US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Robert Blake on Wednesday met with President Mohamed Waheed Hassan Manik, former President Mohamed Nasheed and a number of civil society organisations.
“In all of my meetings today with the leaders, I stressed the importance of all parties working together to develop and act on the needed legislation on issues of reform, to increase capacity of the judiciary, the security services and independent institutions like the Police Integrity Commission and the Human Rights Commission,” Blake said at a press briefing held at Traders Hotel.
Blake told media that during his meeting with the president, he had emphasised the importance of ensuring security services acted in accordance with international standards and to do everything they can to respect human rights.
He added that all parties should work to promote dialogue and cooperation so that they could together strengthen Maldivian democracy and prepare for elections in the coming year.
Blake said that the while US would be extending support to the security services to strengthen build their capacity, a lot of importance would be given to the issue of human rights through any training provided by the US.
Stating that the CNI report, which was released in August, has indicated that there was a lot more work that needed to be done, he said “I was pleased that everybody I talked to today understands the need to implement those recommendations (in the CNI report) and welcomes it”.
Blake confirmed that the US would stay closely engaged and would assist in the implementation of many of the recommendations put forward in the CNI report.
Although Blake claimed that all leaders had pledged to implement the CNI’s recommendations, he declined from commenting on the government’s stand regarding the recommended action against what the report states to be “acts of police brutality which occurred on 6th, 7th and 8th February.”
“Let me tell you what I said. We take all allegations of human rights violations very seriously. We urge that the government investigate those [allegations] in a credible manner. And we think that there needs to be clear and visible disciplinary action taken if there is evidence of wrongdoing found,” Blake said in response to the question posed by Minivan News.
In a press conference held after the release of the report, the Minister of Home Affairs has said that the only individual the government would take action against with reference to the CNI report was Former President Nasheed.
Maldivian Democratic Party MP and Spokesperson Hamid Abdul Ghafoor said the party welcomed the support from the international community, particularly in supporting what he claimed were two of the liberal values it currently advocated for.
“In our way forward strategy, we are calling for three specific things. We welcome this support for two of those liberal values; action against human rights violations and early elections. There is one more value though, and that is the issue of the opposition parties PPM and DRP being in government,” Hamid told Minivan News today.
President’s Office Spokesperson Masood Imad was not responding to calls at the time of press.
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nonsense we don't know why these people come and go it seems they need something else this black came many times every time we hear this if they are on holiday pls do it and leave us alone
Human rights in a sunni muslim nation?..........that will be the day!!
Hell needs to freeze over first.
clear actions must be taken to those violating human rights in the name of freedom! Human right is not a shield to protect the gay's, child abusers, traders of women for sex world wide! Specially in Europe and USA where red light districts are filled with these slaves and politicians regularly visit these areas! Saudi kingdom needs to clean up their own mess in these business!
A good statement and balanced.
Notice how he refrained from outwardly mentioning Ex-President Mohamed Nasheed's liability for using the arbitrary arrest of a Judge to influence the judiciary.
However the indication is that foreign partners will not stand in the way of the trials to be conducted against Nasheed.
Hope we can set a precedent by making an example of a leader who abused his powers after we struggled to get a democratic Constitution passed in this country.
we have to change our constitution first; to allow for freedom of conscience...
@miss India,
I must say your poor history classes back in your gov schools reflects a huge democratic drama in the self proclaimed democracy nation you tend to portray yourself from.. If you would read. you'd know in the Mughaal era of Indian history, rights of equality and gender respect were the fundemapentals that mad this religion the fastest ever growing religion in the world..
Democracy if I you may is a modern term, invented by elite of drunken savages in Europe and the aim was to practice social equality, though all knows what does that means in India,,,
beyond your cast,color,family and religion, your fake democracy is a decaying giant from within..
so pls, correct your Buddhism loving fake democracy, before you fry I hell, frozen or baked..
cheers
The report is encouraging a culture of coup and violence in the system of government which is unacceptable in the 21st century. If the developed world is calling for human rights and the Rule of Law, this is UTTERLY UNACCEPTABLE. Accepting this report means we are already existing in the 15th Century or beyond as Julius Caesar when he saw Egypt & conquered the country he said " I CAME I SAW I CONQ
The international community especially US and UN calls for democratic values and rule of law etc etc like a mantra. But when it came to Maldives it seems they just talk the talk but will not walk the talk. CoNI was a insult to the intellect and sense of justice of many Maldivians but the international community insists that we accept it and move forward.
“In all of my meetings today with the leaders, I stressed the importance of all parties working together to develop and act on the needed legislation on issues of reform, to increase capacity of the judiciary, the security services and independent institutions like the Police Integrity Commission and the Human Rights Commission,”
A balanced statement!!!!! Perhaps to the very people who cooked up the coup!!!!!!
Bravo Athif! Well said!
The fact is nothing here would change the fact we are a "police state", and all super powers wants to wet their beaks in the pool!
Unless and otherwise the Military themselves bring out those within themselves and the Police and the civilians and serve justice to the people, we are a lost nation!
Whatever is taken into consideration, it is not going to erase facts! Fact!
Tsk tsk, if you want to talk about leaders who have abused their powers, why start with and stop at Nasheed? What about Maumoon and what about Waheed? The fact is that those in DRP, PPM etc know that they can't gain the support MDP has today, as long as Nasheed is free to contest in the next election. The case of detaining Judge Abdullah is not as simple as Nasheed just arbitrarily arresting a Judge. We all know, whether we want to admit or not, that while it was not the best course of action, it was a desperate measure that had to be taken in order to begin the reform of the Judiciary. And today we see a judicial system that is worse than before exactly because of the coup and because the people who had the most to lose from the judges arrest did everything they could at any cost to ensure the corrupt judge abdullah and their secrets and crimes remain protected. Today we have ministers saying outright that corruption is acceptable and that police brutality is acceptable. So where's the PG? Where's the judiciary? The situation we are seeing today more than anything justifies the arrest of the corrupt judge, since the very system that should be taking action against such corruption and injustice is basically nonexistent and if it does exist, it is in the palm of judge Abdullah and his supporters.
I am truly sorry Mariyam but there is no excuse that can justify an arbitrary arrest and the extended detention of a man regardless of whatever crimes the President accuses him of.
If we are to justify Nasheed's actions why don't we tear up the Constitution altogether? Why did we all rise up and demand certain reforms from Qayyoom after all?
Think about what you are saying. Judicial reform does not begin with the forced disappearance and intimidation of judges by the Executive. Why that is the very opposite of judicial independence.
Please, for one minute leave aside Nasheed's claims about Abdullah and look at this from an institutional perspective. We had a President arrest an Opposition Leader for slandering the Government. We had a Criminal Court Chief Justice who refused to entertain the extended detention of an Opposition Leader by the President. We then had a President who ordered the Military to arrest the Chief Justice who made this refusal.
Can we justify that? Will any amount of hearsay, gossip or he-said-she-said about the Judge change the wrongness of Nasheed's actions. I sincerely believe it cannot.
Everyone in this country is entitled to a fair trial. If the judiciary has problems they can be solved through Parliament. It is not the duty of an elected President to bypass all the democratic safeguards put in place to protect the people and later claim that he was on some Messianic mission as part of some grand narrative where the MDP are the Masters of the Universe and the rest of us are all under the thrall of some Skeletor-like creature in the form of Qayyoom. Get over these fairytales and let's get down to the serious business of upholding democracy in this country.
Maryam.
Why you are so defensive when it come to Cult Anni ? Is he a God ?
like tsk tsk mentioned , arresting the judges are not the way forward to clean up the judiciary system and it is a threat to the vary reason of having a free judiciary system ?
Maumoom , the other dictator we have seen in our life was also better than the Anni in this respect.
At least with the international pressure and he did changed the constitution and pave the path for us to have some sort of democracy .
But we were very unlucky to have the another horrible dictators like Anni to execute the freedom that was given in the new constitution .
We have really gone 20 years backward in democracy and our economic development due to Anni's communist policies and thinking.
At least we are now started to see a glimpse if light through the dark cannel .
mr blake stay out of our way and don't make this country like libya we know you fellow foxy americans
"Why you are so defensive when it come to Cult Anni ? Is he a God ?
like tsk tsk mentioned , arresting the judges are not the way forward to clean up the judiciary system and it is a threat to the vary reason of having a free judiciary system ?
Maumoom , the other dictator we have seen in our life was also better than the Anni in this respect.
At least with the international pressure and he did changed the constitution and pave the path for us to have some sort of democracy .
But we were very unlucky to have the another horrible dictators like Anni to execute the freedom that was given in the new constitution .
We have really gone 20 years backward in democracy and our economic development due to Anni’s communist policies and thinking.
At least we are now started to see a glimpse if light through the dark cannel ."
Wow!
A good question!
Who is worshiping who? And was Anni right or wrong?
Interesting especially when there is news that some of the honourable judges in the SUPREME COURT are said to have taken kick backs in the Border Control case!