Month: April 2012

Indian resort worker beaten and mugged in local hotel

An Indian national working in a local resort was attacked with a hammer and mugged while in Male’ city, allegedly by a former employee of the same resort.

The victim, identified by India’s Express News Service as 24 year-old Ramakrishnan Sadanandan from Thiruvananthapuram, was reportedly attacked at 2:30pm on March 31 while staying in a local guest house.

According to the victim, he was  attacked and robbed of US$200.

“They forcibly entered my room holding an identity card, pushed me to the bed and started beating me with a hammer,” Sadanandan told the Express News Service.

“They took my mobile phone, cash worth US$200, camera and gold chain, and ran away. I informed the hotel authorities about the incident and they called the police,” he said.

Sadanandan, who works as a front office supervisor at Medhufushi Island Resort and Spa, said that the police had “only registered the complaint”. He has also filed the complaint at the Indian High Commission in the Maldives.

Speaking to Minivan News, Sadanandan said that he had been continuously threatened in the last two days and warned that he would not be allowed to leave the country safely.

However Sadanandan said that he is planning to leave the country as soon as possible and if required he would seek the assistance of the Maldives Police Service.

A person familiar with the matter told Minivan News under condition of anonymity that Sadanandan and the person who had attacked him both had worked on the resort. Sadanandan was the senior officer to the person who had attacked him.

According to the source, Sadanandan was warned prior to the attack, and “was lucky that he was at a hotel or else the he would have ended up in huge trouble”. The source also said that Sadanandan had audio recordings of the attacker in which he had been threatened.

A police media official confirmed to Minivan News that the case had been lodged with police and that efforts were underway to arrest the people involved in the crime.

Speaking to Minivan News, First Secretary of the Indian High Commission in the Maldives, S.C Agarwal, said “I think the Maldivian society needs to be a little bit more sensitive to the foreigners.”

“Foreigners come here because they are invited to come here by the Maldivian community. They are issued with visas and work permits. If they are being mistreated, in the long term it will bring long term consequences to the country,”  he said.

Agarwal added that foreigners deserved to have their rights and liberties respected once they entered the country with valid documents.

Regarding the case of Sadanandan, Agarwal confirmed that the High Commission had received the complaint on day the event took place.

Agarwal also said that a similar incident occurred about 10 to 15 days ago, in which an Indian woman was mugged on the street and had her mobile phone stolen. However, he said that the police had arrested the perpetrators on the same day and the mobile phone was retrieved. However she had declined to proceed with the case because she did not think she would succeed as a foreigner.

Despite the reluctance of foreigners to report such crimes, the Indian High Commission had received more than 400 complaints in the last five months. Most related to labour issues, but some included mugging and robberies affecting the Indian community.

“In my last five months in working in the High Commission, I have received about 400 complaints from the Indian community here. And that is not good,” Agarwal said.

The Indian High Commission had advised Indian nationals not to carry large sums of money in their pockets, and to take precautionary measures at all times, he added.

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Revenue figures reveal economic impact of change in lease extension policy

The Maldives Inland Revenue Authority (MIRA) released figures earlier this week showing the extent to which the change in island lease payments has affected the Maldivian economy.

According to MIRA’s figures, the total revenue projected for March was Rf1044 million [US$ 68 million], but had received 37.9 percent lower than the projected revenue “mainly due to the unrealised revenue from the Lease Extension Period.”

MIRA had anticipated to receive a total of Rf375 million [US$ 24 million] for lease extensions – however, due to government’s recent decision to accept resort island’s lease extension payments in installments – the  income received dropped to nearly Rf23 million (US$1.5 million).

These figures were published the same week that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned the People’s Majlis that drastic measures must be made to reduce the government’s budget deficit. At the same time, the government announced that it was promoting a third of the police force and paying two years of allowances to defence personnel.

The IMF noted that the budget figures it had seen did not reflect the lost revenue resulting from the change in collection of lease payments.

Concluding the IMF’s visit to the country, the group’s representative suggested that the government reduce civil service pay and benefits, re-introduce recently removed import duties, increase the Goods and Services Tax (GST) and increase the bed tax by 50 percent.

The IMF’s expressed it fears that the government may exhaust its reserves if it did not resolve its budgetary imbalances: “Immediate steps have to be taken. This is the reality, we have to face it.”

MIRA’s figures appear to bear out the fears of the former Tourism Minister Dr Mariyam Zulfa, who predicted that the new government, having “over-interpreted” the repayment clauses in the Tourism Act, could expect to see up to $135 million taken from government revenues in the next year.

At the time of the Tourism Ministry’s announcement of the extension payment changes, the government had already received lump sum payments from 25 resorts equating to US$40 million and was expecting nearly US$135 more from 90 resorts.

“The lease extension is about increasing the asset value of the properties. In the Maldives, all the islands actually belong to the government and when the second amendment to the tourism law came into place it gave the option for resorts to extend the existing 25 year leases to 50 years,” explained Dr Zulfa, at the time.

“A time period was given and there is a clause [in tourism lease extension regulation] that stipulates that the payment must be done in completion before the lease period can be extended. So, the Nasheed government had interpreted that clause as the payment to be paid in full for the period extended. So, because the wording is such that the payment must be complete before the extension is granted, we interpreted it as the full payment.”

“But there is another clause [in Tourism Act] which says the manner in which the payment is calculated is on an annual basis. This [current] government has over-interpreted that clause and has said that the payment has to be made on an annual basis, but I have always insisted that the value of the government assets must not be allowed to decrease because the payments go to funding welfare services, housing projects, infrastructure projects, health services and so on that would benefit the local community,” she said.

“The current government has not only allowed payment to be made on an annual basis but allow for the payment to start at the end of the 25 year period, which is years away. It is a huge loss to the government treasury, about US$150 million, and I think as a result that a lot of people will be deprived of the many projects that we have started for the benefit of the communities across the atolls,” argued Zulfa.

Meanwhile, the Tourism Minister Ahmed Adheeb has said that the government would reimburse US$ 40, accepted as lease extension payments prior to the change in policy  by deducting the amount from the rent payments.

Explaining the decision at the time, Adheeb also said that the government was happy make things easier for the tourism industry wherever it could, after it had contributed so much to the economy through taxes.

He further claimed that the government was seeking to act in line with a December 2011 High Court ruling against Nasheed administration’s interpretation of the relevant clause in lease extension regulation.

After the ruling was made, and before it lost control of the government, the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), had stated its intention to appeal the High Court’s decision. Dr Zulfa reports that the current government has removed this appeal from the high court.

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Hearing held into deaths of Emma and Jonathan Gray at Kuredu Island Resort

The Prosecutor General’s Office (PG) has pressed ‘disobedience to order’ charges against 23 year-old Swedish national Filip Eugen Petre, the driver of the King Quad 700 that crashed into a tree and caused the death of a tourist couple honeymooning at Kuredu Island Resort last year.

The first hearing of the case was held in the Criminal Court yesterday.

Petre’s lawyer Areef Ahmed contended that his client could not be charged under Islamic Sharia because his client is non-Muslim, local newspapers reported.

State Attorney Ahmed Nashid told the court that every soul was protected under Islamic Sharia and that Petre was charged for disobedience to order because it was a case involving two deaths.

Nashid also contended that under Islamic Sharia, if an offender’s action caused the death of a person, the offender shall be punished.

He told the judge that the crime Petre was accused of committing was carrying people on a vehicle which was not intended to carry passengers, and that his criminal actions started from that moment.

Judge Abdul Baary Yousuf asked Areef to explain this action of his client, to which Areef replied that this was the normal procedure at the resort.

The judge told Areef that he was not asking about the procedures of the resort, but was asking whether his client had acted right in the incident.

The judge kept repeating the question to Areef, and said that one’s disobedience was not a reason for others to disobey.

Areef then told the judge that he need time to answer the question.

According to Article 88 of the Penal Code, disobedience to order is a crime and According to Article 88[c], if the result of violating the article resulted a death, the case shall be dealt with according to Islamic Sharia.

While this can include the death penalty, in practice the Maldives commutes this to up to 20 years imprisonment.

The young tourist couple from West Yorkshire, Emma and Jonathan Gray, were riding on the quad-bike as passengers when it collided with a tree around 4:00am on August 6.

On August 6 last year police were informed by resort management at 4:15am that two guests had been found with injuries beside one of the resort’s roads

A statement from police that day stated that a third individual, later identified as Petre, was injured in the incident and was taken to hospital.

Jonathan’s mother Cath Davies recently told the Halifax Courier that the prospect of Petre facing the death penalty was “shocking. It’s absolutely horrendous,”

“We never expected there to be an outcome like this. It’s good they have dealt with it. It’s great they have investigated it properly. But I wouldn’t want it to be carried out. It’s not going to bring Jay and Emma back. It’s not going to make us feel any better. It doesn’t seem right. I just find it quite abhorrent,” she told the paper.

Following the incident in 2011, Filip’s father Lars Petre, a shareholder in the resort, provided a statement to Minivan News in which he described the accident as “by far the most tragic event in my life, and words cannot describe how saddened we are. I and my family are deeply concerned with errors on some of the media reports and we are also deeply saddened by some accusations made at my son.”

“My son Filip Petre (23 years) was taking the two guests home, to the other side of the island, when he experienced some difficulties with the bike, and crashed headlong into a tree on the road. The crash took two lives and badly injured my son.

“He fell unconscious with the crash and woke up some time later to find the two deceased also lying on the road. He immediately called for help and worked alongside with the doctor who arrived to try and save the victims of the crash, while he was bleeding himself.

Another British national, 42-year old Sharon Duval, died on Kuredu in October 2010, also while honeymooning with her husband, after her body was found on the beach by another guest.

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Don’t follow our example, Pakistani civil society warns Maldives

Civil society organisations in Pakistan have expressed alarm over the political crisis in the Maldives, urging the country not to make the same mistakes as Pakistan and calling for the Maldives’ suspension from SAARC until democracy is restored.

Civil society activists from organisations including the Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research, the Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum, Sindh Development Forum, former Supreme Court judge Nasir Aslam Zahid and human rights activist Iqbal Haider addressed the Maldives’ situation at a joint press conference on Saturday.

“At least two countries in South Asia – Pakistan and Bangladesh – that have faced martial laws and coups in the past know very well how people suffer when democracy is brought down,” the civil society representatives said, according to newspaper Pakistan Today.

“We believe that democracy and governance are two different matters and the failure of governance should not be equated with the failure of democracy. An elected regime is brought in by the efforts and votes of the people through the institution of elections and the exit of an elected government should also follow the same procedure.

“There is no way use of force or coercion should be allowed to overthrow a democratically elected government. We also believe that if South Asia is to progress as a region, it will have to adopt democracy as a system of governance,” the representatives said.

“We also stress the need for the Pakistani government to take a strong stand with regards to the events in the Maldives. There are a lot of similarities between the Maldives and Pakistan. Like the Maldives, the elected government of Pakistan too came to power after a very long struggle against military rulers that had held power unconstitutionally for a long time,” they said.

The Pakistani civil society representatives warned that the Maldives was now following the same path of decline that had mired Pakistan in political, religious and economic turmoil.

“The growing strength of religious forces in the Maldives seeking to assert their political prowess and their role in the overthrow of the government is also a point where Pakistan could relate to its South Asian neighbour. The elected governments in Pakistan have battled and are still struggling with the same phenomenon.

“South Asia, as a region, has lost resources and valuable time over the quest by powerful military institutions to assert dominance over the state. This has to be discouraged and a culture of promotion of democracy needs to be cultivated,” the representatives stated.

“We also urge the government to call for the activation of the SAARC mechanisms to prevent the undemocratic move in the Maldives. A joint stand from the platform of SAARC needs to be taken to condemn the events in the Maldives. We also urge all South Asian publics to take this matter seriously and support their respective governments in condemning the action.”

Civil society organisations in the Maldives have been noticeably quiet since the controversial events of February 7-8.

Off the record, several civil society figures have said they have avoided making a stand for fear of politicisation.

“I don’t think taking the right stand means we are politicised,” said another, on condition of anonymity.

“To be frank, we’ve really tried to work on these issues but we’ve hit a wall with the media, [particularly broadcast]. We’re just not getting the time and attention we used to [under Nasheed’s government].”

Several NGOs, including Transparency Maldives, the Maldivian Democracy Network, the Maldives NGO Federation and Democracy House sent a letter to new President Dr Mohamed Waheed Hassan on February 29 – three weeks later – requesting observer status on Dr Waheed’s Committee of National Inquiry (CNI) into the circumstances surrounding the change of government.

The NGOs subsequently met with Dr Waheed and the CNI in an attempt to ensure the composition was acceptable to all political parties, as Nasheed’s MDP has currently boycotted the inquiry claiming it consists of key Gayoom loyalists.

The NGOs sent a second letter on March 15. Minivan News understands that they are still awaiting a reply.

“The onus is on the President to change [the composition], as the CNI has said it cannot,” said an NGO representative.

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“Two political films, two very different codas,” LA Times on The Island President

The LA Times’ John Horn finds interesting parallels in the amendments made to two films chronicling the respective political careers of former Maldivian President Mohamed Nasheed and Burma’s Aung San Suu Kyi.

The world moves at the speed of life. Hollywood, not quite as fast. The discrepancy is usually not an issue, but in the case of two politically minded films coming to theaters this month — the documentary “The Island President” and the feature”The Lady” — the gap between real time and movie time has lent the movies two very different postscripts.

“The Island President” from director Jon Shenk (“Lost Boys of Sudan”) follows Mohamed Nasheed, the president of the Maldives, as he fights to stop or at least slow global warming; if it’s left unchecked, scientists predict, his low-lying island nation will be submerged by the end of the century. The movie played at the Telluride and Toronto film festivals in September, but in February — before “The Island President” could be released in the U.S. theatrically — Nasheed was forced out of office in what he and his supporters called a coup.

Shenk has added a coda to the film addressing the plight of his subject, but he didn’t otherwise edit the documentary following the recent developments. Although Nasheed’s new status has given him a lot more time to promote “The Island President” — he’s chatted in recent days with David Letterman and Jon Stewart — his ouster means that the movie now ends with as much of an ellipsis as an exclamation point.

“It’s hard to separate the film from the man. So it’s inevitable that people will ask the question, ‘Does this make you feel anything different about him? Does it add to the story?'” Shenk said of Nasheed’s removal from office.

“I feel there’s some distraction, instead of having the typical discussion about how the film was made and reviewers liking or not liking it. It feels both distracting and it gives it a sense of immediacy that for certain people might make it feel more exciting.”

Said Meyer Gottlieb, whose Samuel Goldwyn Co. is distributing “The Island President”: “What’s happened to Nasheed makes him far more visible. From a press perspective, he’s a much more interesting figure now.”

Read more

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Parliament has confirmed government’s legitimacy, says President Waheed

Parliament has confirmed the legitimacy of his administration, President Dr Mohamed Waheed Hassan has contended.

Addressing the Majlis on April 2, Deputy Speaker Ahmed Nazim said, “President Dr Mohamed Waheed Hassan took oath of office in Majlis on 07 February 2012, and has delivered the presidential address as per the constitution on 19 March 2012. Hence, the People’s Majlis believes the transfer of power on February 7 was constitutional.”

The ousted President Mohamed Nasheed said he was forced to resign at “gunpoint,” and has raised questions over Waheed’s legitimacy. Nasheed has called for early general elections.

Nasheed’s Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) sought to obstruct Waheed from addressing parliament on March 1 and March 19. Waheed only managed to deliver a shortened version of the presidential address amidst loud heckling by MDP MPs in the Majlis chamber while MDP supporters and police clashed violently outside. During the speech an MP held up a placard declaring Waheed a ‘coup boss’.

In a statement on Monday, Dr Waheed said he welcomed the decision and “called on all parties to redouble their efforts to bring stability, security and prosperity to the Maldives.”

However, MDP parliamentary group’s deputy leader Ahmed Sameer said the deputy speaker had no authority to make rulings on behalf of the Majlis.

“The Majlis makes decisions after a debate and a vote. There has been no debate and no vote on the matter. A debate on the legitimacy of the government hasn’t even been put on the agenda,” Sameer said.

“That the deputy speaker can unilaterally rule on this matter is a joke and is against the Majlis house rules,” he added.

Majlis minutes reveal Nazim only made the ruling after MPs repeatedly debated the transfer of power instead of addressing the issues on the agenda for the day. Nazim repeatedly asked MPs to return to topic, but to no avail.

During debate over an amendment to the Judges Act to include retirement benefits and privileges, MDP MP Ali Waheed expressed concern over the events surrounding the transfer of power on February 7, and called on the Deputy Speaker to pass a resolution for public referendums to establish coup had taken place and to hold elections.

In response Nazim said, “Since some MPs are addressing the Speaker on the transfer of power, I believe I now have to issue a ruling on the matter.”

After claiming Waheed’s administration was legitimate, Nazim asked MPs not to address the Speaker any further on the matter.

MDP refuses to recognise Waheed’s administration, and have called for an impartial and independent investigation with international oversight into the transfer of power. The Commonwealth, the EU and local civil society groups have supported the call for investigation.

Dr Waheed instituted a three member Committee of National Inquiry (CNI) to look into the legality and legitimacy of the transfer of power, but the CNI has come under fire for unilateralism and lack of independence. Moreover, the CNI has said it will not be conducting a criminal investigation.

Waheed told local television station Villa TV (VTV) he would resign and reinstate Nasheed if inquiry established a coup.

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Majlis committees approve VP and cabinet, will assess ongoing coup investigations

Majlis committees have approved President Dr Mohamed Waheed Hassan’s cabinet and vice president nominee – resort owner Waheed Deen – and have decided to assess independent institutions’ ongoing investigations into the controversial transfer of power on February 7.

The executive oversight committee will now submit cabinet and VP nominees to the floor for final approval. MPs of the ousted Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) voted against the move.

The MDP refuses to recognise Dr Waheed’s administration, alleging former VP Waheed deposed the party’s Mohamed Nasheed through a coup d’état.  The MDP claims it continues to be the legitimate party representing the government in Majlis.

The MDP holds 32 of the 77 Majlis seats, and commands half of the seats in all parliamentary committees except the executive oversight committee.

MDP spokesperson and MP Hamid Abdul Gafoor said the nominees were approved at committee stage because parties allied with Dr Waheed control a majority in the executive oversight committee. “As the party representing the government in parliament, we believed the opposition must have majority seats in that committee.”

Meanwhile, the Independent Institutions Oversight Committee has decided to assess the extent to which the state’s independent institutions are fulfilling their mandates in investigating the circumstances surrounding the transfer of power on February 7.

The Human Rights Commission (HRCM) and the Police Integrity Commission (PIC) have previously told Minivan News they will not investigate the transfer of power, claiming the matter is out of their mandates.

Deputy chair of Independent Institution Oversight Committee and MDP MP Ahmed Sameer said the MDP wants to summon the HRCM and PIC to evaluate ongoing investigations into the alleged coup d’état.

The HRCM and PIC told Minivan News that the commissions will respectively investigate human rights violations and police conduct on February 7, but not the circumstances of the transfer of power.

“The president is a citizen. He says he was deposed in a coup. His rights have been violated. Moreover, citizen’s right to elect government has been violated. So I do not understand how the HRCM and PIC can claim this matter is out of their mandates,” said Sameer.

“The HRCM and the PIC and the Prosecutor General have to take the initiative in this investigation. Especially the PG, because Article 223 of the constitution mandates the PG to oversee legality of preliminary inquiries and investigations into criminal activity and to uphold the constitutional order, the law, and the rights and freedoms of all citizens,” Sameer added.

The Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) MPs opposed the committee’s move to assess the commission’s investigation into events on February 7, claiming the committee must also look into whether commissions were also investigating the events preceding the transfer of power.

The DRP and other political parties allied with Dr Waheed say the police and military mutiny on February 7 in fact upheld the constitution. They allege Nasheed’s administration orders to arrest Criminal Court Judge Abdulla Mohamed in January were unconstitutional.

Chair of the Independent Institutions Oversight Committee Mohamed Nasheed has asked the two parties to submit proposals next week on how to proceed with the assessment.

“We will decide on how to proceed after merging the two proposals,” Independent MP Nasheed said.

Nasheed also said he believed an independent and impartial investigation into the transfer of power must take place, and was “more pertinent” than MDP’s call for early general elections.

“I was first to call for a credible, open, transparent investigation with international oversight. Even if early elections are held, and a president is elected democratically, questions will remain unanswered regarding the transfer of power,” he said.

The Majlis was a possible avenue for an independent investigation, Nasheed said. “The Majlis is in a position to empanel MPs or outsiders, experts to get the process going. The Majlis could either submit a resolution to create a committee of MPs to look into the matter or enact a law to delegate authority to an outside panel to conduct investigations.”

However, no MP has yet made a move to instigate the process through Majlis, Nasheed said.

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Hijacked Bolivian ship released

The Bolivian goverment yesterday announced that the vessel MV Elgantine, seized off Hoarafushi island last week by Somali pirates – the first such incident to happen in Maldivian waters – had been released.

The Bolivian International Ship Registry announced that the ship was now continuing on to Iran with its shipment of Brazilian sugar.

After becoming aware of the hijacking, Maldivian and Indian armed forces shadowed the vessel but are not thought to have boarded.

The Maldives agreed to coordinate its anti-piracy activites with Sri Lank last year. The Maldives’ government first expressed concern over the growing piracy threat in 2010 after small vessels containing Somali nationals began washing up on local islands.

The country is situated at a strategic intersection of sea trade routes, and a significant amount of global maritime traffic passes through or near the country’s northern atolls.

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