Month: February 2013

Government, GMR appoint arbitrators in compensation case

Arbitrators have been appointed to determine the amount of compensation payable by the Maldivian government to Indian infrastructure giant GMR, according to the Attorney General’s Office.

GMR signed a US$511 million 25-year concession agreement with the Nasheed government to manage and upgrade Ibrahim Nasir International Airport (INIA).

However in November 2012, the government of President Dr Mohamed Waheed Hassan Manik declared the developer’s concession agreement void and ordered it to leave the country within seven days.

A last minute injunction from the Singapore High Court during arbitration proceedings was overturned on December 6, after Singapore’s Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon declared that “the Maldives government has the power to do what it wants, including expropriating the airport.”

GMR is seeking US$800 million in compensation for the sudden termination, while the Maldivian government is contending that it owes nothing as the contract was “void ab initio”, or invalid from the outset.

The awarding of the bid in 2010 was overseen by the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC), which the Waheed government has accused of being “negligent” and “irresponsible”.

The Maldives’ Deputy Solicitor General Ahmed Usham told local media today that the Maldives would be represented by Singapore National University Professor M. Sonaraja, while former Chief Justice of the UK, Lord Nicholas Edison Phillips, will represent GMR.

The arbitrator mutually agreed by GMR and the government is retired senior UK Judge, Lord Leonard Hubert Hoffman, according to the Attorney General’s office.

“They have sent us the terms and conditions now. A day to start the arbitration proceedings will be decided once it is agreed to and signed,” Usham was reported as saying.

Should the matter be decided in the government’s favour, uncertainty remains as to the potential impact on foreign investor sentiment given the prospect of sudden asset seizure under the ‘void ab initio’ precedent.

If decided in GMR’s favour, the outcome of the case could potentially see the Maldives facing sovereign bankruptcy, with millions of dollars in additional debt emptying the state’s already dwindling reserves, crippling the country’s ability to obtain further credit, and potentially sparking an economic or currency crisis.

In December 2012, the Maldives government paid back US$50 million to the State Bank of India, after it refused to extend the period of the treasury bonds issued by the bank during the previous government. India has called in further instalments of US$50 million, forcing the government to draw on the state reserves.

Finance Minister Abdulla Jihad has said the government is yet to come to an arrangement to pay the next US$50 million instalment to SBI, explaining that the money will have to come from the Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA).

“The US$50 million due in February will have to be paid from the reserve. We have been ordered to pay the amount. There has been no change to the order so far. So it must be paid,” Jihad told local media.

At the start of 2013, state reserves had shrunk to MVR 4.9 billion (US$317.7 million), according to the MMA.

“Gross international reserves at the MMA have been declining slowly, and now account for just one and half months of imports, and could be more substantially pressured if major borrowings maturing in the next few months are not rolled over,” an International Monetary Fund (IMF) delegation observed during a mission to the Maldives in November last year.

Moreover, one of GMR’s lenders, Axis Bank, is also seeking the repayment of loans for the airport project, which were guaranteed by the Ministry of Finance and approved by the Attorney General’s Office under the former government.

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Criminal Court concludes hearings into terrorism charges against Shahum

The Criminal Court has concluded hearings into terrorism charges against Ibrahim Shahum Adam of Galolhu Couzy.

Spokesperson for the Criminal Court, Ahmed Mohamed Manik, said the court will deliver a verdict in the case on  February 24.

Shahum was charged with terrorism after he allegedly attacked a group of men with a sharp weapon in March 2010, March, near Maaziya football stadium in Maafannu Ward. He also stands accused of murder is a separate case.

One of the victims of in the Maafannu attack died the following day. He was identified by the police at the time as 17 year-old Mohamed Hassan.

The victim was admitted to Indira Gandi Memorial Hospital and was treated for more than eight hours in the intensive care unit, but the knife had severed a major artery and despite an emergency blood transfusion he died the following morning at 6:15am. He was was buried that afternoon at Aasahara cemetery.

A person familiar with the matter told Minivan News at the time that the boy was stabbed while climbing on to the back of a lorry after watching a football match held in the Maaziya football ground.

“He was with his friends on a lorry and about to leave when they were attacked by a group of people armed with stones and sticks,” the source said. “After a while they came close and stabbed him with a knife. Two other boys were also stabbed, one in the chest and another in the leg.’’

Shahum was previously sentenced to a year in prison for attacking a fellow student in an Imam course.

The Criminal Court has almost concluded the second trial against Shahum, concerning his alleged murder of 21 year-old Ahusan Basheer in 2011.

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Police break strike at Alimatha Resort, arrest two workers

A  strike by Maldivian employees at Alimatha Resort in Vaavu Atoll ended on Friday after 30 police descended on the resort.

Two resort staff were arrested, while 27 were subsequently dismissed. The workers were striking over a demand for an increase in their service charge compensation.

“They tear gassed all the staff”: striking resort worker

Dismissed reception supervisor at Alimatha Resort, Ahmed Fayaz, told Minivan News that police arrested the leader of the striking workers.

“The police arrested our leader Hassan. We were surrounding him, saying they couldn’t take him. We were trying to keep the police from arresting him.

“If they were going to do that, we said we would be very angry, so they tear gassed all the striking staff,” he alleged.

“In peace the police went out”: Police Spokesperson Hassan Haneef

Police Spokesperson Hassan Haneef confirmed two people had been arrested and were later released without charge. Police received information from resort management and “tried to help negotiate”, he said.

“The Freedom of Peaceful Assembly act doesn’t allow protesting in resorts,” Haneef noted.

“There was no tear gas, no pepper spray, and no violence.”

“l’m not here to spell out what has been done”: Alimatha General Manager

Alimatha Resort General Manager Abdullah Nashiz told Minivan News that resort management wanted to talk and gave many chances to the striking workers.

“We explained this is not the way to make demands. We confronted and commanded them to return to duty,” Nashiz stated.

Nashiz claimed the striking workers were shouting and forced laundry operations to stop by frightening Maldivian staff in that department.

“We do not know what threats were made [by staff] beyond stopping operations. I’m not here to spell out what has been done. The police can tell you that,” Nashiz said.

“The first time, I requested the supervisor call the police for the safety and security of the clients, staff, and property, and two or three [officers] came.

“We called the police the second time because the strikers were shouting at and threatening [us]. We were scared,” he claimed.

Nashiz said that after the striking workers were terminated, they were unwilling to take the termination letters and started shouting. However, he also claimed that all 27 former staff have since signed the termination letters.

He said that 99 percent of service charges were being given to staff and that the amount of compensation requested by the former employees was “impossible” and “not within the budget of the company”.

“It’s not company policy to give the total service charge, not at the [US$300-$400] amount requested. It was not foreseen in the budget or present employment contracts.

“One part may be given this year, and the next year we can reconsider based on work performance,” Nashiz added.

Fayaz meanwhile stated that the striking staff did not want to resign, nor did they want to cause any trouble for  tourists at the resort.

“The management is not giving the right information to the media, what they’ve said is incorrect,” he alleged.

“[General Manager] Abdullah Nashiz is wrong. They did a very, very, very bad thing.

“We were not disturbing guests, or other resort workers. We were just sitting in our rooms and refusing to go work,” Fayaz said.

Fayaz said resort management did not want to negotiate with the striking employees, particularly through collective bargaining. Instead they insisted the staff keep working.

Ultimately, 27 staff were terminated and forced to leave the resort following Hassan’s arrest.

According to Fayaz, resort management charges guests 8-10 percent service charge as stated in the guest catalogue, but then does not distribute 99 percent of those service charges to employees, as mandated by law.

“We were only given US$25-$50 in service charges each per month. This is the same service charge amount employees received in 1997,” he said.

“If they were unwilling to give us the proper service charge amount, we proposed a US$300 pay increase as an alternative,” Fayaz stated.

Resort “has a history of serious problems”: TEAM Secretary General

Tourism Employees Association of the Maldives (TEAM) Secretary General Mauroof Zakir told Minivan News the union are providing consulting services to the former employees at the resort, and noted that the workers had a history of striking for wage increases.

Strikes have occurred on the resort annually since 2009 and pay has increased from MVR 1200 (US$77.42) a month to MVR3000 (US$193.55) a month in 2012, he said.

“Management has refused to the workers’ demands, because if they accede they will have to pay all the service charges from 2008 until now,” Zakir stated.

He also explained that the constitution guarantees workers’ rights and that the Maldives had ratified the International Labour Organisation covenant, which protects the right for form associations for collective bargaining.

Zakir also said police “warned” strike leader Hassan and then arrested him in his room, at which point the other striking employees held onto him to prevent the police from taking him, and were ultimately pepper-sprayed.

“The staff were  really really afraid because of the police involvement,” Zakir said.

He added that since the resort is private property, the police said the terminated employees could not stay and forced them to leave the resort.

Tourism Ministry

Tourism Minister Ahmed Adheeb told local media the “disruption of services and harmony in resorts is unacceptable”.

“Tourism is the most significant industry in the Maldives. Adverse impact on the industry as a result of such protests would directly affect the entire nation. It could also have a major effect on our economy,” Adheeb said.

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EC schedules presidential elections for September 7, but warns of funding shortfall

President of the Elections Commission (EC) Fuad Thaufeeq has said the commission will be unable to hold a presidential election this year without sufficient funding.

Speaking to Minivan News, Thaufeeq said holding the nationwide elections would cost between MVR 55-60 million (US$3.57-3.89 million). However, he expressed concern that the commission’s current budget would be insufficient.

“With the current budget given to the Elections Commission, I am afraid we may not be able to hold the elections. The commission has raised concerns with the Finance Minister, the President’s Office and Parliament’s Public Finance Committee,” he said.

According to the EC president, Finance Minister Abdulla Jihad told the commission to carry out its work with the current budget allocated, claiming that the government would “somehow find a way” to provide financial support to the commission.

However, the commission is yet to receive any additional funds, Thaufeeq added.

“The constitution is very clear. It is a constitutional duty to hold presidential elections every five years. I really do hope the authorities would somehow be able to support us in fulfilling this constitutional duty,” he said.

Thaufeeq confirmed reports circulating in local media that presidential elections would be held on September 7, and that preparations were under-way under finance provided from within the currently available budget. If required, a second round of elections will be held on September 28.

“ The decision to hold presidential elections in September was agreed by the members of the commission,” he said.

Asked if budget difficulties threatened the fairness of the election, Thaufeeq acknowledged a shortfall may “slightly have an impact”, but said the commission would do everything it could to ensure the elections were free and fair.

“We have set standards and procedures. We will go in accordance with those. But yes, the budget difficulties may slightly impact the elections. But we assure the public that we will do everything we can to ensure that elections are free and fair,” he said.

“Fully committed”, tweets President Waheed

Following his meeting with UK Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State Alistar Burt, President Mohamed Waheed Hassan announced his commitment towards a free and fair election on Twitter.

In his tweet he called upon the elections commission to “declare the election date as soon as possible”.

“I am fully committed to a free and fair election this year. Urge the Election Commission to declare the election date ASAP,” Waheed tweeted.

Asked about Thaufeeq’s concerns, Finance Minister Abdulla Jihad told Minivan News that the government was “working on it”.

“We will provide sufficient funds to hold elections. There is no question about it,” he said.

In April 2012, the US government pledged to provide  US$500,000 (Rf7.7 million) as assistance for an elections program intended to support Maldivian institutions in ensuring a free and fair presidential election.

Chargé d’Affaires of the US Embassy in Colombo, Valerie Fowler, said at the time that the funding would be made available from July 2012.

The US would lend any support, including technical assistance, to ensure the next presidential election in the Maldives is conducted “smoothly and observed the rule of law”, Fowler said.

“Through USAID we are in the process of starting an election program that will assist Maldivian institutions in ensuring a free and fair presidential election. We have allocated US$500,000 to start that process and anticipate that we can begin as soon as July 2012,” she noted at the time.

Asked about the US assistance program, Thaufeeq said that he had only heard of it through the media, and that no government authority had discussed it with the commission.

President’s Office Spokesperson Masood Imad was not responding to call at time of press.

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MDP election victory New Delhi’s only hope: Eurasia Review

New Delhi’s policies on the Maldives continue to display elements of infantilism, writes Dr Bibhu Prasad Routray for the Eurasia Review.

“A series of blunders since the past one year pose the real danger of alienating Maldives for good.

Waheed’s ready acceptance by New Delhi vide a swift recognition extended by the Prime Minister’s Office had much to do with the ‘pro-India’ certificate he received from then Indian High Commissioner Dnyaneshwar Mulay.

Mulay wrote to the MEA that Waheed’s pro-India stand “is not in question” since he “has not missed a single function in the India House”. Ironically, the same Mulay, within months, came under attack from the Maldives government for his advocacy role supporting GMR.

If Mulay’s assessment of the nature of the Waheed regime was all wrong, Delhi has not fared any better since his departure. All its actions ever since it refused to protect the interests of a private company, GMR, (although the MEA in its country brief on Maldives continues to flag GMR’s taking over of the Male Airport in 2010), resemble a crying baby syndrome, not that of a nation that wants to deepen its engagements with its neighbourhood.

New Delhi’s reactions in the past couple of months have included: freezing major aid promised to the country in the recent past, toughening visa regulations allowing only limited number of visas to the Maldivians seeking medical treatment in India, refusing the Maldives Foreign Minister to set up a meeting with the Indian Foreign Minister, and doing away with the special privileges accorded to the Maldivian vessels visiting Indian ports.

In the second week of January, the Indian High Commission went a step further to issue an 11-point list of grievances to the Maldives media. The HC accused the Maldives government of withholding the passports and restricting the travel of Indian nationals, refusing to renew visas in a timely fashion, exploiting Indian workers, and failing to investigate threat calls to Indian diplomats. In response, Maldives has tried playing the China card.

Active engagement and not argumentative detachment needs to be India’s policy in Maldives. Former President Nasheed, who has consistently remained pro-India in spite of New Delhi’s indifference, has called for a caretaker government to oversee the Presidential polls due in the next three to six months. An election under the present regime, he justifiably fears, could be unfair and to his disadvantage. New Delhi must ensure that the polls are fair and not rigged.

Electoral victory for the pro-India Maldivian Democratic Party remains New Delhi’s only hope. Any other scenario would further push New Delhi’s already sinking influence in that county to the point of oblivion. And the Chinese would not miss the chance.

Full story

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No “definitive answer” from US delegation over government’s failure to act on CoNI recommendations: MDP

The US delegation who visited the Maldives last week gave no “definitive answer” to political issues raised by former President Mohamed Nasheed, the party has said.

The delegation, consisting of Deputy Assistant Secretary of State James Moore, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Vikram Singh and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Jane Zimmerman, met with the former president on Thursday (January 31).

According to local media, Nasheed informed the delegates that the present government had failed to act upon the recommendations made in the Commission of National Inquiry (CoNI) report, claiming there had been a “lack of effort” to reform the judiciary.

However, MDP Spokesman Hamid Abdul Ghafoor said the US delegation were unable to answer the issues raised by Nasheed, and that their interest was focused on the implementation of free and fair elections later this year.

“The issue was a difficult question for them and we could not get a straight answer. Their purpose was to highlight the importance of implementing free and fair elections over here, but we wanted to find out how aligned they were with other issues,” Ghafoor added.

According to local media, the US delegation was set to meet various political parties and senior government officials to discuss the current political situation in the Maldives.

Issues including labour laws and the protection of worker’s rights were also a topic of discussion between Nasheed and the delegates, local media reported.

James R Moore is a Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs since September 2010, and previously the Deputy Chief of Mission of the US Embassy in Colombo from 2006 to 2009.

Jane B Zimmerman is a Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, responsible for South and Central Asia, the Western Hemisphere, and International Religious Freedom.

Vikram J Singh is Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defence for South and Southeast Asia within the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defence for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs.

Singh also serves as the principal adviser to senior leadership within the Department of Defence for all policy matters pertaining to development and implementation of defence strategies and plans for the region.

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Kun’burudhoo development hampered by bureaucracy, insufficient budget

The council of the island of Kun’burudhoo in Alif Dhaal Atoll is struggling to meet its mandate of bringing development to its population of just over 500 people, a problem they say is increased due to insufficient annual budget.

The Council President Mohamed Azmy, who was voted in as an independent candidate, echoed the concerns of atoll councils and the Local Government Authority(LGA) that the biggest challenge faced by the council was the lack of adequate funding.

“Last year’s budget covered nothing more than salaries and some stationery for the office. And this year, we have received an even lower budget,” Azmy said. “To add to this, the Decentralisation Act overlaps with other stronger laws and this in the end inhibits us from fundraising through other means.”

Azmy said the Ministry of Finance had notified island councils in late 2012 that any earnings of the councils are to be considered part of the state budget and must be deposited with the Maldives Inland Revenue Authority (MIRA).

Council Member Ahmed Ashraf, from the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), added that the past year’s budget had proved insufficient to maintain the office’s phone and fax lines, or to establish a work space for any of the council members besides the President.

“This is our work space,” Ashraf said, gesturing at a ‘joali’, a set of reclining seats, placed outside the office. “It’s impossible to work productively in conditions such as these. There is so much we are mandated to do for our island, but how will we achieve it unless the state can provide us with resources or at least the autonomy to raise funds ourselves?”

The councillors stated that despite a period of almost three years having passed since the local council elections, the LGA had still not transferred the government-owned lands, which can be used to generate income, to the jurisdiction of the council, citing administrative delays as a cause.

Relocation: President suggests Hulhumale’

President Mohamed Waheed Hassan pledged to address the major concerns of the council during a meeting held January 9.

Speaking of the small size of the island, and the ensuing lack of natural resources and difficulty in providing basic services, Waheed suggested relocating of the island’s population.

Vice President of the Council Mohamed Adam stated that the people of Kun’burudhoo had some demands if they were to be relocated, and that they would only accept the idea on condition that they were moved to a more developed island with a better standard of living.

“We haven’t released any land to individuals in over 30 years. Now there are large families sharing homes here and living standards are decreasing day by day,” Adam said, also pointing out the less than adequate health and education facilities.

The council said Waheed spoke of possibly moving the island’s people to Hulhumale’ during the second phase of its development or to the island of Maafushi, another island close to the capital city of Male’.

President’s Office Spokesperson Ahmed Thaufeeq denied that any mention of specific islands had been made during the time.

“Relocating smaller populations to larger islands is part of this government’s plan. However, we have not yet identified specifically which island will be relocated where. Moving people to Hulhumale’ is definitely not in our plans yet. I have no knowledge of any such plans,” he said.

Adam said that the council was aware that Waheed, as he had promised in the meeting, had approached the Health Ministry asking them to deal with the issues at the island’s health centre.

“It’s a level two health centre. Normally, centres at this tier have approximately 15 staff. In our case, we only have one doctor, one nurse, one community health officer, one administrative staff and one labourer. It’s extremely difficult to cater to people’s needs,” Azmy said. “We hope the health ministry responds to this in a timely manner.”

“There’s also the matter of our mosque. We closed it down last August when we discovered human remains on the premises. Now the ladies’ mosque is open for general use, but this cannot remain a permanent solution. We did put this matter forward to Waheed too,” Azmy continued.

The final issue the council took to the President was the matter of erosion and the damaged revetments of the recently constructed jetty.

The Maldives Transport and Contracting Company (MTCC) constructed the jetty in 2009 during Nasheed’s administration.

“This island has been facing the problem of erosion for years. When Nasheed came to power, he kept his pledge and constructed this jetty for us. Now, the jetty is showing signs of wear and tear. We are speaking with the government to find a way to deal with this before matters worsen, but there’s a confusion as to who has to take responsibility,” Azmy said.

Adam said according to the government, the MTCC had not officially handed over the jetty to the government to date.

“If we try to repair this ourselves, it might end up as us acting illegally. Unless this jetty is officially handed over, we ourselves can do nothing about it,” Adam said.

Thaufeeq said that the matter was currently being discussed with MTCC. He stated that the government was working to solve the issue as soon as possible.

“Of the four issues discussed at the meeting, the only action we’ve seen so far from the government is the letter sent to the Health Ministry. There’s been no news on anything else, but I hope what was said at the meeting does translate into action soon,” Adam said.

Waste dumped into sea

“Land erosion has always been a huge problem on this island. After the jetty was built, the erosion is now occurring on the eastern side of the island, opposite from where we had the problem before,” Ashraf said.

Besides soil erosion, the second biggest issue was pollution of the seas. The island does not have any waste management system.

“We leave waste management up to the households. There is a designated area where households burn their waste, but food items and other such waste often just get dumped into the sea,” Adam said.

“I understand that the environment is a very fragile thing. Nevertheless, I don’t see how we can ask the people to not dispose of their waste in the sea unless we can show them alternative means.”

Azmy said plans had been set in place to build a garbage site on the island during the previous administration, but that the council had heard no news about the project after the change in government.

Meanwhile, a number of large dustbins have been placed along the road adjacent to the jetty, bearing the logo of Conrad Maldives Rangali Island.

“Conrad donated those dustbins. The people are only allowed to throw waste like tins, bottles and packets into it. We at the council arrange its disposal. It’s strictly not for household waste,” Ashraf explained.

“Waste management is a massive problem which our government needs to deal with. The Environment Ministry is drafting up a plan to deal with the issue. There are currently mechanisms being put in place to manage waste in Male’, and we will do the same for big and small islands across the country in time,” Thaufeeg said, in response to the matter.

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Local media “misrepresenting and twisting issues”: Indian High Commission

The Indian High Commission has issued a statement slamming local media in the Maldives for “misrepresentation and twisting of issues”.

“The High Commission has noted a recent trend in a section of local media to publish negative, unsubstantiated reports, while blacking out objective and positive news on Indian issues,” the Commission said.

“These reports have the potential to create negative public sentiment and reflect a non-serious approach by the media concerned while dealing with sensitive issues,” the statement added.

The statement highlighted several recent examples, such as coverage of the Maldivian national Ahmed Ruffan Ali, who was reported as alleging he had been “tortured” in an Indian jail after being detained for illegally smuggling peacock feathers.

“The High Commission facilitated major help and assistance for the release of the youth while in distress in India,” the statement read.

“While prominently covering the unsubstantiated and motivated statement of the sentenced youth, the media concerned did not verify the facts from the High Commission and chose to overlook the statement of the youth. His subsequent rejoinder that he was not ‘tortured’ in India has not been carried by the media, so far.”

In a rejoinder statement forwarded by the High Commission, Rufwaan expresses “deep regret” that in an article on Sun Online, “using the word ‘tortured’ is a misrepresentation made in translation of the original statement I made on January 26, speaking to the media at Ibrahim Nasir International Airport (INIA), upon arrival from India.”

Rufwaan said he had been asked by reporters as to whether he was beaten in custody, to which he “regretfully responded, “It is a jail after all, and we will get beaten. Yes I was beaten. The rules of the officers there is that, once jailed we have to beg for mercy at their feet. I refused to do that, which is why I got the beating.”

However, Rufwaan stated, “Using the word ‘torture’ insinuates that I was exposed to extreme violent treatment which was not the case. It is also the ‘cultural’ language barrier that the Dhivehi language consists of limited vocabulary which when translated to English, can fit to a variety of synonyms.

“Also, the lack of literary expertise in linguistics of the journalists can often provide misleading information and I believe this could have caused this mistake. The concerned media has taken it very lightly and when requested to correct it, responded as ‘I’ll give it a thought’,” he added.

“Hence I kindly apologise to all concerned authorities for the unfortunate choice of word used in the article, which in my understanding, creates a far more negative and graphic image of how I intended to express,” he said, expressing “profound appreciation” for the High Commission’s “constant support and assistance” throughout his detention.

Editor of Sun and head of the Maldives Journalists Association, Ahmed ‘Hiriga’ Zahir, told Minivan News that the specific word Rufwaan had used, “aniyaa”, translated to “torture”, according to Sun’s audio recordings.

“We [later] received a call, not from him, but from somebody on his behalf,” said Hiriga, acknowledging that media had a responsibility to issue a clarification or correction if this was later required. “We will be making the correction. We do not want to create any problems.”

In a second example, the High Commission highlighted a report in a daily newspaper titled “India to stop export of sand, rice to Maldives”.

“The report is grossly unsubstantiated and does not provide any credible source of its information. As far as the High Commission is aware, the government of India has taken no such decision to ban export of rice or river sand to Maldives. There is a local court injunction for the export of river sand from Tuticorin, though the importers are free to source it from any other region/state in India,” the Indian High Commission stated.

Sun Online carried a story today that the State Trading Organisation (STO) had decided to import aggregate from Bangladesh and Sri Lanka “following a temporary suspension of export of aggregate from India.”

“The Maldives has been importing aggregate from India under a special quota extended by the Indian government. The Indian Ministry of Commerce has notified Indian suppliers that the aggregate quota has been temporarily suspended from the 15th of January onwards,” Sun reported.

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Opposition condemns “arbitrary arrest” of 15 protesters during anti-government demonstration

Police on Friday have arrested 15 Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) activists at the party’s protest site ‘Usfasgandu’, during an anti-government demonstration.

Police said the demonstrators were arrested on charges of “breaking the police barricades” and “obstructing police duty”.

The police had previously cordoned off the party’s protest site  after the High Court ordered police to repossess the area until it delivered a verdict in an ownership dispute between Male’ City Council (MCC) and the Housing Ministry.

Over a thousand MDP demonstrators took to the streets of Male’ on Friday, calling for President Mohamed Waheed Hassan to immediately step down along with other government figures including Defense Minister Mohamed Nazim and Commissioner of Police Abdulla Riyaz.

The demonstration was led by senior figures of the party including former Chairperson MP Mariya Ahmed Didi and several ministers of the former government, who repeated the call for a caretaker-administration prior to scheduled presidential elections on September 9.

“The Maldives Police Service on strictest terms condemn the act of obstruction of police duty while this service was executing the order of High Court to cordon off the area,” read the police statement. Police said that out of the 15 arrested, two had been female protesters.

Speaking to Minivan News, police media official sub-Inspector Hassan Haneef said police had only arrested protesters who broke through police lines.

“We only arrested the people who broke the police line and entered the area. We did not target any political figures nor did we see which party the arrested individuals belonged to,” he said.

The arrested demonstrators were presented to court this afternoon, which extended the detention period of the protesters by five days.

Minivan News understands that among those currently in police custody include Male’ City Councilor Mohamed Falah and MDP Youth Wing President Aminath Shauna.

A protester who was present at the time disputed police allegations that demonstrators broke through police lines.

“We were just standing behind the barricades when they came in, we didn’t even move or run. We just stayed there, we didn’t even call them ‘baaghee’ (traitor) but we kept on telling them they should give a proper reason for arresting a person, they just can’t take people for no reason,” the protester told Minivan News.

Demonstrators kept questioning the police as to why they were making the arrests when none of them had crossed the police line.

“We kept on asking what the [the arrested protesters] had done. After taking in a few protesters, they came towards us and took Shauna. They came towards her and said she had to come with them whether she liked it or not. Two to three of us were holding her when they took her,” she added.

Meanwhile, the MDP in a statement called for immediate release of its members claiming the activists were arrested for their “illustrious work to defend freedom of assembly and freedom of expression” in the country.

“The MDP condemns in the strongest terms the police swoop into the rally as a politically motivated and premeditated illegal incursion to arrest a specific target list of highly dedicated party workers.

“Eyewitness reports have established that today’s foray also was characterised by high-handedness and needless force typical to the Police Special Operations squads in the clutches of a usurper police commissioner and usurper government,” read the statement.

The party also condemned “false reporting” of the incident by some local media outlets, who claimed that protesters “had breached police lines”, which the party alleged were “outright lies”.

Speaking to Minivan News, MDP Spokesperson MP Imthiyaz Fahmy suggested the arrests were a result of lack of a mechanism to hold the police officers accountable for arbitrary arrests.

“There is absolutely no way to hold the police accountable,” he said. “They know that everything will be settled once they take the protester to court. The Human Rights Commission of Maldives (HRCM) and the Police Integrity Commission (PIC)’s failure to hold the officers accountable means they can take full advantage of their impunity.”

Fahmy also dismissed claims made by police that those arrested had broken police lines.

“While I was there a group of police barged into the protest and randomly arrested a few people after looking at their faces. We did not break the police line. That is an outright lie,” he added.

If police can be held accountable for their actions, Fahmy said such arrests would not take place and freedom to carry out peaceful political activities would not be compromised.

After weeks of quiet in Male’, the MDP resumed their protests against the government on January 22,  led by former President Mohamed Nasheed.

Nasheed during the demonstration called on parliament to create an interim, caretaker administration “which can lead the country towards a genuinely free and fair presidential election in which all candidates are able to freely compete.”

MDP Spokesperson MP Hamid Abdul Ghafoor told Minivan News at the time that the party planned to hold more assemblies and protests in next coming months around Male’.

“The MDP have been off the streets some time, we have taken a break. Now we are back. We have too many options and ideas opening up and people need to know what’s going on,” Ghafoor said.

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