The Maldives National Congress (MNC) today claimed it was gathering a group of lawyers with the intention of bringing former president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom before court, over allegations of human rights abuses under his administration.
President of the MNC Mohamed Naeem claimed Gayoom had killed “many innocent people” during his 30 years as president of the Maldives.
Furthermore, Naeem alleged that when MDP candidate Mohamed Nasheed became president, “there was nothing left of the government’s money.”
“Otherwise, today Maldivians would be living very happily,” Naeem said.
The MNC’s legal team would include lawyers brought from abroad, he added.
Gayoom’s spokesman Mohamed Hussain ‘Mundhu’ Shareef replied that “even if the MNC brings in lawyers from space, they cannot charge Maumoon for something he did not commit.”
Mundhu further added that Gayoom intended to file a lawsuit against Naeem for spreading “untrue stories” about the former president.
“We don’t consider the MNC a political party,” Mundhu said. “They have no supporters. I can say this because I have never met a member of that party from any part of the Maldives.”
The MNC also demanded that Gayoom “must not receive a single penny from the Maldivian government.”
Opposition party DRP spokesperson Ibrahim Shareef responded that if President Nasheed was receiving his monthly salary, Gayoom should receive his allowance for being former president of the Maldives.
Shareef added the MNC “did not know what were speaking about” and that they “had gone crazy.”
Maldivian infants with suspected congenital heart defects (CHD) are being flown to India for corrective surgery because of the lack of a pediatric cardiologist at Indira Gandhi Memorial Hospital (IGMH).
In one Indian hospital alone, over a two year period 40 Maldivian babies have undergone surgery for CHD claimed Maldives NGO ‘Tiny Hearts Maldives’, which is advocating early screening within the country.
Heart defects are a leading cause of infant mortality, obstructing or constricting blood flow in the heart and blood vessels or affecting the heart’s rhythm.
Early detection is possible through an echocardiogram however while IGMH owns an echocardiogram machine, the lack of a trained cardiologist has left it unused.
In response, THM is bringing two cardiologists to the Maldives from India who will be running a three day screening camp for pregnant women from 9-11 February.
While the camp is being held to screen unborn babies for congenital heart defects, particularly women who are between 18-24 weeks pregnant, “there is also the possibility for adults with heart conditions to come along and have a check up,” said Fathmath Hishmath Faiz, one of THM’s founding members.
On the first two days of the camp the doctors will be screening around 15 women a day each. The final day involves an awareness program on CHD.
THM have held a previous screening camp on 12 September 2009.
Hishmath said “We screened 12 babies during our first camp, but it was not as many as we would have liked because they were the only the cases we already knew about.
“The main focus of this camp is to find more cases of CHD,” she said, but added that it was also important “to create more awareness about this condition.”
Tiny Hearts
THM was officially launched on 23 September 2009, as an NGO to promote awareness about CHD.
According to www.congenitalheartdefects.com, CHD is one of the most common forms of birth defects and is responsible for more deaths in the first year of life than any other birth defects.
THM has a 24-hour hotline (7745173) for any inquiries regarding CHD.
A non-partisan organisation called ‘Democracy House’ was inaugurated last night at the social centre, with the objective of “working to ensure that all Maldivian citizens enjoy the rights provided to them in the Maldivian constitution”.
Speaking at the inauguration ceremony, chief guest Mohamed Waheed-Deen claimed bringing democracy to a country “is nothing difficult.”
“Finally democracy has come to the Maldives. But to keep it going this way will be the real challenge,” he said.
Many people did “not understand” democracy and making them more aware was the “most important thing”, he added.
“We see one political party fighting with the other and saying: ‘this is democracy’. We want to make people aware of real democracy,” he said.
Waheed said many of people in the Maldives have had their rights abused, “and the pain of it will remain for a long period of time.”
President Mohamed Nasheed will shortly visit Abu Dhabi to address the World Future Energy Summit, a gathering of industry leaders, investors, scientists, specialists, policymakers and researchers.
The summit delegates will discuss the challenges of rising energy demand and possible actions to achieve a cleaner and more sustainable future for the world.
During his visit to Abu Dhabi, Nasheed will also meet the President of Greece, the Malaysian Prime Minister and the President of the United Arab Emirates.
After the event he will visit Mumbai to speak at the Global Economic Summit on Trade and Investment, and Chennai where he will chair an investment event focused on the Maldives.
The president will also visit Bahrain to meet with senior government officials and businesses.
At a press conference before his departure, Nasheed said he hoped the visits would open more opportunities for investment and assistance for the Maldives.
A crane working on the construction of Machangoalhi Cocoage in Male collapsed yesterday evening.
The accident happened yesterday evening around 5:08 pm, when the crane fell onto neighbouring the neighbouring building, Machangoalhi Faransaage.
With the assistance of two more cranes, the collapsed crane was lifted at around 12:28 am. MNDF fire and rescue worked with the police and several construction companies to carry out the salvage operation.
Faransaage sustained some damage and the residents have now been moved into a guesthouse.
A man has been seriously injured while attempting to moore and anchor a fishing vessel.
Haaroon Ibrahim of Faafu Dharaboodhoo, Banafsaage was injured while he was trying to anchor the vessel ‘Rahmathulla’ in the Baa Goidhoo lagoon around 6:00 pm last night.
According to police the 55 year-old became tangled in the rope of the vessel’s second anchor and which pierced him in the left side of his body.
Police have not yet released any more information on his condition.
“Almost every” fuel seller in the Maldives is taking advantage of lax certification to cheat their customers by using inaccurate meters, the President of the Fuel Association of the Maldives has claimed.
Mohamed Rasheed accused the trade ministry of failing to certify petrol station meters and allowing the industry to take advantage of consumers for more than 30 years.
The trade ministry retaliated by saying it was impossible for them to check every fuel meter in the Maldives, and blamed the fuel suppliers for failing to inform the trade ministry the meters were uncertified.
Rasheed criticised the trade ministry for being “irresponsible”, claiming that the problem was a big drain on money for both consumers and the Maldivian government.
Chairman of Fisherman Union Ibrahim Umar said the organisations had received many complaint from fishermen that the fuel sellers are “cheating” them by showing them inaccurate measurements from uncertified meters.
Umar claimed that sometimes the fuel sellers “take half a barrel by showing the consumers the wrong meter.”
At a press confernce today, Rasheed called on the trade ministry to approve a law that every fuel station in the Maldives must be certified by the ministry.
Director of the Trade Ministry Solih Hussein said “if the fuel sellers inform us today [they have an uncertified meter] we will put on the seal by tomorrow morning.”
Furthermore, Solih accused the Fuel Association Of Maldives of contradicting its own rules and regulations by exposing its own members to accusations of impropriety by their consumers.
“The Fishermens’ Union can now file a lawsuit against the Fuel Association of Maldives, as they have been selling fuel without certifying their meters, while many of consumers remain unaware of this certification,’ Solih said.
He calls on every consumer in the Maldives not to buy anything measured using a uncertified meter “whether it’s fuel, rice or vegetables.”
Excessive human interaction with whale sharks in South Ari Atoll could eventually lead to the species leaving the area permanently, the Maldives Whale Shark Research Project (MWSRP) has warned.
“We have reports of tourists touching and even attempting to ride the sharks,” said Adam Harman from the MWSRP.
In June last year the southern tip of the Ari Atoll region, a year long whale shark aggregation site, was declared a marine protected area (MPA). But recently there has been a large increase in the number of tourists visiting the area.
“The whale sharks have attracted more and more tourists to the area. Sometimes there are 25 boats and over 100 tourists swimming around one shark,” Harman said.
Interaction guidelines were implemented to protect whale sharks in 2008. According to these guidelines, only 12-13 swimmers from one boat are allowed around a shark at any given time, and even then there is to be no contact with the animals. However these guidelines are difficult to monitor since they are self regulated.
According to MWSRP, once a shark is spotted all the boats in the area converge around the shark, ‘caging’ it in. This endangers the animal in many ways and there is a huge possibility of propeller damage.
“If this keeps up we risk losing the sharks. They will move onto other preferential habitats” warned Harman.
“Currently we are getting three sightings a day. We used to have 39 encounters in the same three day period.
“Its hard to say what could happen, but if things don’t change by this time next year, the number of sharks in this area could go down.”
The threat of losing the whale sharks is very real, Harman emphasised. Similar cases have been recorded in Mexico and South Africa, where whale sharks have been known to leave their habitats.
This is not the first incident in South Ari Atoll where marine life have left to seek other preferential habitats. South Ari Atoll Madivaru, ‘Manta point’, was once a popularsite for manta rays.
“At one time you could spot almost 50. Today however, spotting even one is considered lucky,” Harman said.
Tourists converge on a whale shark in a flurry of flippers
Violent clashes
The clash of ideas has led to hostile confrontations between operators and researchers. In one incident a knife was allegedly used by safari operators to threaten researchers.
Director of the Environmental Protection Agency, Ibrahim Naeem, confirmed the government had received reports of such confrontations.
“We have urged the researchers and operators to stay out of each others’ way,” he said. “We do get many complaints about people interfering with whale sharks, but since the law doesn’t say its illegal, people still do it,” he continued.
“Divers and safari operators argue that 12 swimmers per whale is not enough, while scientists say that more than 12 poses a risk to the animals. We are having talks with the people involved in the industry and are in the process of reviewing the guidelines.”
The MWSRP have been working closely with the evironment, fisheries and tourism ministries to find a solution to the problem.
Minister of Tourism Dr Ali Sawad said ” We have been working in coordination with the environment ministry, and we are looking for ways to increase awareness and work more closely with divers associations and safari operators.”
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