prisoner breaks in the past, and Moosa says it triggered the June breakout.

“People in Unit Two told us guards had thrown hot water and coffee on Majood Riyaz while he was praying. Majood is a quiet guy who everyone got on with.”

“We had already been speaking to the guards and saying the twenty men had been isolated long enough, and to let them back, so we decided to break them out.”

Individual men from each block climbed their boundary walls and then opened gates to let out fellow inmates. Over two hours between 8 and 10pm the locks to the cells in unit two were broken and the twenty men freed.

“By the time they came he was dead”

“Afterwards some of us were taking charge of getting people back into the blocks, and we saw the last few had broken into the pharmacy to get drugs. There’s no denying it. It’s a fact. Muslih was one of the people who took drugs.”

“But by 11pm we were back in our cells. We called the guards and told them to lock us back in, and things were calm.”

“A few hours later we heard Muslih couldn’t breathe and was lying on a mattress outside his cell. We were all back in our blocks and begging the guards to come but they didn’t. By the time they came he was dead.”

Media Campaign

“That night people in my block were pretty down. At about 3am some of my friends were taking their usual fix. Some of us got upset and decided we should do something about this.”

“We spent a few hours getting support and at 5.30am we told the guards we were on hunger strike, and wanted the Human Rights Commission to come to the island so we could tell them our grievances.”

Moosa explains how strikers made sure their message got out. Three men were charged with speaking to journalists and updating them regularly. Another man was responsible for telephone negotiations with officials.

The strategy worked. With the media so informed, the DPRS had to break their silence after three days and admit a strike was taking place.

And the government gifted the strikers further coverage, when select journalists were invited to a high profile “clean up” operation.

Reporters saw at first hand drugs in every prison block, and prisoners in total control. Inmates’ claims about conditions in Maafushi were proved credible.

Azima Shukoor, the deputy home minister, was dispatched to the island. She acknowledged a list of grievances, and conceded the government had reneged on promises made in 2003 to implement rehabilitation for drug offenders.

Hollow Victory?

But for all the media attention, little has changed since. Thasmeen Ali was shifted from the Home Ministry to the equally powerful Atolls Ministry,

He has been replaced as Home Minister by the staunch loyalist Abdullah Kamal Deen, even less likely to challenge Police Chief Adam Zahir on prisons reform.

The long promised rehabilitation centre on Maafushi is still not open. Prisoners are now being allowed to go abroad for treatment at their own expense, “but not many people can afford that,” says Moosa.

And there is still nothing do in prison. “There used to be a library, but since before I arrived its been used for office space.”

“There was a gym we could use. But in June [2006] when the Star Force [paramilitary police] arrived on the island, they took all the equipment to use in their quarters.”

“There is absolutely no way to study.”

What Next?

But though the strike ended in chaos with Moosa and sixty other “leaders” transferred to Dhoonidhoo, he says it was worth the sacrifice. “The thinking of a lot of prisoners has changed.”

“Before most prisoners couldn’t think beyond Maafushi. Now they see a return to society as a real option, and they are demanding help to get there.”

The change in prisoners’ outlook needs to be matched by the government, says Moosa.

“The government simply doesn’t have the will to tackle rehabilitation. Its been promised for five years, so where is it?”

Moosa says the problem can be traced back to the state’s reaction to the arrival of drugs in the 1990s.

“When hard drugs first started arriving, the first stage should have been treatment. But drugs, and drug users, were criminalised. There are still these ridiculous penalties. Twenty years, thirty years, life, for taking something.”

“People need to change the way they think. They need to believe a second chance is possible for drug addicts. Otherwise we are giving up on a lot of people.”

“One generation has been lost,” Moosa says. “But its not too late to save the next one.”

Likes(0)Dislikes(0)

In June Dr Mohamed Munavvar won what was expected to be a tight contest with Ibrahim Hussein Zaki for the leadership of the opposition Maldivian Democratic Party, by a landslide.

Munavvar’s victory triggered a war of words between members from Addu and Malé, the Maldives two most populous and developed atolls. Adduans claimed the party hierarchy did not want an outsider as leader, while critics of Dr Munavvar said he was too closely associated with President Gayoom’s regime, and had never shown sufficient commitment to the street protests that are the bedrock of the MDP.

But while Munavvar’s election highlighted divisions, he had stood on a platform of unity, promising to work closely with his rival Zaki, and the party chairman Mohamed Nasheed (Anni). Last week he unveiled his first shadow cabinet which did not include any of his personal supporters, and he has won high praise from Anni so far.

In his first full interview since becoming MDP President, Dr Munavvar commits himself to the MDP’s brand of direct action and reaffirms the party’s priority is to topple President Gayooom. But he also promises under his leadership the MDP will offer Maldivians a vision of how the party would run the country.

Protest and Policy

Dr Munavvar confronts concerns about his leadership head on. “People are right to say I have not been physically present at street demonstrations. But my position is clear. The government has been forced to give in on a number of important issues, when people have taken direct action. I fully understand the value of direct action, especially in an oppressive political atmosphere.”

And he adds the words many MDP supporters have been demanding. “If direct action is needed to achieve any objective of the party, I will support it, and I will be at the forefront of it.”

He reaffirms, “the aim of the MDP is to overthrow Gayoom,” and warns “we cannot think we are in a functioning democracy.” But Munavvar also says people should not “view the MDP only as a party of protest.”

“When someone is asked what it would be like to live under an MDP government, they should be able to visualise clearly what the country will be like. There is a lot of ground to cover in this. We need to let people know what are our policies and how we will deliver them.”

Shared Leadership

And this is where his election posters, which contrasted a picture of Anni and Zaki under the banner, “Good,” with a second picture of Dr Munavvar alongside Anni and Zaki, under the banner, “Better,” begins to make sense.

“My addition to the leadership will be bringing the policies of the party to the people, convincing them of the sustainability of the policies, and our ability to deliver them.”

Munavvar emphasises the word “addition,” and he pays tribute to the contributions of Anni and Zaki to the party, reassuring both of their continued importance.

“Zaki’s experience in foreign affairs is crucial and will be used,” Munavvar says. Asked why Zaki has lost his foreign affairs portfolio in Munavvar’s shadow cabinet, he explains, “It is not appropriate for a personality like Zaki’s to be limited to a single portfolio. His role is wider than that and I will work very closely with him on every issue.”

On Anni’s role in the party, Munavvar is even more complimentary. “Anni has been part of the party since the very beginning. His contribution has been invaluable and no one should diminish it.” For the future, he says, “Anni’s role in organising and delivering on direct action will be very important.”

Unity

And Munavvar is quick to dismiss accusations Anni has a dictatorial approach to leadership.

“To build a party in a country where a regime has been in power for thirty years and is doing all it can to retain power is not easy. A lot of people are dependent on the government, and cannot do or say things they want to. In this situation a lot of things have had to be done by Anni.”

Munavvar says it is Anni’s willingness to take the lead which has led to criticisms of his style. Rejecting such criticisms, Munavvar instead says he recognises Anni’s “sacrifices.”

Munavvar accuses the government of “amplifying rifts between islands,” to divide the MDP. By encouraging Addu people to be suspicious of Malé people, such as Anni, and vice-versa, Munavvar says “the government tries to gain support for themselves instead.”

But, he reiterates, “The MDP belongs to its members and party constitution says it will not discriminate on the basis of the island or family a member is from.”

Learning Process

Munavvar has assembled his first shadow cabinet, in which six of his ten appointees are MPs. Conflict between MPs and the National Council, which in the past have been shorthand for constitutionalists and militants, has been a recurring problem for the MDP.

The party’s first president, the MP Ibrahim Ismail, resigned accusing the National Council and Anni of imposing militancy on MPs. While in November 2006, MPs warned party activists against using violence during a planned nationwide demonstration.

But Dr Munavvar says this apparent vulnerability of the party is actually a strength, a sign of “the tolerance of diversity of political opinion in the party.” Dr Munavvar says past clashes between the governing institutions of the party were part of a “learning process.”

“Politics is about making the right choices and the right compromises at the right time, and the relationships between organs of the party should reflect this.”

Unilateral

And Munavvar says the MDP’s internal debate contrasts favourably with the government’s Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP). He says President Gayoom’s recent unilateral declaration he will be the DRP’s presidential candidate in 2008, “showed a lack of knowledge of how the party system works and how people face elections.”

“People run in elections because they have a vision for the country and confidence in the people to trust this vision. But Gayoom has none of this. He says he is running because a party regulations says so, and this is the worst possible reason.”

But Munavvar welcomes Gayoom’s announcement, saying “it makes it easier to campaign for a parliamentary system,” in the August referendum to decide between a presidential and parliamentary system.

If Maldivians chose a parliamentary system in August, the post of president will be abolished, and Gayoom’s declaration will be meaningless. Munavvar says he is confident, “the people of this country will not tolerate Gayoom running in another election.”

Likes(0)Dislikes(0)