Day: February 20, 2011

Libyan army guns down demonstrators, UK backs away from Bahrain

Soldiers in Libya and Bahrain have fired on demonstrators as authorities try to quell growing unrest, triggered after protesters toppled 30 year autocrats in Tunisia and Egypt.

Troops in Libya reportedly shot and killed at least 12 mourners in the city of Benghazi, after a group tried to storm a military barracks and throw firebombs into the compound on the way to the funeral. Opposition groups claimed up to 60 were killed, while one activist told the BBC that the regime was releasing prisoners from jail to attack the demonstrators.

The BBC reported that troops used mortars and 14.5mm heavy machine guns to repress the civilians, while Al-Jazeera reported that hospitals were running out of blood needed for emergency transfusions.

Al-Jazeera also reported an account from a cleric in Benghazi, who witnessed a tank crushing two people in a car. Libyan President Muammar Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi has also imposed a news blackout on the country and banned journalists from entering.

Analysts have further suggested that the human cost of an Egyptian-style uprising in Libya could be far higher, given the military apparent enthusiasm for firing on its own population.

Bahrain’s military meanwhile shot and killed at least one demonstrator and wounded 50 more, during a funeral procession for four people killed in earlier unrest.

Rising tensions and ongoing demonstrations suggest that King Hamad bin Issa al-Khalifa’s gift of US$3000 on February 12 to every family in the poverty-stricken Gulf nation has failed to satisfy protesters.

The UK, which has previously supported regimes in Bahrain and Libya, announced it was withdrawing licenses authorising the sale on arms to both countries.

The UK’s Ministry of Defence has trained more than 100 Bahraini army officers in the past five years at its military college in Sandhurst, reports the UK’s Guardian newspaper, while the country is also a base for the US fifth fleet.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay has meanwhile condemned the shooting of protesters in Algeria, Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Libya and Yemen, and described the entire region as “boiling with anger.”

“At the root of this anger is decades of neglect of people’s aspirations to realise not only civil and political rights, but also economic, social and cultural rights,” Navi said.

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Grenade cache found on Dhaalu Atoll

Children playing on the uninhabited island of Kadimma in Dhaalu Atoll yesterday discovered a cache of explosives hidden in the bushes.

Police and the Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF) have not revealed the nature of the explosives, however images in local media revealed the ordinance to be grenades of modern appearance.

The children were attending a picnic on the island when the discovery was made. Following the find, a second group of islanders told radio station SunFM that they found eight such explosives on the island and threw them away.

Police Sergent Abdul Muhusin said the MNDF was investigating the case and that police could not comment on the issue.

MNDF Major Abdul Raheem told SunFM that an expert was now investigating the explosives.

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Employ recovering addicts, President urges big business

State-owned corporations and large businesses should help rehabilitate drug addicts back into society through active recruitment, President Mohamed Nasheed has said during his weekly radio address.

The President noted the state-owned construction firm Works Corporation Limited had employed 15 recovering addicts in its Thilafushi precast yard, and that 11 of the 15 had successfully completed the program. The company had now taken on an additional 25 young people to boost the government’s drug rehabilitation efforts, he said.

Addicts, he said, were isolated from their families and society as a result of their addiction, and such programs could return them to the community.

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No injuries reported in Male’ cemetery fire

No injuries have been recorded following a fire that damaged equipment and a cemetery building yesterday in Machangoalhi, Male’, local new reports have said.

Police authorities have confirmed that the blaze struck a second floor block used as staff accommodation at the “Aaa Sahara” cemetery, according to Haveeru.

The Maldives National Defence Force’s (MNDF) Fire and Rescue department dealt with the blaze, whilst police are now investigating the possible causes of the fire, the report added.

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Somali piracy spreading to Asian waters, says US military official

A high ranking US Military official has claimed that piracy originating from Somalia is expanding into Asia, potentially leading to “problems” for a nation like the Maldives, according to news reports.

Miadhu reported that Admiral Robert Willard, who has recently toured the Maldives in his role as commander of the 300,000 strong Pacific Command, claimed President Mohamed Nasheed had expressed concerns that pirates whether abandoned or lost during, had been landing in the Maldives.

Several dinghies containing Somali nationals were stranded in the Maldives last year. Defence personnel discovered a bullet casing in one of the later dinghies.

A recent Minivan News investigation found that although there was no evidence that national interests in the Maldives had been threatened so far by piracy, coastal security authorities and experts believed the country could potentially become a target for pirate vessels increasingly forced away from African waters by the naval presence in the Gulf of Aden.

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