Day: December 3, 2009

Head of Indian coastguard visits president

The director general of the Indian coastguard visited President
Mohamed Nasheed yesterday.

Vice Admiral Anil Chopra is on a visit to inspect the annual
Maldives-India coastguard exercise which will be held from the 1 to 4
December.

During the meeting, the president said the joint training exercises
were highly useful to the Maldives and thanked the Indian government
for conducting the exercises.

The pair further discussed the threat of pirates in the Indian Ocean
and noted that the joint training programmes would help enhance
bilateral relations that existed between their respective countries.

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French ambassador visits president

French ambassador Mr Michel Lummaux paid a farewell call on President
Mohamed Nasheed yesterday.

The president thanked Lummaux and the French government for their
support in ushering in democracy to the Maldives.

He added he hoped France would continue assisting the Maldives in
consolidating democracy in the country.

Nasheed said French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s contribution was
essential in reaching a resolution on climate change at the
Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Trinidad and Tobago.

Last week, Commonwealth heads met for their two-day annual meeting.
They were joined for the first time by non-Commonwealth leaders
Sarkozy, the Danish prime minister and the UN secretary general.

Nasheed said the resolution renewed hope of reaching a climate change
treaty at the summit on the issue in Copenhagen later this month.

Lummaux told the president France would continue to assist the
Maldives and was aware of the vulnerability of low-lying nations such
as the Maldives to climate change.

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Swine flu testing to resume

The centre for community health and disease control has said testing
for swine flu would resume at the Indira Gandhi Memorial Hospital
(IGMH) from last night onwards, Voice of Maldives reports.

The test has not been available at the state hospital due to lack of supplies.

An official from the health sector said people have tested positive
for influenza A in the capital as well as Haa Dhaal, Shaviyani, Noonu,
Raa, Baa, Alif Alif, Vaavu, Meemu, Thaa and Gnaviyani atolls.

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Villa College to offer masters programme

Villa College signed a MoU yesterday with Malaysia’s Open University
for a masters of education programme in the country, Voice of Maldives
reports.

The college said the main purpose of the MoU was to offer the masters
degree course to allow students to complete the qualification without
having to go abroad.

The programme is aimed at school principals, administrators and policy
level officials in the education sector.

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EC denies IDP request to revoke membership of over 5,000

The Elections Commission (EC) has denied a request by the Islamic
Democratic Party (IDP) to revoke the membership of 5,044 people,
Haveeru reports.

Mohamed Tholal, director general of the EC, said the request was
denied as it would have violated the rights of its members.

IDP had filed the request after receiving complaints from the new
members denying they signed for the party.

Umar Naseer, leader of the party, said the request was made as the
party would have to submit a registration update soon. He added the
party would not pursue the matter any further.

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Saudi prince given award

President Mohamed Nasheed conferred the Order of Distinguished Rule of
Izzuddeen to Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin AbdulAziz Alsaud of Saudi
Arabia yesterday.

The medal was given to the prince under article 115 of the
constitution, in recognition of his important contributions to the
development of the Maldives as well as his services globally to
promote Islam, democracy and understanding.

The Order of Distinguished Rule of Izzuddeen was created in 1972 and
is among the highest ranking honours conferred by the state. It is
named after Sultan Hassan Izzuddeen, the Maldivian hero who liberated
the Maldives from foreign rule in the 18th century.

Upon arrival at Muleeage, Prince Alsaud and Princess Ameera were
welcomed with an honour guard conducted by the Maldives National
Defence Force.

At the ceremony, the president said the medal was given to the prince
because of his work “in representing democratic forms in Islamic
countries”.

He added he hoped close ties between the Maldives and Saudi Arabia
would continue to strengthen in the future.

Prince Alsaud praised the president for the smooth transfer of power
that took place in Maldives following the country’s first multi-party
election.

He said that “any investment opportunity that helps the Maldives…we
will be the first to lead in having it executed.”

The prince further commended the Maldives’ efforts to bring climate
change to the world’s attention.

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More mules arrested in latest drug bust

Police have taken two Maldivians into custody at Male’ airport after receiving information from India that the pair were carrying drugs.

Twenty-five year-old Nishana Rasheed of M. Lansimoog and a 17-year-old girl travelling with her were detained by customs officers after arriving in Male’ from Trivandrum in India.

Searching their bags, officers discovered 1.3 kilograms of hash oil in polythene bags wrapped up inside bed sheets. A further search of the women found over 100 grams of heroin concealed on their
persons.

The total street value of the drugs would have been more than Rf400,000 (US$31,000), estimated Sergeant Shiyam from the Maldives Police Service.

“We would consider anything more than a kilogram to be a large bust,” Shiyam said.

The use of drug mules to get contraband into the country is a growing trend, according to the Maldivian Customs Service.

Last month four Maldivians also travelling back from Trivandrum were detained after over a kilogram of hash oil was found in cardboard boxes in their luggage.

Nishana Rasheed
Nishana Rasheed, suspected drug mule

The two men and two women claimed the boxes were given to them to bring to Male’ by another Maldivian in Trivandrum.

In April an elderly couple were detained after customs discovered them carrying a casserole dish containing more than a kilogram of heroin. They had also travelled from Trivandrum.

The prosecutor general has since charged Hussain Mohamed Manik of H. Rehi for his involvement in the crime.

President Mohamed Nasheed revealed in May that the identities of the country’s top six drug kingpins were known to the government, but said arrests could not be made before the parliamentary elections in case they were thought to be politically motivated.

Police meanwhile has appealed to travellers to inspect the contents of packages given to them by other people before travelling, as they would “have to bear full responsibility for anything in their luggage or possession.”

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Holhudhoo prepares for beach erosion

Residents of Noonu atoll Holhudhoo have sent a letter to their island councillor expressing concern over the escalation in beach erosion, especially as monsoon season approaches.

Councillor Ishaq Rasheed told Minivan News that erosion was particularly bad on the north-east corner of the island where land had been reclaimed and plots given out to islanders to build houses.

“It happens every year during the north-east monsoon but it was worse last year than before,” said Ishaq, adding that he feared a repeat in late December or early January.

“One house owned by Badeeu was almost built. He just had the foundations. But luckily he didn’t built it otherwise it would have been completely in the sea,” he said.

In another example, Ishaq said the occupants of Saraamanzil were forced to leave their house on several occasions “because the sea is almost up to its walls”.

He said that although the President had pledged to build a sea wall, the government was still awaiting loan assistance for the Rf2 million (US$156,000) project.

For now, he continued, residents with homes on the north-eastern corner of the island would have to be relocated when the weather worsened.

As one of the lowest-lying countries in the world, the Maldives is particularly vulnerable to rising sea levels and its corollary, beach erosion.

In 2007, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicted sea level rise of between 18cm and 59cm within the next century would submerge many of the Indian Ocean nation’s islands.

Speaking to Minivan News, Abdulla Shahid, chief coordinator at the disaster management centre, said that no action had been taken to tackle Holhudhoo’s erosion problem yet.

“The main reason is budget difficulties,” said Shahid, who added that over 70 per cent of islands in the Maldives experienced beach erosion.

If budget was not a question, Shahid said he would like to acquire the technical know-how and assistance to build bespoke harbours for each of the islands.

“This is what’s causing these problems. There might be other issues related to climate change but most of these erosion problems are related to harbours,” he said.

The Maldives’ “cut and paste” harbours have been criticised for not taking an island’s specific attributes, such as sand movement, into consideration, resulting in erosion.

Although islands in the Maldives are dynamic and coastal erosion is counterbalanced by subsequent sand accretion, erosion is worsened by man-made activity such as ill-conceived harbours.

Shahid said he was seeking cooperation with other countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom, which had experience of designing and building harbours.

Until then, he said, sandbags provided a temporary measure, adding that the disaster management centre had recently sent 1,200 sandbags to Raa atoll Dhuvafaaru to help with the problem.

“We have got our work cut out and we have got nothing but empty coffers,” he said.

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