EPA confiscates birds on Thilafushi

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has confiscated birds of two species held captive on industrial island Thilafushi.

An EPA statement said some birds that had been held captive and there was evidence of wing-clipping, a practice to keep birds from flying off.

Officials told Haveeru they would also check Hulhumale for more captive birds. He said a wider search conducted by police and councilors will inspect distant islands as well.

According to the EPA, 70 different bird species are protected in the Maldives, most of them since 2003. They include the Crab Plover, the Lesser Noddy, the Purple Heron and the Red-Footed Booby. Among the species confiscated on Thilafushi was the Catlle Egret.

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Local band selected to play at South Asian Band Festival in Delhi

An 11-member band “The Maldivian” has been selected to participate in the 5th South Asian Band Festival (SABF) in New Delhi on December 2-3.

The band has been performing for last 10 years, is led by Composer Schaaz Saeed, who was awarded the Enchanter ‘Feature Film Best Original Score’ this year by the President of Maldives.

The group was also engaged for composing and performing the theme song of the recently concluded SAARC Summit in Maldives as well as the cultural programmes in the State Banquet, Foreign Minister’s official dinner and the Heads of States’ Spouse Program.

The band was selected to play at the festival by the Indian Council of Cultural Relations (ICCR) and cultural NGO SEHER.

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MDP MP Musthafa to sue MMA for alleged US$500,000 in legal debt

Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) MP Mohamed Musthafa has sent a letter to the Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA) threatening legal action if it does will not pay US$500,000 that the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) owed Musthafa’s Seafood Company.

Mustafa said the money was to be paid according to a ruling issued by the London Commercial Court in 1991.

‘’This money was the money we paid to Generalmeat Limited in Manchester to import flour, sugar and tin during the days we imported items from Generalmeat Limited,’’ Musthafa said in the letter. ‘’We waited for the goods for months. They said they had loaded 74 containers in the name of our company and later when we checked to Hanjin Shipping Line and Bangladesh Shipping Corporation we found out that Generalmeat had not loaded any containers in the name of our company.’’

Musthafa said when he realized that Generalmeat Limited had deceived his company, the company then appointed Birkett Westhorp and Loan law firm and filed a suit in the London Commercial Court.

‘’The London Commercial Court issued a court order to freeze all the accounts of Generalmeat Limited, but BCCI pretended that they did not receive the court warrant and transferred Generalmeat’s money in BCCI to shareholders’ wives accounts in Scotland,’’ he alleged in the letter.

‘’The London Commercial Court then ruled that BCCI and Generalmeat have deceived Seafood and ordered they pay Seafood US$500,000 in 14 days, and that the money should be paid to Seafood in the duration by withdrawing money from any account of BCCI anywhere in the world.’’

Musthafa said his Seafood Company then filed the case in the Singapore High Court citing Commonwealth Law Enforcement Declaration, and requested the court seize a BCCI boat loaded with flour at Singapore port.

‘’The Singapore High Court then detained the boat, but while this case was going on in the court, nine other international companies that BCCI had deceived came to know about this case and entered into it,’’ Musthafa said. ‘’But then we realized that it would take years to reach to a conclusion while  the flour would expire in three months, so we got out of the suit.’’

Since the ruling came originally from London’s Commercial Court and the Maldives is a member state of the Commonwealth, the Maldives must implement the verdict, claimed Musthafa.

‘’BCCI is dead now and MMA is the live branch of BCCI in the Maldives,” he said. “The debt of a dead person has to be paid by a living legal parent. If the MMA does not pay us within seven days we will sue the MMA in court and when we sue, we will ask the court to take the amount of money for the loss we have had for the past 20 years as a cause of not having this money.’’

Speaking to Minivan News today, Musthafa said that if the MMA did not respond to the letter by the end of this week, he will have no other choice but to file the case in the court.

‘’It was a ruling that all the countries followed and implemented, so the MMA should implement the verdict too,’’ he said.

Governor of the MMA Fazeel Najeeb was not responding at time of press.

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Islamic Ministry condemns MPs for allowing UN Human Rights Commissioner to address parliament

The Ministry of Islamic Affairs has issued a statement proclaiming that nobody is allowed to talk against Islam in the Maldives, “even in parliament”, as Islam is “the source of all laws made in the Maldives.”

The Ministry’s statement follows a call from UN Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay in parliament last week that the Maldives put a moratorium on the practice of flogging as punishment for extra-marital sex,  while it holds a debate on the matter.

Pillay told parliament that flogging was a form of punishment “that is cruel and demeaning to women, and should have no place in the legal framework of a democratic country.”

The Islamic Ministry condemned the parliament’s decision to let Pillay speak, noting that MPs were handed a Dhivehi translation of her speech and should have been aware of what she was about to say.

‘’No Muslim has the right to advocate against flogging for fornication,” the Islamic Ministry stated.

“According to the Quran 100 lashes should be given for the woman and man involved in fornication,’’ the Ministry said, citing 33:36 of Quran which reads: ‘’It is not fitting for a Believer, man or woman, when a matter has been decided by Allah and His Messenger to have any option about their decision: if any one disobeys Allah and His Messenger, he is indeed on a clearly wrong Path.’’

The Ministry said that no international organisation, foreign country or individual had the “right to obstruct Maldivians from upholding Islamic principles.”

‘’To preserve this nation’s sovereignty, all Maldivian citizens are obliged to respect the articles in the constitution and uphold the constitution,’’ the statement read. ‘’No law against any tenet of Islam can be enacted in the Maldives, according to the constitution.’’

The Islamic Ministry said any calls or action against this would be condemned by the ministry “in strongest possible terms.”

Religious NGO Jamiyyathul Salaf has yesterday sent a letter to the UN Resident Coordinator in the Maldives, alleging that a call from UN Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay for a moratorium on flogging was “inhumane and disrespectful.”

In a press conference last week, Pillay also described the 100 percent Muslim provision in the Maldivian constitution as “discriminatory, and does not comply with international standards” which led to protests outside the UN head office in Male’.

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Shaheed sidesteps Iran’s visa block with European tour

United Nations Special Rapporteur on Iran, Dr Ahmed Shaheed, will meet with Iranian activists living in France, Germany and Belgium this week to investigate alleged human rights abuses. Iran’s Majlis blocked Shaheed from entering the country upon his appointment as special rapporteur in June, arguing that the US, Britain and Zionist regimes should be investigated instead.

“A visit to the Islamic Republic of Iran would have allowed me to gain better understanding of the situation,” Shaheed said in a statement.

In July, the secretary general of Iran’s High Council for Human Rights dismissed “the western-engineered appointment” of Dr Shaheed as Special Rapporteur as “an illegal measure,” according to the Tehran Times.

“Iran has no problem with the individual who has been appointed as the special rapporteur, but the appointment of a rapporteur on the human rights situation in Iran is unacceptable and Iran will not accept the decision,” Mohammad Javad Larijani was quoted as saying.

Undeterred by Iran’s rejection, Shaheed said he will overcome the obstacle by studying “a wide range of human rights issues by meeting activists within the Iranian diaspora, alleged victims of human rights violations, intergovernmental and civil society organisations.”

Speaking to Minivan News in July, Shaheed said it was common practice for country-specific special rapporteurs to have difficulty getting into their target country.

“Often the country itself feels unfairly singled out for scrutiny, or that they don’t have a problem,” he said. “This is always a challenge, but by and large they come around in the end. The last time a Special Rapporteur was in Iran was in 1996. Countries eventually come round, but it takes time.”

The tour will last from November 30 to December 8.

Dr Shaheed formerly served the Maldives as Foreign Minister under both the current and former Presidents. He assumed duties as special rapporteur in August this year.

Though unable to enter Iran, in September of this year he filed an interim report for the UN claiming “systemic violations of fundamental human rights” as understood by first-hand testimonies.

In his report, Shaheed provided evidence that the Iranian government had secretly executed hundreds of prisoners at the notorious Vakilabad prison in Mashhad. These and other executions were allegedly done without the knowledge or presence of family and lawyers.

Shaheed also noted that human rights defenders, civil society organisations and religious actors had been charged with offences including acting against national security, insulting the Supreme Leader and “spreading propaganda against the regime.”

Reports of detained media personnel and human rights violations in prisons have leaked to the press in the past several months. On November 21, the Third Committee of the United Nations General Assembly (GA) adopted a resolution calling for the Iranian government to reconcile listed violations.

Mohammad Javad Larijani, Iran’s highest human rights official, had spent the previous week defending Iran’s record.

Following his tour of inquiry Shaheed will report back to the Human Rights Council in March 2012.

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Prison officers must not be banned from growing beards, rules Maafushi Court

Maafushi Court has ruled that growing a beard for men in Islam is more than a Sunnah and almost ‘waajib’ (obligatory), after a group of prison officers working for the Department of Penitentiary and Rehabilitation Service (DPRS) filed a case against a requirement that male officers shave off their beards.

Delivering the verdict, Maafushi Court Judge Ibrahim Hussain said that men should not be told to shave their beards ‘’to make them look like women’’. All Prophets, from Adam to Mohamed (PBUH), grew beards, reported Raajjeislam.

‘’While the beard is more than a Sunnah and almost an obligatory thing in Islam, and while some scholars say it is obligatory, no employee in this 100 percent Muslim nation should be forced to shave their beard,’’ the website quoted the judge as saying.

‘’The court hereby orders the DPRS to ensure that no employee is asked to shave their beard.’’

The judge also added that as the Maldives is a 100 percent Muslim nation, no law against the tenets of Islam can be enacted in the Maldives.

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Syrian refugees “will not be forcibly evicted”: Immigration Controller

The Immigration Department is awaiting the resolution of 11 Syrian political refugees who were detained at the airport when boarding a flight to Switzerland with forged documents.

The Syrians had come to the Maldives for an alleged vacation on November 1 with forged documents claiming Turkish nationality. They are said to have stayed at a guest house before attempting to leave two weeks later.

Claiming relations in Berlin, they next attempted to leave for Germany on forged documents.

“The tip-off was that they had no visa into Switzerland, or into Germany, upon attempted departure,” said Immigration Controller Abdulla Shahid. “This process, it’s a typical trick of people seeking political asylum.”

Syria has been rocked by political unrest since March, when residents of a southern town protested the torture of students who had put up anti-government graffiti.

President Bashar al-Assad lifted Syria’s decades-old state of emergency in April, only to send tanks and allow security forces to open fire on unarmed demonstrators days later.

Protestors have rejected Assad’s offers of reform as much as his crackdown. As a result, the violence has persisted to the point that the Arab League imposed economic sanctions on the country on November 27, an act decried by Syria’s foreign minister Walid al-Moallem as “economic war.”

Sanctions had also been issued by the United States and the European Union.

A recent UN report identified actions by security forces as “crimes against humanity.”

“A panel of independent experts says at least 256 children were killed by government forces as of early November, with some boys sexually tortured and a 2-year-old girl shot to death just to prevent her from growing up to be a demonstrator,” the Washington Post reported yesterday.

In light of Syria’s ongoing political unrest, Shahid said the Syrian nationals will not be forcibly evicted from the Maldives. “They have talked of violence being done to some relatives at home, so they will not be departing to Syria,” he explained.

He added that the group has said they will not take a route that involves transit in any Middle Eastern country. “They are very paranoid right now, and I’m not sure if they’re aware of international norms,” Shahid observed. “The situation has already gotten very bad, and it’s going to take a long time to resolve.”

Syrians have been reported seeking political asylum in various parts of Europe and the Middle East. A 2008 report by the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada found that many Syrians who are deported back to Syria after being denied asylum risk imprisonment and even torture.

The group of refugees includes two children, two youth, two couples and several cousins. The family is currently staying in a local residence until they can make arrangements with their legitimate documents, which have been obtained.

According to Shahid, the Syrian refugees will now face sharp scrutiny when taking international flights.

“All airlines have a mechanism to share information about passengers who forge documents,” he said. “Most won’t take them now unless they have a proper visa for their destination.”

The situation in the Maldives is being handled exclusively by the Immigration Department.

Officials at the Presidents Office and the Ministry for Foreign Affairs had not responded to phone calls at time of press.

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Government doubles third quarter income

The Maldives government has almost doubled state income for the third quarter of 2011, increasing revenue 92 percent on the same quarter last year, according to the Maldives Inland Revenue Authority (MIRA).

Total dollar income for the period, according to MIRA, was US$60.5 million, made up largely of tourism lease payments (31.7 percent) and income from the 3.5 percent Tourism Goods and Services Tax (19.3 percent, or US$11.6 million). That tax is set to increase to six percent next year.

Total state income stands at Rf 3.4 billion for the year so far (US$220 million), according to MIRA.

Presenting the 2012 budget to parliament this week, Finance Minister Ahmed Inaz predicted that altogether, government income was expected to reach a record Rf 9 billion (US$583 million) this year.

Total expenditure out of the 2012 state budget is estimated to be Rf14.6 billion (US$946.8 million), an 18 percent increase from 2011. However the Inaz highlighted that recurrent expenditure was in line with income for the first time in many years, and the deficit was expected to drop to single figures.

Based on current estimates for 2011 the Maldives had recorded economic growth of 7.5 percent, Inaz said, an improvement of 5.6 percent in 2010. Growth was aided by a 21 percent tourism arrivals – the Maldives expects to welcome its millionth visitor for the year.

The introduction of the TGST was particularly significant in 2011 as it revealed that the government had been substantially underestimating the size of the tourism economy, which based on TGST receipts was actually three times larger than previously imagined.

Registration and collection has also gone surprisingly smoothly. Speaking to Minivan News in May, Inaz remarked on willingness of tourism businesses of all sizes to declare and pay the tax.
“The TSGT is being taken from big resorts as well as small guest houses on remote islands – very small businesses. They declare – amazingly, they declare,” he noted.
However despite the large influx of foreign currency into the tourism sector the Maldivian economy remains subject to a ongoing dollar shortage, with most people unable to exchange rufiya into dollars at the official rate of Rf 15.42.

Inaz expressed concern that 47 percent of transactions in the domestic economy were made through other currencies – almost all resorts charge in dollars and bank overseas – and called on the Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA) as the country’s central bank to take measures to enforce the use of rufiya as legal tender.

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ACC approves India-backed housing project

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has allowed the government to proceed with a 500-unit housing project in Gaaf Dhaal atoll Thinadhoo and Male. Indian contractor OII will oversee the project.

The ACC had asked the government to halt the project on Thursday after receiving public complaints about the bidding process. Its investigation, however, found no acts of corruption and has approved the project.

The project is funded by a US$40 million loan provided by India’s EXIM Bank, which requires that the project is made open for Indian contractors only. Six Indian companies had submitted bids.

Under the project, housing units will be built at the Maafannu Boduge land plot, the former VTC land plot located on Alikilegefaanu Magu, and the land plot where debris is dumped.

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