Day: March 7, 2012

Government assures Transparency Maldives of willingness to accept international assistance in inquiry

President Dr Mohamed Waheed Hassan has assured Transparency Maldives of his willingness to include international groups in the inquiry into the events surrounding his accession to the presidency.

In a meeting with the local NGO, President Waheed and Attorney General Azima Shukoor also welcomed requests for increased transparency in the workings of the Committee of National Inquiry (CNI) which is charged with looking into the legality and legitimacy of the transfer of presidential power.

Transparency Maldives Project Director Aiman Rasheed emerged from the meeting confident that Dr Waheed would respect the importance of transparency and accountability in the inquiry process.

Rasheed told Minivan News that Dr Waheed saw an independent and transparent process as the way forward, and recognised that an enquiry which did not have the support of the people would only further political discontent.

The inclusion of international experts in any such inquiry has been urged by numerous international actors as well as the party of  former President Nasheed. The Commonwealth Ministerial Action Committee (CMAG), in a statement released after its own inconclusive enquiry into recent events, had strongly recommended an international element to any future investigation, “as mutually agreed to by political parties in Maldives.”

The largest party in the People’s Majlis, Nasheed’s Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), yesterday criticised the CNI for “dragging its feet” on the issue, in what it said was “a clear violation” of the wishes of the international community.

“The MDP hopes that the international community will immediately call on the Dr Waheed regime and the CNI to commit to significant international assistance in the investigation,” the party said in a statement.

MDP said it had received reports of that members of the police force willing to talk to the CNI were facing intimidation. MDP International Affairs Spokesperson Hamid Abdul Ghafoor said he believed that such reports only increased the need for international experts, including witness protection specialists, to help bring investigations to a successful conclusion. Ghafoor has previously drawn unfavourable comparisons between this investigation and the 2003 Maafushi jail enquiry whose independence was questioned and whose outcome was censored.

The CNI currently consists of three members: Ismail Shafeeu, former minister of defence and national security during President Maumoon Abdul Gayyoom’s administration; Dr Ali Fawaz Shareef, Deputy Vice Chancellor at Maldives National University; and Dr Ibrahim Yasir, former Director General of Health Services.

One member of the commission has already been reappointed. Dr Ali Fawaz Shareef replaced Ahmed Mujuthaba, who said his position as the convener of the all-party consultative meetings was a conflict of interest.

Transparency Maldives, which is scheduled to meet the CNI tomorrow with three other NGOs, including the Maldivian Democracy Network, Maldives NGO Federation and Democracy House, has been active in raising awareness of the detrimental impact corruption and opaque governance on society.

The group’s current projects include Parliament Watch, a program that aims to increase public scrutiny of the procedures and processes used in the People’s Majlis, and the CRINIS Project advocating for changes to political party financing transparency. Others include the Right to Information Project, creating demand for right to information for greater transparency and accountability, the Decentralisation Project promoting accountability and increasing citizen engagement in local governments, and Advocacy and Legal Advice Centres Project, helping victims of corruption with the legal systems in place.

It has also produced reports on media, and conducted surveys on corruption perception. In pursuit of its stated goals of justice and democracy it asked the President to consider allowing it observer status on the CNI. It also requested that the CNI’s findings be made public.

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MMA accepts MDP MP Musthafa’s BCCI debt after the court rejected the money

The Civil Court has refused to accept payment of the debt it had ordered paid by Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) MP Mohamed Musthafa, after the ruling against him was last week upheld by the Supreme Court.

The case had been filed against him by Progressive Party of the Maldives (PPM) Deptuy Leader Umar Naseer, and the ruling meant that Musthafa was disqualified as an MP for the former ruling party, forcing a by-election in his seat of Thimarafushi.

Musthafa this morning sent a person to pay the debt to the court – a loan of US$31,231.66 (Rf 481,952) borrowed from the now defunct Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI).

The Civil Court has confirmed that a person had sought to pay the debt on Musthafa’s behalf, after the Supreme Court ruling did not mention that the money was to be paid to the former ‘Madhanee’, or Civil, Court.

Until President Nasheed signed the Judicature Act into law last year, the official name of the Civil Court had been Madhanee Court – ‘madhanee’ being the Arabic word for ‘civil’.

MDP MP Musthafa today told Minivan News that he had been trying to pay the money every day since losing the caase last Friday, but said the court had not accepted it.

‘’Today I thought I would inform that media and send someone to the court to pay the money, and the court did not accept it again,’’ Musthafa said. ‘’I wrote a letter to the court but they did not respond to it.’’

Later today, Musthafa said the Civil Court registrar had called him and met with him, and said the Supreme Court’s ruling did not specify who the recipient of the money was to be, and that the Civil Court did not know what they should do with it, Musthafa said.

‘’The Supreme Court told me to get assistance from the Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA) and the Attorney General,’’ he said. ‘’So then I sent the money to the MMA, and the MMA has received the money.’’

He also said that tomorrow he will file a case in the Civil Court asking the court to order the MMA to pay him the US$500,000 that the BCCI was obliged to pay Musthafa, in a separate case concerning the supply of meat and other goods.

‘’They have today proved that the MMA are the live parent of BCCI [despite BCCI being defunct],’’ he said. ‘’This is funny to me – because when they have to pay me something owed by BCCI, they deny they are the live parent, but when I have something to pay to BCCI they become the live parent of BCCI.’’

In November last year Musthafa threatened legal action against the Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA) if it did not pay the US$500,000 that BCCI owed his company Seafood International, alleging that the sum was due to be paid to his company according to a 1991 London court ruling.

Citing MMA as the “live branch of BCCI in the Maldives,” Musthafa previously stated that “the debt of a dead person has to be paid by a living legal parent.”

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Democracy must continue; “no return to autocratic rule”: UK High Commissioner

UK High Commissioner to the Maldives and Sri Lanka, John Rankin, has emphasised that democracy must continue in the Maldives, “and [there must be] no return to the autocratic rule that has been in existance prior to 2008.”

In his regular “Ask the High Commissioner” interview, Rankin said the UK had called on “all parties to exercise good faith to try to find a way throgugh the current problems and consensus for the way forward.”

“The UK recongises states, not governments,” he explained. “We made it very clear that it was for the government of the Maldives to establish democratic legitimacy both with its own people and the international community.”

Rankin said the UK backed the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG)’s call for early elections, and for agreement as to the constitutional changes required for that to happen.

“We have also joined calls for an independent inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the transfer of power,” Rankin said.

“We called for calm in the country and for demonstrations to be peaceful, and for the police to exercise maximum restraint.”

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Police arrest 13 in violent clash at MDP camp, after police stations vandalised

Police arrested 13 people after clashing with demonstrators at the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP)’s ongoing protest early on Wednesday morning.

The MDP accused police of vandalising the MDP’s protest camp near the tsunami monument and attacking the party’s supporters at 2:45am in the morning.

However police have said they were pursuing a a group of young people on motorcycles who had attacked police buildings that evening, before retreating to the MDP camp

An MDP supporter who witnessed the incident told Minivan News that the police arrived after a group of young people opened a ‘Youth Jagaha’ near the tsunami monument, and then left on motorcycles to ride around the streets.

“They apparently vandalised some police stations during the motorbike ride, and then the police came and attacked the protest camp,’’ he said. ‘’Police destroyed our podium in the area and the sound system, as well as chairs and other property,’’ he claimed.

One young person was thrown into the sea wall and was subsequently taken to hospital.

Police said a group of men armed with knives vandalised police stations in Male’, threatening officers in the traffic police station with knives and destroying a computer monitor. The group also threatened officers inside the Police Iskandhar Koshi.

Sub-Inspector Ahmed Shiyam told Minivan News that police had followed the group to the area on the side of the tsunami monument park furthest from the MDP camp, near the army medical centre, where they had been attacked.

“Police called for backup and by the time the pickup arrived, people were there with stones,” Shiyam said. “When police entered the [camp] to arrest the suspects forcefully, everyone in the area became hostile to police. There was a huge confrontation,” he added.

Several police officers sustained injuries, none serious, he said. Police arrested 13 people and withdrew from the area.

“This was a very serious thing and we are sad that it happened,” Shiyam said. “We have no interest in doing anything [to the MDP camp], and we don’t want to have a confrontation. But people are coming out of the area, committing acts of violence, and going back there to hide, which is not something to be accepted.”

Police had asked organisers of the protest to take responsibility for the actions of those gathered there, he added.

MDP supporters have held an ongoing protest near the tsunami monument, dubbing it ‘justice square’, following the resignation of former President Mohamed Nasheed in what they contend was a coup d’état.

MDP supporters have been sleeping and gathering in the area since Nasheed’s resignation, reportedly under duress.

The party has meanwhile released  pictures of injured protesters and vandalism of the square.

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