The Cabinet has decided on an administrative framework on land use, which was put in place yesterday.
The framework includes how the government can use and manage the country’s land, including sandbanks and lagoons.The Ministry of Housing, Transport and Environment will keep a register of all the lands in Maldivian territory.
The framework stipulates that islands given for government ministries can be given to a third party only with the Cabinet’s approval.
The Cabinet also discussed their 2007 decision to build five airports in different islands, and decided to continue to construction of all five airports.
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Family members have claimed that inmates in Maafushi jail were badly beaten by jail officers in a prison riot on Sunday morning at around 12:15 am, after they were allegedly asked to go out to the prison yard and kneel on the ground.
A person familiar with the case told Minivan News that the riot was sparked when jail officers entered Unit 7 while everyone was sleeping.
”An Emergency Support Group (ESG) squad and the Maldives Police Service Serious and Organised Crime Unit, both in full riot kit, arrived in the middle of the night and demanded the inmates to go out to the yard and kneel down,” he said.
He said when the “barely awake” inmates refused to go outside ”they started confronting the inmates and beating them with their batons, and [the inmates] tried to defend themselves,” he said. ”It was shocking that they suddenly appeared like that in the middle of the night.”
He said claims by the Department of Penitentary and Rehabilitation Service (DPRS) that the inmates attempted to kidnap a jail officer were “all untrue.”
”It’s true that earlier three inmates in unit 8 jumped over the wall intending to jump into unit 7,” he said, ”but jail officers outside saw them and rang the loudest emergency siren.”
He said the three inmates ran back to their cell in fear.
”That was at the same time President Mohamed Nasheed had just left Maafushi after attending a ceremony held to open a water plant,” he said. ”If the jail officers came to take [the offenders] they could have just called their names and taken them, that’s how they always do it.”
He said that at least 15 of the inmates were badly injured in the riot, “but only three of them were taken to Male’,” he said. ”There are still six seriously injured inmates left in isolation cells in Unit 2, without medical treatment.”
He claimed that one of the inmates in Unit 2 had broken his arm, another had a swollen left eye and many others had bruises on them.
Injured inmate
”There is another man [in isolation] with internal bleeding – he was beaten up because he was the brother of another inmate who confronted jail officers,” the source alleged.
“He has first degree lung cancer and doctors have banned him from being imprisoned in any area where fresh air is not available. The Home Ministry would know about that.”
He claimed that jail officers “often complain that the current government does not provide them new shoes and uniforms like the former government.”
”They have a culture of torturing people,” he claimed. ”They want to have extreme power over inmates, so they pretend they do not have any control over the inmates, that’s what they want to show.”
Another person familiar with the case told Minivan News that the inmates in Unit 7 and Unit 8 were having an argument over a matter that started on Saturday afternoon and went on until that evening.
He confirmed that the three men in Unit 8 climbed over the wall intending to enter Unit 7.
“The jail officers on duty saw them and inmates returned back to Unit 8,” he said. ”But the officers rang the loudest siren, which can be heard throughout the whole island, to make it into a big issue.”
He said the jail officers entered Unit 9 that day around 6:30pm and left.
”Inmates in Unit 9 are very disciplined and well behaved,” he said. ”Jail officers went there and questioned them for about half an hour and left.”
He said that jail officers entered Unit 7 at midnight and demanded they go out to the yard and kneel down.
”It was alright to take those three,” he said, ”but they wanted all the inmates to kneel in the yard.”
The source said the riot last Saturday was a part of “a permanent war between inmates and the ESG.”
”The ESG force was established in 2007 and on their first day after training they beat up many inmates for no reason, shouting ‘We now have the power in Maafushi jail.”’
Head injury
He claimed that three inmates were brought to Male’ yesterday morning and admitted to Indira Gandhi Memorial Hospital (IGMH).
“But there are still inmates injured who have not received any medical treatment,” he claimed.
”The inmates have wives and kids at home waiting for them; a few are moved to Male’ and put under house arrest for rehabilitation and medication, but they are not really ill inmates. Inmates who really need medication are still inside here in the cells.”
The source also claimed rehabilitation and house arrest were drawn randomly by the DPRS ”like a lucky draw.”
He said many of the jail officers complained the current government was not providing them any services, either.
”They used to provoke the depressed inmates to [do bad things], saying things like: ‘Don’t wait like that, do something.’ The should be called the DRP-S,” he said.
He further claimed that neither rehabilitation or advice were given to prisoners.
”They only know how to beat [the inmates] up. That’s the only service they get [in prison],” he said.
The mother of an inmate hospitalised in IGMH told Minivan News that she received the information about the case on Sunday.
”I went to the Human Right Commission of the Maldives (HRCM) and told hem about the incident,” she said. “They called the DPRS who said my son was not injured.”
After contacting many government officials her son was brought to Male’ for treatment yesterday morning at 10:00 am.
”I was there when he arrived, his leg was damaged and he could not even walk,” she said. ”I called the DPRS and asked them to come and see for themselves whether if my son was injured.”
The mother of another inmate told Minivan News that her son’s arm was broken and he had been also was hit in the chest with a baton.
”Last night he had difficulties breathing, and still he has internal bleeding,” she said.
Miniavn News attended IGMH today to ascertain whether inmates had been injured and hospitalised as claimed, and confirmed the presence of three, in wards 7 and 10.
However the journalist was asked to leave by the police, despite DPRS staff outside previously agreeing that the inmates could be interviewed. ”It was is not visiting time and DPRS has requested you leave,” Minivan News was told. Minivan News observed that police and DRPS officers had removed their name tags.
Human Rights Commission of the Maldives yesterday released a press release after interviewing inmates and jail officers.
Inmate claims he was injured by a baton
HRCM’s report said that no one was seriously injured during the riot, and further claimed that the DPRS jail officers did not have control over the inmates.
”After the survey we conducted we noticed that DPRS officers had no control over the jail and the government had not provided the jail officers enough equipment,” HRCM said.
“The jail does not have any equipment to use in case of fire and there was no security equipment to control inmates out of control,” the statement said.
Press Secretary for the President, Mohamed Zuhair and Director General of DPRS Mohamed Raheed did not respond to Minivan News at time of press.
State Minister for Home Affairs Ahmed Adil said three inmates in Maafushi jail had tried to kidnap a jail officer who entered the cell to serve food to them.
Adil said that 15 jail officers were also injured during the riot.
”The DPRS did not enter the unit all of a sudden at midnight, ” he said. ”[Officers] tried to apprehend and isolate the inmates who tried to kidnap the jail officer.”
He said the inmates then confronted the jail officers.
”They threw stones at the jail officers,” he said, ”they threw anything their hands touched.”
Adil confirmed that six inmates were brought to Male’ for medical treatment.
”One of the inmates had a fracture in his arm and doctors said they needed to operate,” he said, ”but when doctors brought him inside the surgery room they noticed he was drunk and not in a good condition to be operated on, so he was sent away to be brought back later.”
The President’s Office has nominated former Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) President Ali Rasheed Umar as the new Auditor General.
A Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP)-led no-confidence motion in Parliament saw former Auditor General Ibrahim Naeem ousted from his post last month, shortly after he announced corruption allegations involving former president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom and senior members of both the former and current government.
Naeem was appointed as the first independent Auditor General in January 2008 by Gayoom, and his appointment was endorsed by the DRP-led Parliament. The post of Auditor General was created by Gayoom due to international pressure regarding the former government’s expenditure.
Umar was appointed president of the ACC in October 2008 and was head of the commission for eight months. Elections were then held for commission members, but he did not submit his name for the elections.
On 25 November 2008, Umar signed on behalf of the ACC, and Naeem as Auditor General, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for technical cooperation activities between the ACC and the Auditor General’s office. Both organisations were to exchange information and work together to eliminate corruption and promote good governance and accountability.
Press Secretary for the President’s Office Mohamed Zuhair confirmed Umar has been nominated by the president and his name has been forwarded to Parliament.
Zuhair said the Majlis should make their decision on whether or not they will endorse his nomination within the week.
“He is a qualified accountant and headed the ACC,” Zuhair said, adding that during the new government’s first week in office, Umar wanted to investigate the President’s Office’s financial records. “He performed very well [with the ACC].”
Zuhair added that Umar has no political affiliations to any party.
An on-going defamation case against Umar is in the Civil Court. Former member of the ACC Hassan Luthfee pressed charges against Umar for defamation, after Luthfee was accused of leaking ACC information for his personal gain.
A report on the Maldives in the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) review of the Convention on Preventing and Combating Trafficking of Women and Children for Prostitution has highlighted the Maldives as a destination country for human trafficking, “where the primary form of trafficking is forced labour.”
The SAARC report, funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and produced by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), suggested that human trafficking in the Maldives “is presumably is associated with the country’s socio-economic status as the most developed South Asian country, and its reliance on the migration of foreign workers to support sectors such as tourism and construction.”
“The Maldives is a destination country for migrant workers trafficked from neighbouring Bangladesh and India for forced labour, and to a lesser extent women from Sri Lanka, Thailand, India and China who are trafficked to Male’ for commercial sexual exploitation,” the report said, adding that “there is also some existence of some inter-island trafficking of Maldivian girls to the capital for domestic servitude.”
The country’s main offenders were “registered employment agents who fraudulently recruit low-skilled migrant workers and subject them to conditions of forced labour once they are in the country.”
“The other major offending group are wealthy families who subject domestic servants to forced labour,” the report noted.
The trafficking of women and children for sexual exploitation was less marked than in other countries, the report noted, compared alongside the levels of forced labour, however “women of Chinese, Thai, Sri Lankan, and Filipino origin come to Male’ on the weekends from Colombo and some of them engage in commercial sex with the local migrant worker population.”
“In interviews, officials also spoke of occasions where they suspected cases of commercial sexual exploitation particularly when a large number of young women, sometimes of Eastern European origin, travel together with a single man to an exclusive private tourist resort for a short duration. [In this instance] there is little immigration officials can do in the absence of a complaint or some indication of abuse.”
IOM’s National Programme Officer Nishat Chowdhry presented the report at a meeting today in the Nalahiya Hotel, part of a review of the convention which until now has excluded male victims and crimes as forced labour.
“The scope of the convention is limited,” Chowdhry said. “Other aspects of trafficking, including for forced labour, human transplants and servitude have not been covered by convention,” she said. “There is growing consensus that the time is right to review the convention.”
President of the Human Rights Commission for the Maldives (HRCM) Ahmed Saleem described human trafficking as “a modern form of slavery with 800,000 estimated victims, mostly women and children.”
Saleem observed that a recent US State Department report into human trafficking had criticised the Maldives government for failure “to fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of human trafficking”, but noted that the government had now acknowledged the existence of the crime “even if overall efforts to [confront] it are insignificant.”
“The commission is convinced that this is a major human rights issue and that is why we have begun a comprehensive study we hope to complete as soon as possible,” he said.
Vice President Dr Mohamed Hassan Waheed, speaking at the event, noted that while the convention focused on one the “most serious transnational crimes against dignity and human rights”, there were “serious shortcomings both in coverage and implementation of this convention.”
“Specific limitations include the exclusion of male victims, prostitution excluding other forms of trafficking such as forced labour, sex slavery and other slave-like practices. I am concerned that even though the convention has been in force for fours years, it has not been adequately implemented and enforced in the region.”
The convention carried “inadequate provision for victim protection and rehabilitation,” he said.
“I am especially concerned about the trafficking of children, especially girl children. The effects of sexual exploitation of children are profound, maybe permanent. Sexual, physical and emotional development are stunted, self-esteem and confidence are undermined, and sexually exploited children become especially vulnerable to the effects of physical and verbal violence, drugs, sexually transmitted diseases. We are concerned that human trafficking is becoming a growing problem in our country.”
An industry driven “by greed and brutal disregard for human rights”, human trafficking “has become a worldwide multi-billion dollar industry,” Dr Hassan said.
“The problem is global but some of the worst forms are found in Asia, where more than a million people are exploited each year. Trafficking on this level cannot escape the attention of national and local law enforcement authorities and I would like to call on concerned authorities and counterparts in our neighbouring countries to enforce these laws and accept our obligations under this convention.”
President Mohamed Nasheed has ratified the bill on establishing the Maldives Broadcasting Corporation, which was originally passed by Parliament on 6 April 2010.
The bill will see the establishment of a national broadcaster which will be presided over by a nine-member board of directors. The board will be appointed by and has to answer to the People’s Majlis.
The government wants the corporation to be free from political and commercial influence, and to broadcast public service announcements and matters of the state (such as President Nasheed’s speeches) to be televised at no cost to the government.
Press Secretary for the President’s Office Mohamed Zuhair said Attorney General Husnu Suood told the president there would be “some difficulties” in implementing the bill, and the government will now be proposing some amendments.
Zuhair said the formation of a new public broadcaster “will be best for the general public” as it will be a “limited liability company.”
Zuhair added that the assets from the existing Maldives National Broadcasting Company (MNBC) will be transferred to the new corporation. “They are looking at the legal aspects of it right now,” he said.
The bill on banning the importation of alcohol and pork was presented to the parliament by independent MP Ibrahim Muthalib, which he claimed was an amendment to the list of things that cannot not be imported under 75/4 of the law concerning contraband.
15 MPs voted in favour of the bill while 53 MPs voted against it. Four MPs did not vote.
“The last time I presented a bill banning the sale and usage of alcohol on inhabited islands parliament sent it off the floor claiming that it only banned particular areas (inhabited islands),” Muthalib said, upon presenting the bill.
“This time I am presenting a bill to ban [alcohol and pork] from being brought inside the country at all.”
Almost all of the MPs were against the bill, claiming that it would harm the country’s tourism industry and its economy.
Maldivian Democratic Party MP Ahmed Abdulla presented the bill to the parliament on behalf of the government, with the stated aim of strengthening the democracy of the country by providing people “a peaceful” way to participate in political activities.
The bill was approved by the vote of 68 MPs, while 2 MPs voted against the bill.