Day: June 1, 2011

Three prison guards convicted over Maafushi riot shooting sent back to prison

Three former prison guards sentenced to death by the former administration for shooting at inmates during a prison riot in 2003 have been returned to jail after they were found to be living at large.

Police Sub-Inspector Ahmed Shiyam confirmed that police had received reports that those found guilty were at large and had been handed over to the Department of Penitentiary and Rehabilitation Services (DPRS). He referred Minivan News to the Home Ministry for further information.

Home Minister Hassan Afeef referred Minivan News to the DPRS, while the DPRS referred Minivan News to State Home Minister Mohamed Naeem.

Naeem told Minivan News that the relevant documents showed that 12 of the 13 found guilty were sentenced to death, but former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, using Presidential privileges, had commuted their sentence to a 25 year imprisonment.

‘’The 13th person was the head of the prison – he was found guilty but was granted clemency by the High Court, which was allowed according to the then blue constitution,’’ said Naeem. ‘’It was unfair, and violated the rights of many. How come the former President could grant clemency to the head of prisons who ordered the shooting, but imprisoned the officers who did the shooting?’’

Naeem said the documents at the Home Ministry showed that the 12 officers were at first kept in Maafushi Prison until the new prison head sent a letter to the-then Home Minister Ahmed Thasmeen Ali – now the leader of the opposition – that it was unsafe for the 12 to be among the other inmates.

‘’They were then transferred to Dhoonidhoo Prison, and after two months again a letter was sent to Thasmeen from the then Deputy Police Commission saying that there was no lawful grounds for keeping convicts in Dhoonidhoo to implement verdicts,’’ he said. ‘’And that was the end of the document trail. We do not know what Thasmeen said in reply, or how they managed to stay at large.’’

Thasmeen did not respond to Minivan News at time of press.

Naeem said he regretted that the Home Ministry was obliged to send the convicted officers back to prison after such a long time.

‘’They have wives, kids and families, but this had to happen because of the former administration. If they had not freed them from prison, by now they would have served most of their sentence and could have even possibly apply for clemency,’’ Naeem said. ‘’But there is no other choice – it is our legal responsibility to implement verdicts, whoever it is.’’

Naeem said the action of the former administration had not only violated the rights of those found guilty, but also those of the victims.

‘’When the victims who survived that time see these convicted people roaming around the streets, how do they feel? It is unfair for them,’’ he said.

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UN Envoy claims Sri Lankan execution video authentic, depicts “war crimes”

Video footage purportedly showing Sri Lankan troops executing bound and naked Tamil dissidents in the closing days of the country’s civil war has been described as authentic by the UN’s Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions, Christof Heyns.

The video was obtained in 2009 by the UK’s Channel 4 news network and aired in August that year. Heyns’ predecessor Philip Alston declared in January 2010 that “extracts” were genuine.

Heyns obtained and analysed a longer version of the video in consultation with a forensic pathologist, firearms expert and two forensic video analysts, and this week concluded that the footage was authentic.

The Sri Lankan government has maintained that the video is fake.

“What is reflected in the extended video are crimes of the highest order — definitive war crimes,” Heyns told the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

“I conclude on the basis of the extensive technical evidence we obtained from independent experts that what is depicted in the video indeed happened. I believe that a prima facie case of serious international crimes has been made.”

The Sri Lankan government has been under international pressure to submit to a war crimes investigation after a UN report published in April found “credible allegations, which if proven, indicate that a wide range of serious violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law were committed both by the Government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE, some of which would amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.”

Head of the Sri Lankan delegation to the UN Human Rights Council, Minister of Plantation Industries, Mahinda Samarasinghe, argued that the UN was usurping Sri Lanka’s own Lessons Learned and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC).

“It is disconcerting to note the haste with which some have sought to usurp the government of Sri Lanka’s prerogative in deciding its domestic process,” Samarasinghe told the Council.

“We firmly believe that our home-grown process is capable of addressing the nuances of our unique situation.”

An international war crimes investigation can only be conducted on the invitation of the host government, or by the mandate of a UN body such as the UN Human Rights Council – on which the Maldives, Sri Lanka’s neighbour, ally and historical trading partner, sits.

During a recent press conference in Colombo, Foreign Minister Ahmed Naseem described the UN’s report into the country’s civil war as “singularly counterproductive.”

“The focus should now be on how the country can move forward,” Naseem said. “As a responsible member of the Human Rights Council, the Maldives believes it is imperative that the international community closely examine all aspects of the report before taking any further action.”

Upon the release of the report, President Mohamed Nasheed’s Press Secretary Mohamed Zuhair told Minivan News in April that the release of the UN’s document was belated.

“Why say it now? Why not when the war was going on? My point is that this report only appeared after the war was over. We support the Sri Lankan government’s desire for peace and harmony, and any government that brought about that peace should be held in high honour.”

Meanwhile, the Maldives Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva, Iruthisham Adam, on Monday addressed the Human Rights Council by “welcoming recent global events which have promoted accountability and justice.”

It was, she said, “a momentous time for human rights around the world – a time for accountability for past crimes, and a time of hope for new beginnings.”

“The flight of former President Ben Ali from Tunisia, the arrest and prosecution of former President Mubarak and his associates in Egypt, the arrest of former President Gbagbo in Cote d’Ivoire, the death of Osama Bin Laden, and the recent capture of Rtako Mladic in Serbia all send out a powerful message to those who believe they can violate human rights with impunity,” Ambassador Adam said.

She expressed concern that, in some countries, “governments have chosen to use fear, intimidation, and state-sponsored violence to subdue protests – a response which not only violates international human rights law but one which is also doomed to failure.

“The more those governments try to tighten their control, the less control they will in fact have. The Maldives today renews its call for these governments to immediately stop using force, to listen to their people, and to begin genuine programmes of democratic and human rights reforms.

“In our globalised, inter-dependent world, those who would trample human rights, deny basic freedoms, and kill in the name of power or greed will ultimately be held accountable.

“No matter how high their walls, those who violate human rights will be brought to justice. These welcome developments across different continents are not only important as signals that impunity is, in the end, illusory; they are also important in that, by dealing with the past, by securing accountability and redress, the countries concerned are laying the foundations for a better future.”

Warning: some readers may find the following footage disturbing

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DRP’s Thulusdhoo branch threatens to “shift sides” if internal dispute continues

The opposition Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP)’s Thulusdhoo branch has released a statement to the media claiming that supporters of the DRP in Thulusdhoo will “shift sides” if the internal split in the party continues.

‘’We call on former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom and DRP Zaeem (honorary leader) to solve the internal dispute within the party,’’ read the statement,signed by the Deputy Head of Thulusdhoo Branch.

The statement acknowledged that DRP supporters were “in turmoil and deeply confused due to the split” and warned that those supporters in Thulusdhoo might have to change sides if the dispute remained unresolved.

‘’The citizens can no longer tolerate watching members leave the party,’’ the DRP branch stated, in reference to the recent defections of several DRP MPs to the ruling Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), including Ali Waheed Abdulla Abdu-Raheem. ‘’Consequently it will the ordinary citizens living in the islands that will suffer, due to the unrest and loss of members.’’

The branch added ‘’that as Maumoon was the person who introduced democracy to the Maldives, who led the Maldives for 30 prosperous years and is a person who lives in a democracy, we call on Maumoon to solve the dispute between the leadership democratically.’’

Thulusdhoo is an island with a majority of DRP supporters who voted for the party in the recent local council elections.

Since then, the party has been split after ‘honorary’ leader Gayoom clashed with the party’s leader Ahmed Thasmeen Ali over the dismissal of former Deputy Leader Umar Naseer. Gayoom’s supporters have since created a splinter faction they call the Z-DRP, in a move that prompted the defection of several MPs previously loyal to Thasmeen.

DRP MP Dr Abdulla Mausoom said the statement issued by Thulusdhoo’s DRP branch showed that the remaining supporters in the party wished it to be unified.

‘’To do that firstly, everyone in the party must fully respect the party’s charter,’’ Dr Mausoom said. ‘’There are different ways people express concern – some put more effort to solve the dispute, while others leave the party in frustration.’’

He said to uphold democracy in this country a strong, responsible opposition party was needed.

‘’The entire nation believes that the DRP is an opposition party which has to be there to uphold democracy,’’ he said. ‘’Although there are some internal disputes, we will solve them hopefully and by God’s will we will win the 2013 Presidential Elections under Thasmeen’s leadership.’’

Z-DRP spokesperson Ahmed Nihan was unavailable at time of press.

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Israeli fugitive arrested with fake Maldivian passport

An Israeli fugitive was arrested in Thailand yesterday in possession of a fake Maldivian passport.

Forty-one year-old Levy Ben-David escaped from an Israeli prison in 2000, after being convicted for robbing and murdering the owners of a jewelry shop in Belgium in 1993.

The fake Maldivian passport Ben-David was using to evade authorities was in the name of Dmitry Milevm, according to Thai police, who arrested him in a Bangkok apartment.

An Israeli newspaper reported that Ben-David had married a Thai woman and had two children. He is due to be extradited.

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Police investigating 51 complaints of torture and wrongful imprisonment

Police are investigating 51 new complaints of torture and wrongful imprisonment after soliciting cases from an office in the Velaanage building.

The torture investigation committee led by former Defence Minister Ameen Faisal was formed by Presidential decree to investigate torture allegations against former government, and obtain information concerning prison torture carried out during both the current and former administrations.

The office was opened last week following the release of disturbing photographs of tortured victims in custody, and the arrest of former prisons chief Isthafa Ibrahim Manik, who has since been released to house arrest on order of the High Court.

The photos released so far include images of men tied to coconut palms, caged, and bloodied. One of the photos, of a prisoner lying on a blood-soaked mattress, has a 2001 date stamp.

Police Sub-Inspector Ahmed Shiyam said some of the complaints concerned “inhumane activities” and violations of human rights within the prison system, while others related to people “who were imprisoned for a long time without trial, or were kept in custody despite a court order [to the contrary].”

“Most occurred a long time ago, 20-30 years,” Shiyam said. None of the 51 complaints selected for investigation referred to incidents in the last two years, he confirmed, although the office was continuing to seek information on recent cases.

The prisons system has been under particular scrutiny following the disappearance in April of crucial files relating to an investigation into human remains found on the site of the former Gaamaadhoo prison.

“People want to see justice for what happened,” a senior government source told Minivan News at the time. “Human remains were discovered and there is a strong reason to believe that something bad happened. However it looks like the investigation has been compromised.”

Police have since claimed that preliminary investigations revealed planned and systemic abuse of prisoners over a long period of time.

Several members of government, including President Mohamed Nasheed, maintain they were tortured in custody under the former administration.

Former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom has denied allegations – among others – that incidences of torture occurred during his rule.

“All such allegations of corruption, mismanagement and misappropriation of funds and property are baseless and completely untrue, as are those of torture, repression, and unlawful detention during my presidency,” Gayoom said in a letter to UK Prime Minister David Cameron last year, dated October 17.

“Nearly two years after the MDP government assumed presidency, Nasheed and his government have failed to uncover a single shred of evidence to substantiate any of these allegations,” Gayoom said.

Cases of previous custodial torture can be reported to the government’s investigation committee on the 12th floor of Velaanage, by phone on +960 333 0584 or +960 333 0585, or island police posts.

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Cabinet pledges cuts to duties on green tech

Cabinet has pledged to remove all import duties on vehicles powered with electrical or renewable energy sources to try and boost its own green commitments and reduce a national reliance on fossil fuels.

As part of this commitment, the government is also expected to cut import charges on solar panels and batteries that can be used as alternate energy sources for marine vehicles in the country.

According to the cabinet’s recommendations, vehicles and power sources exempt from import charges will require documents from the country’s Environmental Protection Agency to accredit any claimed eco-friendly benefits.

The move is tied to the country’s aims of trying to become carbon neutral by 2020, a goal President Moahamed Nasheed has previously claimed would be a disaster for the nation if not achieved – although the government is yet to outline the exact measures it will take to achieve these aims.

Cabinet’s decision to waive the import charges was made at a meeting held yesterday regarding funding developments to try and encourage greater use of renewable energy sources in everyday life and business. These measures include strategies such as subsidising 50 laari for every unit of electricity produced by renewable energy means.

Aside from this environmental focus, the cabinet was also reported to have taken the decision to cut duties on imports of raw materials and agricultural equipment that could be used to bolster fishing and poultry production to reduce the nation’s overall reliance on imports.

Recommendations were also put forward to develop 15,000 square feet of land in Hulhumale’ into a detoxification and drug rehabilitation centre supported from international donor aid.

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Climate finance a challenge for governance

Climate finance presents a governance challenge to ensure it reaches the right places, Maldives’ Ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Iruthisham Adam, has told Transparency International (TI).

“The Copenhagen Accord figure of US $100 billion per year by 2020 is a conservative estimate of needs, yet even this amount presents profound governance challenges,” Adam told TI.

“How can we generate this amount of money? How can we manage this funding? How can we distribute it to those who need it most and assure ourselves that the money is well spent and not abused?
These challenges are at the heart of why it was difficult to come to an agreement on climate financing at COP15. We also need a UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) oversight bodies to regulate the flows, distribution and efficacy of the fund. Climate financing has to be accountable and transparent in order to avoid abuse and inefficiency and build confidence and trust. Everything has come to a standstill because we are not able to build trust within the system, on which the whole UNFCCC negotiations are dependent. Procedures must be in place to allow local communities, NGOs and other stakeholders oversee the funds and build this trust.”

Full story

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Magistrate investigated after submitting documents claiming he was two years older than his son

The senior magistrate of the ‘Thundi’ ward of Gan in Laamu Atoll is currently under investigation after he filed documents at the Island Council Office indicating that his age was 50, despite his eldest son being  48 years old, reported Haveeru.

Haveeru reported allegations that the magistrate had intentionally defrauded the documents because he would have been required to resign from his position if he was over 60 years-old.

The paper also reported that the magistrate was now even younger than his younger brother, according to the documents submitted.

Sources told Haveeru that the magistrate’s real age was, 68 and his younger brother was aged 66.

Haveeru reported that another magistrate working in the same court was now investigating the case.

The court and staff declined to speak about the matter, reported Haveeru.

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Government outlines student loan funding amidst wider education criticisms

The government has moved ahead with a Rf50 million student loan programme in an attempt to support a larger number of local people in further education, replacing the “pocket money” grant scheme that previously supplied limited study funding free of charge.

The funding switch has raised concerns among some students and opposition figures, who claim that not enough is being done to support and prepare young people for the challenges of a more diverse Maldives job market.

Aminath Ali, Deputy Minister of Human Resources, Youth and Sports, told Minivan News that 340 students currently studying in higher or further education institutions in the Maldives were now able to claim an equal share of the government supplied funding, which was expected to be paid back once courses were over.

“Out of 367 existing students who applied for the loans, 27 were rejected as they were not currently studying in the Maldives,” she said.

The switch from the previous “pocket money” system has not been without controversy, with some local students demonstrating outside the President’s Office back in March in order to try and reinstate charge-free grants for those in higher education.

Student protesters claimed at the time that some of their peers appeared to still be getting the pocket money grant, while others were struggling to afford or obtain books required for their studies in light of the student loan switch.

A spokesperson for the opposition Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) this week also criticised the government’s implementation of the student loan system, as well as its overall commitments to education in the country, claiming that both the funding and the range of courses currently on offer were “not sufficient” for their own needs – or those of the job market that will one day employ them.

Aminath Ali said she accepted that a number of students had become concerned about the change towards providing loans instead of the free grants previously offered.  However, the minister claimed the new system was in place to try to ensure that both the country and citizens could afford further education on a more sustainable basis in the long-term.

“Under the current budget we cannot provide free learning and funding for students at higher education institutions.  The [student loans] are similar to mechanisms in place in countries all over the world,” she said.  “Say a student has a total loan amount of Rf24,000 over their studies, they will have to pay back this amount and a five percent administration charge to cover the role of their bank over an agreed period of time.”

According to Ali, once a student had completed their studies, they are then given six months to find a job before having to begin paying back the funding.

The deputy human resources minister claimed that sufficient mechanisms were in place to allow student to pay back their loans to the government over a maximum of ten years depending on their revenue.  Ali added that in consultations with the Employment Ministry, she was confident that graduates would be able find jobs within this six month period that offer long-term career prospects for those willing to work.

The loan system is also said to be backed by 100 percent scholarship programmes for students studying abroad in areas such as medical sciences and technology, according to the ministry.  Ali claimed that 180 scholarships, based on educational performance, had been offered between January and May of this year.

Separate funding had also been put aside by the Ministry of Human Resources for students to apply for when entering into further education during the present academic year.

The Ministry of Education claimed that the move towards student loans reflected the need for funding at a wider number of institutions in the country that now offer higher education courses to students across different fields of expertise.

DRP Spokesperson Ibrahim ‘Mavota’ Shareef said that while the opposition party welcomed measures to financially support students in higher education, he believed the new loan system had failed to take into account hardships faced by the young, particularly those coming from islands to Male’ to live.

According to Shareef, while previous systems had provided a pocket money allowance and even some forms of salary to fund study from the government’s purse, he claimed the new loans were insufficient to cover the expenses of moving to Male’.

“From the complaints we have received from students, [the student loans] are not a popular initiative.  Government must reconsider this system, changes are expected to be for the better,” he said.  “If the government was replacing [student funding] with a better system, it would be welcomed.”

When addressing the government’s own need to reduce national spending and its own budget deficits amidst commitments to organisations such as the International Monetary fund (IMF), Shareef said that the government would have been better served by “gradually” phasing out the “pocket money” system as opposed to replacing it completely.

“In a country, no matter how rich it is, education is not an area where funding should be cut,” he said.

In addition to concerns over the student loan system, Shareef claimed that he also believed that the current higher education curriculum was out of synch with the demands of the modern Maldives job market.

“The whole education system does not match up with the job openings currently being offered,” he claimed. “Until the 1980’s, we had limited [job] openings available , so the purpose of education and training was to get people ready for working the civil service,” he said.

With the advent and growth of the country’s the tourist industry along with the emergence of regional and multinational businesses moving into the Maldivian economy, Shareef claimed that the education system had failed to move with the times in making people ready for this changing workplace.

“There are not enough professionals available that are trained to work in management positions within the tourism, fisheries and even construction industries.  Education is simply not meeting these requirements,” he said

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