Month: June 2010

Maldivian woman stabs ex-husband to death

A Maldivian woman in Male has stabbed her ex-husband to death, after a disagreement between the former couple, police confirmed to Miadhu Daily.

The name of the deceased man and the woman have not been released, although police confirmed the man was 34 and the woman was 21 years old. The stabbing occurred at Baikendige house on Hadheebee Magu in Henveiru ward late yesterday afternoon, say the police, and the man died while being treated at ADK Hospital, according to Miadhu Daily. Police confirmed the man was stabbed at his ex-wife’s residence and she called the police after the incident and confessed. According to onlookers, the man ran into a small nearby shop after the stabbing and asked the shopkeeper to contact police and medics. He was stabbed directly through his lungs and this lead to a heart failure, said doctors speaking to Miadhu Daily.

Haveeru Online treated the story as ‘breaking news’ and gave timed updates as it gathered more information about the incident. Miadhu Daily said the incident ‘brought surprise and shock to many Maldivians, as a woman stabbing a man to death is a very rare occurrence throughout the world.’

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Maldives Provincial School Supervision program established

The aim of the new school supervision program is to enable schools in Maldives to judge their educational levels and to promote high standards.

A workshop to train staff for this purpose will be held on 27 June in Male’. A total of 52 participants including principals and leading teachers from atoll schools will take part in the workshop.

‘Baraabaru Schools Indicators’ (Standards of Excellence School Indicators) have been introduced for the academic year 2010.

These indicators will be used to supervise the schools each year, instead of every five years as was done previously.

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Woman stabs ex-husband to death in Male’

A 21 year-old woman has been arrested after allegedly stabbing her 34 year-old ex-husband to death near Woodapple restaurant in Male’.

Police said the man died in hospital on Tuesday afternoon while he was receiving medical treatment.

Police Sergeant Abdul Muhusin declined to reveal further information on the case “as the investigation is ongoing.”

The criminal court trial began yesterday with murder charges presented against Mariyam Nazaha by state prosecutor Dheebaanaz Fahmy.

According to daily newspaper Haveeru, Fahmy claimed Nazaha hid a knife in her bedroom with the intention of stabbing Hassan Shahid, of Machangoalhi Edhuruge.

Nazaha acknowledged the charges and denied them, Haveeru reported. Her lawyer, Ahmed Abdulla Afeef, said he would review the documents before responding to the charges.

Meanwhile, a person familiar with the matter told Minivan News the victim was stabbed by his ex-wife, after they separated some time ago.

He said he saw the victim run out of Baikendi in the Henveiru district of Male’ yesterday afternoon, enter a nearby shop and ask the shopkeeper to call the police as he had been stabbed.

”At first people in the shop thought he was joking, but then he took his hands from the wound and showed them the blood,” said the source. ”He was stabbed once in the lower back.”

The source told Minivan News that two passing police men stopped and assisted the injured man, while police headquarters sent more officers to the scene.

”He was taken to ADK hospital for treatment and later died,” he said.

The source claimed the man was stabbed inside the house where his ex-wife lived.

”He used to come to that house but he was not allowed inside,” the source said. ”They have a child that he comes to visit.”

He said the incident may have been the result of a court ruling yesterday regarding the child’s guardianship.

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13 Day Invoice Deadline for DRP over alleged Rf500,000 debt to Island Aviation: Civil Court

The DRP has been given 13 days by the Civil Court to complete an examination of documentation and invoices from Island Aviation Services, which is claiming that debts of Rf500,000 are owed to the Maldives government airline by the opposition political party, reports Miadhu Daily.

The Court said this would be DRP’s last opportunity to respond to Court orders, according to Miadhu Daily, and the DRP would have to respond to Island Aviation Services regarding the case by IAS against the DRP for unpaid bills.

In the previous hearing held on the case, the DRP’s lawyer appealed for more time to examine the documentation and invoices presented by the national airline, reported Miadhu Daily, and the DRP also hinted that it desired to settle the case out of court, after the IAS went to court following lack of cooperation from DRP.

The DRP later said it needed more time and requested an extension.

During the latest hearing, the IAS lawyer said that the airline no longer wished to reach an “out of court settlement” with the DRP, according to Miadhu Daily, and the DRP had also failed to respond to IAS’s earlier calls for an out of the court settlement, the IAS lawyer added.

The IAS has said that DRP is trying to delay payment as long as it can, and the DRP’s lawyer did not dispute the fact that there was a pending payment, but he said some of the IAS invoices were repeated and disputed the exact figures claimed by the IAS, reported Miadhu Daily.

The DRP lawyer asked for 29 days to verify the IAS documentation, but was given 13 days.

The judge also declared at yesterday’s hearing that the DRP has failed, or does not wish, to settle the issue out of court as earlier proposed by the IAS.

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30% Cut to Import Duties at Southern and Northern ports in Maldives

Import duties levied at the Northern and Southern Regional Ports of the Maldives are to be cut by 30% from 1 July 2010.

President Nasheed approved the 30% cut after recommendations by the Cabinet.

Cabinet made the recommendations mainly to lessen pressure on the Malé commercial port and to increase economic activity at regional ports.

The Cabinet also declared Kalhaidhoo island, Haddhunmathi (Laamu) atoll as an uninhabited island. Kalhaidhoo was judged unsafe, following the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004. Most Kalhaidhoo people have been relocated to Gan on the same atoll, and currently only 27 people remain in Kalhaidhoo. The French Red Cross has provided housing for Kalhaidhoo people at Gan.

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Amendment to Decentralisation Act allowing joint development projects among atolls defeated in Majlis vote

An amendment to the Decentralisation Act was rejected by a 5 vote majority in the yesterday’s sitting of the Majlis – 37 MPs against, 32 MPs in favor.

The current Decentralisation Act states that only the Majlis can authorise inter-atoll projects or combine two or more administrative units (an atoll or part of an atoll designated as an administrative unit) for economic, social or administrative purposes.

The amendment aimed to provide more leverage to the administration to implement joint economic and social projects between two or more atolls, or administratively divided parts of an atoll, reported Miadhu Daily.

DRP MPs spoke strongly against the amendment, and criticised the current administration.

President Nasheed (a member of the MDP) signed the Decentralisation Act into law on 17 May 2010.

MDP MPs criticised the DRP and other opposition parties for voting against government proposals which would benefit the Maldivian people, reported Miadhu Daily. MDP MPs said that the DRP’s words do not match their actions which they described as a sign of an irresponsible opposition, and MDP MPs said that DRP’s main strategy at the moment was gaining support through creating fear against the MDP administration and destroying the trust between the administration and the people, reported Miadhu Daily.

MDP MPs also said the opposition parties were conducting a major smear campaign in its efforts to oust the executive government before the end of its 5 year term, reported Miadhu Daily, and MDP MPs also cited examples from EU and ASEAN showing that joining two or more administrative units for economic purposes would bear fruit because unity is the key to development.

The amendment had been presented to the Majlis by the MP for Henveiru-South, Hamid Abdul Ghafoor.

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Transparency Maldives granted Rf1m to assess financing of political parties

Local NGO Transparency Maldives has received a grant of almost one million rufiya (GBP£50,000) from the British High Commission in Colombo for a project investigating the financing of political parties in the Maldives.

The grant was given through the UK government’s Strategic Programme Fund (SPF) in a bid to promote “greater transparency and accountability in political processes and increased general understanding of democracy and democratic principles in the Maldives.”

Project Coordinator Thoriq Hamid told Minivan News that experts from Transparency International would be training the local NGO in the same tool and methodology that had been “very successful” in assessing the financing of political parties in Latin America and Pakistan.

TM would be cooperating with the Elections Commission (EC) during the one year project, Thoriq said, and reviewing the specific laws and regulations of political party financing relevant to the Maldives.

Thoriq said he believed political parties would willingly open their books to the NGO.

“We are counting on our reputation – we have a good relationship with most political parties in the country,” Thoriq said.

“The tool itself tracks accountability, so an obvious lack of cooperation would reflect a lack of transparency,” he explained.

Transparency International considers corruption to be a major obstacle to development in growing economies. The organisation’s Global Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), which ranks countries according to the degree to which corruption is perceived to exist among public officials and politicians, listed Maldives 130th in 2009, equal with Mozambique and Nigeria.

The country’s CPI declined to 2.5 from 2.8 in 2008 and 3.3 in 2007, indicating a worsening perception of corruption.

Transparency Maldives describes itself as a “non-political organisation that promotes collaboration, awareness, and other initiatives to improve governance and eliminate corruption from the daily lives of people.”

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DRP proposes amendments to Religious Unity Act

Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) MP Dr Afrasheem Ali has proposed amendments to the religious unity act.

Presenting the bill, Dr Afrasheem said that social unity among Maldivians was weaker than it had been in the past.

”One reason for this [disruption] is issues of  religion, particularly disputes over worship and (scholars) criticising each other,” Dr Afrasheem.

He proposed that the Shafi sect be enshrined as the basis of Islam in the Maldives.

”I selected the Shafi sect because it is the sect most friendly, most accepted and most widely followed sect in Islam,” he said.

People’s Alliance (PA) Party MP Abdul Azeez Jamal Abubakuru said that the bill was necessary for the country.

”The Maldives used to be a country which was an example of social unity, but now we see cracks in that fort,” said Jamal.

Independent MP Ibrahim Muthalib also supported the bill.

”This is a very important bill,” said Muthalib, recommending several amendments to article 2(d) and article 2(e), after observing that the bill could potentially narrow the opportunity for foreign scholars to preach in the Maldives.

DRP MP Ahmed Mahloof also supported the bill.

”I recall during the last presidential elections, the Adhaalath party – which claimed to be promoting and protecting religion – tried to make (people believe) that former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom was a Christian,” said Mahloof. ”This is the situation of our country today.”

He said that it was very important to resolve disputes among people.

Chairperson of the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) and MP Mariya Didi thanked Dr Afrasheem for presenting the bill to amend the Religious Unity Act, observing that “our forefathers have protected the religion for 800 years.”

In May the Islamic Ministry announced that it had completed the new religious unity act, and has sent it to the government’s gazette for publication.

However when the new regulations were completed many organisations expressed concern over the regulations and it was held by the president’s office for amendments.

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