Month: May 2011

Auditor General presented with letter of appointment

The Maldives’ new Auditor General Niyaz Ibrahim was formally appointed by President Mohamed Nasheed yesterday, following approval by parliament.

Nasheed present Niyaz with a letter of appointment during a ceremony at the President’s Office before Supreme Court Judge Abdulla Areef yesterday morning, and requested he comprehensively audit all government authorities, and other institutions and the entire state treasury.

The President’s Office said that all independent institutions established under the new constitution of the Maldives should function as envisaged by the constitution to ensure the country’s progress.

The Maldives has been without an auditor general for over a year. The former auditor general was dismissed by parliament for purchasing a tie and transport on government money, a week after requesting an audit of all current and former government ministers.

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IFJ releases South Asian “Press Freedom in Peril” report

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ)‘s 2011 ‘Press Freedom in Peril‘ for South Asia has claimed there are “several matters of detail on which discord between journalists and the government is rife” in the Maldives.

The report, produced on behalf of the South Asia Media Solidarity Network (SAMSN) of which the Maldives National Journalists’ Association (MJA) is a member, states that “going beyond the perception-based indexes of press freedom that have put Maldives among the most rapidly improving countries, there are certain difficulties that journalists in the nation continue to face, even if these are not reflected in the broad numerical indexes, which are admittedly of limited value.”

The reports claims that journalists covering opposition demonstrations in October 2010 were been “beaten with batons, some of them shackled and a number briefly detained,” with police claiming that this occurred because “some of the journalists covering the demonstration had started engaging them in a confrontational spirit.”

The report also noted the opposition party had blamed the alleged assaults on journalists on Parliamentary Group Leader of the ruling Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), “who had, in the weeks preceding the event, made a number of public statements that suggested a deep antipathy towards the media.”

Manik referred to private TV channels in the Maldives as the fruit of ‘ill-gotten’ wealth and vowed to teach them a lesson,” the report claimed.

Subsequent findings from the Maldives Media Council (MMC) had “sought to be all things to all people, calling on journalists to follow a certain code of practice when covering events such as opposition led demonstrations, while at the same time, reprimanding the police for not giving adequate space for the media in their effort to record the protests.”

“Journalists needed to adhere to a certain standard of discipline, and the police needed to provide sufficient leeway for honest journalistic effort,” the report said, citing the MMC.

Attempts to devise a code of ethics and self-regulation for the country’s journalists by the MJA had been derailed by the state-owned media, the report claimed, “which was indifferent to this initiative, [and] which has rendered the code inoperative.”

The report noted a protest in October where four journalists from the private radio station DhiFM “were compelled to undertake a protest against their own employer when it turned out that the management had revealed the identity of a source used for a report on a tourist resort.”

“Irked by the content of the report, the resort management sacked the employee. The journalists who protested against their management’s unethical decision to reveal the identity of a news source, were in turn fired,” the report noted.

The report also highlighted the arrest of two Haveeru journalists in February 2011 “for interrogation” over leaked pornographic videos obtained from a Facebook blackmailing ring, which reportedly included material involved known public figures, and police efforts to obtain a warrant to search the newspaper’s offices, which was not executed.

A consistent concern throughout the year was the government’s decision to remove all government advertising from the media and publish an official gazette, depriving the industry of income, the report noted.

“By limiting the visibility of government advertisements, it has led to fears of bid-rigging and corruption in the award of official contracts. It has also caused considerable financial distress to the independent media,” the report stated.

The Miadhu newspaper had been compelled to move offices as a result of the decision, it claimed.

Read the full report: Free Speech in Peril: Press Freedom in South Asia 2010-11

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Comment: Climate change a real and imminent threat to the Maldives

Climate change is a very real and imminent threat to the Maldives, the smallest nation in Asia, which lost 20 islands during the 2004 tsunami. Since then, the government has gone strictly carbon neutral in a bid to protect its population from the rising sea.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague has described climate change as “perhaps the 21st century’s biggest foreign policy challenge”.

He has stressed that “a world which is failing to respond to climate change is one in which the values embodied in the United Nations will not be met”.

Indeed, the UN Charter makes clear that a central purpose of that organisation is to “achieve international co-operation in solving international problems of an economic, social, cultural or humanitarian character”.

Climate change is just such a problem – and its impacts and costs fall disproportionally on developing countries. That is deeply unfair. So it is only right that in Cancun last December the 16th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change reaffirmed the commitment from developed countries in Copenhagen in December 2009 jointly to mobilise $100bn of climate finance a year by 2020, to address the adaptation needs of developing countries and help them to limit their carbon emissions.

The UK takes this commitment very seriously and recognises the need for urgent action. The British Government has therefore allocated £2.9bn of Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) to international climate finance for the period 2011/12 to 2014/15 (including our Fast Start commitment). This will be administered through our International Climate Fund (ICF), which has just been formally established. We expect to spend about 50 percent of the total on adaptation in poor and vulnerable countries, with around 30% for work to reduce carbon emissions and 20% for forestry.

We have three overall priorities for ICF funding, which we will deliver through both bilateral and multilateral channels in a way which maximises its impact and value for money:

  • To show that building low carbon, climate resilient growth at scale is both feasible and desirable;
  • To support adaptation in poor countries and help build an effective international framework on climate change;
  • To drive innovation, creating new partnerships with the private sector to support low carbon climate resilient growth

The ICF will also fund the climate element of an Advocacy Fund to support the poorest countries to take part more effectively in international negotiations; this will be formally established later this year.

This UK funding will play an important role in helping to mobilise ambitious global action on climate change. But the UK is the only major donor so far to have made specific finance commitments up to 2015. More is needed to meet the Copenhagen commitment of $100bn a year by 2020. We look to other donors too to make significant and ambitious financial pledges, and we look to business to play an important role, since we expect the target to be reached through a mix of public and private finance.

As the Stern Review in 2006 made clear, the clock is ticking. With every passing year, the global cost of effective action to tackle climate change grows greater. The time to act is now.

John Rankin is the British High Commissioner to the Maldives and Sri Lanka.

All comment pieces are the sole view of the author and do not reflect the editorial policy of Minivan News. If you would like to write an opinion piece, please send proposals to [email protected]

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Suitcase murder victim’s family request death penalty during court hearing

Relatives of a murdered women whose body was placed in a suitcase and then dumped into rubbish at a Male’ construction site last year have requested that her alleged killer face the death penalty during an ongoing trial in the country’s Criminal Court.

Haveeru has reported that the family of the murdered woman, identified only as Shereen, had generally decided in favour of calling for the death penalty under the rules of Islamic Shariah, should suspect Mohamed Najah be found guilty of killing her.

According to the report, during the Criminal Court hearing that took place today in Male’, relatives of the victim, including her father, brother and three sisters, called for the sentence to be imposed over the phone from Lhaviyani Thun’dee Magistrate Court.

Shereen’s mother, who was present at the Criminal Court hearing in Male’, also stressed her preference for the death penalty if Najah was convicted, with Judge Abdulla Mohamed stating that three more relatives, who were unable to attend the court session, were required to provide their consent for the death penalty.

Statements are expected to be taken from these relatives at the court on a later date, the report added. Shareen’s body was discovered on January 2, 2010.

Currently, death penalties imposed within the Maldives are able to be reduced to a 25 years prison sentence by the president under the Clemency Act. In November 2010, the Criminal Court of the Maldives issued a death sentence to a person found guilty of murder. However the last person to actually be judicially executed was Hakim Didi in 1953, who was executed by firing squad after being found guilty of consipiracy to murder using black magic.

The death penalty issue has become extremely pertinent for the nation’s politicians of late with a number of amendments proposed this year to the country’s Clemency Act that outlines policy related to any possible death sentence.

on April 18, Parliament accepted an amendment presented by Jumhoree Party (JP) MP Ibrahim Muthalib requiring the death sentence to be implemented if the Supreme Court upholds an execution decision issued by itself or a lower court.

Out of the 59 present MPs, 14 declined the amendment, while three parliamentarians did not vote on either side.

MDP MPs Alhan Fahmy, Eva Abdulla, Hamid Abdul Gafoor, ‘Reeko’ Moosa Manik, Ilyas Labeeb, Imthiyaz Fahmy, Ibrahim Rasheed, Rugiyya Mohamed, Mohamed ‘Colonel’ Nasheed, Ahmed Rasheed, Mohamed Aslam, Ibrahim Mohamed Solih and DRP MPs Ali Azim and Hussein Mohamed voted to dismiss the amendment.

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Maldivian candidates complete US coastguard programme

Five students from countries including the Maldives, the Bahamas and Jamaica have completed a 17-week instruction course designed to train officers in the United States Coast Guard.

The five candidates were trained along with 37 US students at an Officer Candidate School as part of a programme that aims to verse participants in a military lifestyle along with dealing with “highly technical information” required by coastguards as part of their duty, reports the New England-based newspaper, The Day.

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Island councillor reportedly appointed without by-election

The Elections Commission (EC) has appointed a member to the Kamadhoo Island Council in Baa Atoll without a by-election after an application deadline passed with only one valid candidate.

Haveeru has reported that Ali Naaidh of Rosemead, Kamadhoo, was appointed to the local island council after the EC rejected two other applications from candidates from the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) and the opposition Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) that it said were “incomplete”.

A by-election has initially been planned for a month from today (June 5) after Ahmed Shafeeq, a previously elected member of the council resigned on the grounds of dealing with “personal problems”, the report added.

The EC were unavailable for comment when contacted by Minivan News at the time of going to press.

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Tour operators cancelling bookings after protest coverage

The impact of four nights of violent protests in Male’ has been felt by Maldivian tourism representatives attending the Arabian Travel Market in Dubai, the region’s largest such expo.

“Travel operators in Taiwan have said they are postponing and cancelling group bookins because of negative perceptions [of safety] in the Maldives,” a tourism source attending the expo told Minivan News.

“We just had another two confirmed bookings cancelled today because of reports of riots and instability. We worked hard to get these bookings and the potential domino effect is really worrying – people panic.”

The source noted that the average spend of couple holidaying to the Maldives was US$7000.

Reports in major newswires Associated Press (AP) and AFP on the Maldives’ protests were widely syndicated in world media, drawing largely from comments made by spokesperson Gayoom’s spokesperson Mohamed Hussain ‘Mundhu’ Shareef.

“Police are chasing protesters. Some of those injured have been rushed to hospital,” Shareef told AFP by telephone after last night’s protests, adding that scores of people had been arrested, “including parliamentarians Ali Arif and Ahmed Mahloof.”

“Arif and Mahloof were later released, but we have no news of Naseer’s whereabouts. Our legal team is trying to trace him,” Mundhu said.

Police said that Naseer was released at 1:30am, an hour after he was arrested. Minivan News spoke to Naseer today.

The previous evening, Shareef informed AP that 5000 people were demonstrating in the capital and dozens had been “crushed brutally”, including women.

“The opposition also blames Nasheed for failing to manage the economy – worth over a billion dollars – by recently devaluing the currency, while food prices have risen by as much as 30 percent,” AFP reported.

“Shareef said the protests aimed to emulate those across the Middle East and North Africa, pushing for political reforms in dictatorial regimes.”

Hong Kong yesterday became the first country to put out a travel warning on the Maldives, raising the country’s threat level to ‘amber’ alongside Israel, Iran, Indonesia, Russia and Pakistan.

China’s Xinhua news agency reported a government spokesperson as saying that “Those who plan to visit the Maldives or are already there should monitor the situation and exercise caution.”

Chinese visitors to the Maldives now constitute the greatest number of tourism arrivals, and are a major emerging market. A sharp increase in recent years offset a decline in European arrivals caused by the global recession in 2008.

The Maldives Association of Travel Industry (MATI) has meanwhile issued a statement claiming that reports on the situation were “exaggerated and ill-informed.”

“The series of demonstrations and public unrest by political groups opposed to the government of the Maldives have, over the last few days, led to some reports in the international press of civil unrest in the country.

“The Maldives is safe for visitors and remains peaceful and stable. The police and other authorities have the political situation well under control,” MATI stated.

Further protests – which the opposition maintains are ‘youth-led’ despite the active organisation of opposition MPs – are planned for the weekend, with reports of islanders travelling to Male’ to participate.

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Police officer faints in court

The Criminal Court has said that a police officer who attended the court to request extension of detentions for persons arrested fainted inside the chamber last night.

”This incident occurred while he was presenting the request for extension of detention inside the Criminal Court,” said the court. ”The cause of this incident may be that he had to work long hours and was not fed.”

The court said the officer received no further injuries during the incident.

The Court noted that these days Male’ was in a harried condition and police and judges had been working very busy along with court staff.

”Many have been arrested by police on different charges lately. Last night 90 persons were brought before the judges,” said the Criminal Court.

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MDP council approves “direct action to defend government” on Friday

The National Council of the ruling Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) has approved a resolution to conduct “direct action to defend the government, the constitution of the Republic of the Maldives, the President of the Maldives and senior government officials” against an opposition-led protest planned for Friday afternoon.

“Following disturbances over the past three nights, the [opposition allied] parties said [Monday night] that as they do not recognise the President and consider the government inept, their real purpose is to gather people to the capital Male’ from all across the country on Friday, May 6, 2011, to take the President out to the Republic Square, remove him from office in the presence of the police and army, and then torture and kill the President along with ministers and MDP leaders,” the resolution states.

The MDP resolution adds that as the opposition parties’ “decision to carry out this brutal deed was announced openly and publicly on VTV and DhiTV at 2.30pm last night [Monday night]” a council sub-committee shall be formed to determine the measures to be taken “in defence of the state.”

The committee consists of newly-elected MDP President Dr Ibrahim Didi, Vice-President Alhan Fahmy and MP “Reeko” Moosa Manik, leader of the party’s parliamentary group.

While the protests have adversely affected the public, school children and shops in the busy intersection of Chandanee Magu and Majeedhee Magu, the MDP resolution claims that corrupt ministers of the former government, wealthy businessmen and resort owners capable of controlling the dollar supply were leading and orchestrating the demonstration “in the name of youth”.

The resolution further accuses the protestors of “misleading the international community and the public” by spreading false information using opposition-aligned media.

Bad blood

Moosa meanwhile claimed today that a large group of opposition protesters broke into the house where his three children use to live, Henveiru Zeeniya, and made death threats against them and their grandmother before causing damage inside the residence.

“Fortunately, my children don’t live there anymore,” Moosa told the MDP website.

Moosa alleged that the group was acting on orders from Umar Naseer of Gayoom’s faction of the Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP), whose dismissal as Deputy Leader precipitated the rancorous split in the party.

On the second night of the protests, VTV showed footage of Moosa getting hit on the head with a rock while he was attempting to confront the protesters with a group of MDP activists.

Umar Naseer told Minivan News that “Moosa Manik must have been drunk and he probably meant to say Mohamed Nasheed and mistakenly said ‘Umar Naseer’.”

He called on Moosa to clear his car’s trunk, referring to the incident where some alcohol bottles were discovered inside a car belonging to Moosa, an incident over which Moosa sacked his driver claiming it was a set up.

Naseer added that protests would continue this evening, starting from the artificial beach.

”The youth are organising these protests, and we are taking part in it,” he insisted.

The National Council of the ruling Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) approved a resolution Tuesday to determine direct action to “defend the government, the constitution of the Republic of the Maldives, the President of the Maldives and senior government officials” against an opposition-led protest planned for Friday afternoon.

“Following disturbances over the past three nights, the allied parties said [Monday night] that as they do not recognise the President and consider the government inept, their real purpose is to gather people to the capital Male’ from all across the country on Friday, May 6, 2011, to take the President out to the Republic Square, remove him from office in the presence of the police and army, and then torture and kill the President along with ministers and MDP leaders,” the resolution states.

The MDP resolution adds that as the opposition parties’ decision “to carry out this brutal deed was announced openly and publicly on VTV and DhiTV at 2.30pm last night (Monday night)” a council sub-committee shall be formed to determine the measures to be taken “in defence of the state.”

The committee consists of newly-elected MDP President Dr Ibrahim Didi, Vice-President Alhan Fahmy and MP “Reeko” Moosa Manik, leader of the party’s parliamentary group.

While the protests has adversely affected the public, school children and shops in the busy intersection of Chandanee Magu and Majeedhee Magu, the MDP resolution claims that corrupt ministers of the former government, wealthy businessmen and resort owners capable of controlling the dollar supply were leading and orchestrating the demonstration “in the name of youth”.

The resolution further accuses the protestors of “misleading the international community and the public” by spreading false information using opposition-aligned media.

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