The Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF) has issued a statement challenging claims made by private broadcaster Raajje TV, which aired a voice recording of a MNDF officer stating that beer cans discovered during the police dismantling of the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP)’s protest camp had been planted by security services.
‘’We do not believe the audio is a voice recording of a MNDF officer that was in the area that day,’’ the MNDF said in the statement. ‘’We believe that the voice has been edited.’’
MNDF said it condemned attempts to slander the MNDF.
In the voice recording released by Raajje TV, the MNDF officer admits taking beer cans to the area and keeping the beer cans inside a box in the area. He also says that the beer cans were cold when then they were taken to the area.
CEO of Raajje TV Abdulla Rafeeq told Minivan News that the voice recording was “100 percent valid” and “the voice of a member of the armed forces”.
‘’In our news we did not mention whether it was a MNDF officer or Police officer, we only said it was a member of the armed forces,’’ Rafeeq said. ‘’We did not edit the voice recording but we changed the voice to keep the source anonymous.’’
‘’There are other officers of the armed forces that have witnessed the incident,’’ he said. ‘’This officer that gave us the interview said he just could not ignore the matter knowing all this.’’
On March 19, Police and MNDF officers entered the MDP’s protest camp and demolished all evidence of it, taking down the podium, tents, yellow flags, and even repainting the seawall to remove anti-government slogans.
Media was initially ordered to leave the area, but was subsequently readmitted. Police then claimed to have discovered beer cans, homemade alcohol and condoms.
The MDP has since accused the police and MNDF officers of planting the items to discredit the MDP.
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Yeah right! Who will beleive MNDF - an institution who has lost all its credibility!!
The audio is edited. I have listened it end to end and i do audio editing as well. But that's not the whole point. The whole issue is about mdp alledging that someone just planted the beer cans there to smear them. Although MDP lied 99% of the time(like all political parties), this is one time they are telling the truth. But the audio is edited. that's for sure!
Holy crap, is this the first time MNDF has come across an audio with voice edited to mask the identity of the informant? I suppose it was not obvious enough when the bass drops on that video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6C9CpksyIY
As an institution MNDF has failed the Maldivians big time. Try apologizing publicly for the atrocities of the armed forces against the elected president. That is the day we will start believing in MNDF again.
MNDF has failed us when they refuted their sworn duty t protect the people and their commander in chief. By stating that they had nomeans to control mutineers other than using lethal weapons, they forced their commander in chief to resign. On the next day they were able to physically attack and crackdown protesters, while they also were able to use water cannons against women protesters. They were unable to do it then. Simlarly after forceful removal of their chief they celebrated on the streets of Male' which showed that they wee never abiding to their sworn duty.They also instigated violence and acted unprofessionally while controlling unarmed civillians while them being in armours and riot gears. The force they used was imblanced as civillians had no lethal weapons. To make matters worse they even fired ruber bullets at protesters. Their otive is to ejoy privilleges that no other citizens can get, such as health insuarence from Countries like singapore for senior officers and housing schemes. However they should prioritise the needs of common people first. ALso in times of peace they should work to build nations instead of hogging up our money.
we knew this all along - typical corrupt regime is back.
Of course it was planted there by security forces. Why else would they need to order media to leave the area? Media came back to find beer cans, it's all a bit too convenient.