Police used teargas to disperse a crowd of opposition supporters outside the President’s Residence of Muleaage last night, following a second night of protests.
The protests have been sparked by a parliamentary deadlock after the Supreme Court granted the government a temporary injunction on Monday, blocking the endorsing of cabinet ministers until a ruling on the process can be issued.
The Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) wants to endorse ministers individually, while the government claims the procedure is “ceremonial” and that this would be tantamount to a series of no-confidence motions.
Shortly before midnight, police took 15-20 DRP members into custody including Ali Arif and MPs Ahmed Mahloof and Ahmed Nihan, after the gathering left behind the main group of protesters near Sultans Park and approached Muleaage. demanding to see President Mohamed Nasheed.
“We are seeing a rising dollar crisis, housing crisis and many other things – look at the long line of people outside the Bank of Maldives every morning,” said Nihan.
“We called out to Nasheed to come out and meet us to solve these problems. We told police it was a peaceful gathering.”
The Maldives National Defense Force (MNDF) arrived five minutes later, Nihan said.
“MP Mahlouf was severely injured because of pepper spray. Mahlouf and Arif were handcuffed and we were taken to police headquarters and detained for an hour without reason. It was very peaceful, and we sat on cushioned chairs,” Nihan stated.
Police apprehended the group at 11:35pm, he said. “Very few of us made it though to Muleaage. The rest of the demonstrators were near Sultans Park.”
Police Sub-Inspector Ahmed Shiyam said the MPs and demonstrators “were not really arrested. They tried to cross the MNDF line and police tried to send them back, but they were eventually taken to police headquarters,” he said.
No injuries were reported to protesters or police, he said.
Miadhu reported minority opposition Jumhooree Party (JP) leader Gasim Ibrahim as saying that the handcuffing of MPs was “unjust and illegal”.
“The police should be the furtherest of people away from being unjust and oppressive. They should not be biased to any party or any colour,” Gasim told Miadhu.
Nihan emphasised that the DRP was not disputing the Supreme Court’s injunction on the cabinet re-endorsement.
“We will always take into consideration the rule of law to ensure it prevails – in any court, not just the Supreme Court,” Nihan said.
“The government needs to accommodate the opposition, and accept that we are not out to topple them but rather to make them accountable,” he said.
The Supreme Court has meanwhile released a statement condemning “uncivilised” vandalism of the building last night, after crude oil was thrown on the walls, vegetation and name board around midnight.
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the DRP is regressing into a bunch of thugs. And this 'protest' is more about shoring up party unity than any consideration for the good of the country.
If Nihan is so concerned about the economy, why did his party sit on the government's tax bill for over a year, preventing the country important revenue?
what!!!!??..TEAR GAS???? still in Male..thought the stock was re exported two yrs back??? shame on MDP suckers....
Do these retards like Nihan, Mahloof, Ilham and Ali Waheed know what "accountable" means?
Before trying to make anyone else accountable they should learn to be accountable to their own actions and selves.
If not for DRP and its money-distributing tradition during the Presidential elections, these stupid idiots would not have made it to parliament seats.
Shame on them!
@ Ilham & Kaheenu - Call them retards but Nihan, Mahloof, Ilham and Ali Waheed or Moya mohodhey for that matter will probably be better at managing a country than Anni and his dumb ministers. Accept it or not the country today is in worse condition than ever before in recent history.
Where are the hundreds of millions of dollars that Anni said will flow into the country when he comes to power; where are the 25000 housing units that government said would be built by the Chinese government.... Lies Lies and more lies is all that the government is capable of.
sick and tired of the government acting like they are what matters, its actually the people that matter, people like kaheebu and most other commentators here are jus mere puppets of this regime, they just keep blurtin out such absurdities, guess who controls the disposable money and whose culture is based on buying votes and selling themselves to the highest bidder, MDP,these are facts, whom i belive are not sustainable and am counting down to the day when even the opposition gets fed up and just abandons the government like majority of ppl have done, anni and MDP have become a joke of sorts, im not laughing though as Munnavar said this is not Biakakaa this is a the future of a nation of people( Anni and his 2 laptops and secretary running a country!!!, joker!!)
They should switch from tear gas to Dinitrogen monoxide. That'd be hilarious.
Heading should be "Tear gas and pepper spray". Even police confirms that.
Welcome to Maldives Police Service.
Ice Cream tho Chocolate tho?
Dheythi
Tear Gas tho Pepper Spray tho?
Dheythi
Oh this is outrageous, the way arif and mahlouf were treated. When we protested after the death of evan naseem, and following protests, whenever we got arrested they 'd pepper spray us, beat us, throw us into there vehicles, cuff us, curse at us and we had to sit on concrete..AND THEY GET CUSHIONED SEATS. oh the horror !!!!!!!!
if you blue shades didn't get it, that was being sarcastic. If you don't know how to protest peacefully you will be arrested.
Back when your leader (Maumoon) was in power there was no such things as peaceful or violent protests, his army would respond with violence how ever we voiced our opinions. And now you (DRP) backed by him complain over pepper spray, what hypocrisy.
@Ahmed Aliased on Thu, 21st Oct 2010 4:11
If they dont have dinitrogen monoxide, they can spray dihydrogen monoxide 🙂
Its quite plentiful in supply.
@Hussein, the world is in crisis. The world is suffering from the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. Maldives depend on other countries for every, food, clothes, oil and when prices increases abroad, 2 days later prices in Maldives doubles.
@ Minister - the world WAS in crisis a year and half ago & NOT TODAY you silly Buf...n. Where have you been the past year? US dollar is at an all time low and sliding in international markets.... don't know why I'm replying to such silly fools like you.
Hi.
The Parliament needs to buckle up and start doing some serious work instead of sending its members on to the street. They already get enough publicity. There's no need to go out into the streets and act macho.
It's time we took a public referendum to find out whether we do need a Parliament that costs us 38 million rufiyaa a year in direct losses by spending time grandstanding instead of doing productive work. I have not included the administrative costs which if included will double and triple the losses borne by the public. If Nasheed's administration cannot solve the problem refer it to the people. We need those funds being wasted for better things.
Rgds Ali
@meekaaku
I'm sure we have enough of dinitrogen monoxide in the hospitals. But water cannons are okay too, I guess. They wreck enemy electronics faster than an EMP pulse.
I just love to see DRP alliance on the street. This is the only language Nasheed and his cohorts apparently understand.
@ali Rasheed 8.05pm ..where were u whn reeko moosabey n the ex ministers acted macho ???!!!.my GOd..wht a hypocrite?!!
When I see people suffering and putting their lives at risk so that Yameen can become the President, I am extremely stressed. I feel afraid for Maldives, I feel afraid for my children, and I feel so foul that I lash out and swear and behave like an animal. I make comments which may be perceived as sexist or racist. Fear, fear strips a human being of their sense of humanity. It strips a person of their dignity, of their ability to respect others. Fear is dehumanizing.
I am sorry if any of my comments had come across as sexist, or racist. I am sorry if I have sworn. I actually revere women deeply and never normally think of women as 'seductive and dangerous.'
Somehow, fear has unleashed a darkness inside of me which is within everyone, though dormant until a person is stressed.
Politics of fear is degrading your people's morality in the same way.
However, this is no excuse. It takes a hell of a lot of inner strength to resist the inclination to act like a monster when under stress, but it can be done.
I mean, love, is not some mamby pamby feel good feeling, to truly act on love is to be stressed, is to suffer and hurt for another if need be, and if you can't do that, we should not talk about caring and what not.
However, my stress for Maldives is love, at times, it comes across as aggressive, because I am frustrated!
But again, I am sorry if I said anything derogatory it will not happen again, but please believe me when I say I do care for u all and don't mean it,
This is hell, watching protestors suffer for Yameen. I do not just say this from what I had read! Yameen came to Perth and spent a week in Perth and I spent a lot of time talking to him etc... I liked him then, you know, I was a complete "suck-hole" so to speak, and I hate myself for it but thats the fact! Later on, about six months later on, he tried to blame me for something which was not my fault, and I felt really threatened and afraid. he sent really dark texts about being 'deeply hurt ' and all this I was terrified!Really. I tried profusely to apologize to him, even though I knew it was not my fault, but you know, I thought, I will take it on board and be the better man. But his attitude toward me was terryfying. I cruelly prevented my wife who is a Maldivian from returning to Maldives out of fear that Yameen was going to put his gangs on me as was said by others. You know, my wife's family were grieving, she still had at that time children in Male, though she has children here with me also, and the whole thing was a tragedy. The stress and pain that I was feeling about all this made me frightened. But over time, it had been revealed to me that Yameen got off on the power trip of me being afraid. And then, I became enraged, angry! And now, it crucifies me ten fold to see these protestors risking their lives for Yameen to become President. You know, it makes me hurt like hell! Not for me, but for you.
when r we all gonna snap out of this illusion of so much over self pride and disneyland thoughts haa!!!! grow up u all and talk and act like adults atleast for the sake of being a role model for the growing children so that they can atleast do better than u me or whoever
Let them protest. Everybody thinks that they are the "good guys". People are different. Everybody has this right to voice their opinion.
Tear gas has gained widespread acceptance in Maldives now also the pepper spray, by mid term Maldives police will get the world record for using tear gas compared to the population, now that half of our population has inhaled the so called tear gas and pepper spray. Hardly a week goes by without press reports of tear gas being used in a public setting.!! The primary item we all should initiate is to campaign against tear gas to make this country a tear gas “neutral country”.. Cause …
The use of tear gas in recent situations, demonstrates that exposure to the weapon is difficult to control and indiscriminate and the weapon is often NOT used correctly (reason: highly incompetent police force, in public order) so …. There is potential of tear gas agents to cause long-term health consequences such as tumor formation, reproductive effects, and pulmonary disease is especially disturbing in view of the multiple exposures sustained by demonstrators and non-demonstrators alike in some areas of civilian POPULATIONS.
Note: commissioner of police should be aware of that, In 1969, eighty countries voted to include tear gas agents among chemical weapons banned under the Geneva Protocol. Why? . If a weapon is found to present too serious a risk, it is then the responsibility of those in charge of public safety to decide on alternatives…
@ Ben. Suffering for drug addicts and dealers who are the inner circle of MDP and presidents office is not any way different from suffering for yaameen.Open your eyes. We are not blind.
There is no question of DRP regressing to bunch of thugs. The question is how can we get rid MDP thugs from the government so we can slavage this country back to civilisation