Category: News in Brief

SAARC Secretary General meets with President Waheed

South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Secretary General Ahmed Saleem has met with President Mohamed Waheed Hassan in Male’ for discussions on implementing the regional body’s development aims.

During discussions that took place in the capital yesterday afternoon, President Waheed was updated on the progress of agreements made during the SAARC summit held last year in Addu Atoll.

According to the President’s Office website, Saleem said that more was needed to be done to meet the goals outlined by SAARC in a bid to strengthen trade and diplomatic relations between its member states.

Health ministers and secretaries from a number of SAARC member states are gathering at the Maldives’ Paradise Island Resort from today for three days of development talks.

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Sri Lankan diplomats make first Maldives visit since power transfer

Sri Lankan External Affairs Minister Professor G L Peiris has become the first official from the country to travel to the Maldives since the controversial transfer of power that saw President Mohamed Waheed Hassan take office in February.

The External Affairs Minister was in Male’ as part of a four-day visit to hold bilateral talks with his Maldivian counterpart, Dr Abdul Samad Abdullah.

During the talks, Professor Peiris pledged ongoing support and assistance to developments in the Maldives. Meanwhile, Maldives Foreign Minister Abdul Samad Abdullah reiterated the importance of contributions made by Sri Lanka relating to socio-economic developments in the Maldives.  Samad welcomed contributions to the development of  “human resources” in particular, the Ceylon Daily News reported.

“The talks were also attended by the Foreign Affairs State Minister Hassan Saeed Hussain, Foreign Secretary Mohamed Naseer, MP Sajin De Vass Gunawardena, Sri Lankan High Commissioner to Maldives Dickson Dela and senior official of the Sri Lankan delegation,” the newspaper added.

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Police raid residences of 2007 Sultan Park bomb suspect

Police have raided the home of the wife of suspected Sultan Park bomber Mohamed Ameen. The blast, five years ago, caused injury to tourists. Another former residence of the accused was raided by police. Items were confiscated during Friday’s operation, although the police have yet to reveal what they were.

“Both houses were raided to find further proof to prove his participation in the plot. Police had confiscated several items from both houses,” a police media official told Haveeru.

Ameen was abroad at the time of the explosion and was not apprehended until October 2011 when Maldivian and Sri Lankan forces combined.

Ameen was a member of the extremist group Jama’athul Muslimeen, the leader of whom died in a suicide attack on the Pakistan Inter-Services Intelligence in 2009.

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PG seeks to charge gang member with terror offence

The state has presented evidence in court as it seeks to bring charges of terrorism against Ibrahim Shahum.

Shahum is charged with the murder 17-year old Mohamed Hussein in a gang-related incident in Male’.

The Prosecutor General is bringing charges based on Article 6 of the Terrorism Prevention Act which calls for the execution, banishment, or life imprisonment of any person found guilty of an act of terrorism that causes the death of the victim.

The secret testimony of six witnesses were taken at the Criminal Court today.

The accused, already found guilty of murdering 21-year old Ahusan Basheer, did not have legal representation in court although he informed the judge that he had submitted the necessary documents.

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Budget allocated to pay living allowances of EC employees

Ministry of Finance has approved the assignment of Rf 1.5 million to the budget of Elections Commission (EC) as living allowance for EC’s employees, according to local news Sun.

Vice President of Elections Commission Ahmed Fayaz said today that Finance Ministry has granted permission to make changes to the budget and include living allowance of about Rf 1.5 million for employees, Sun reported.

According to Fayaz, some changes to the budget have already been made and that will not pose any administrative difficulties for the commission.

EC requested for living allowance from Finance Ministry, after the employees staged a sit down strike last month.

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Maldives outlines key objectives for SAARC Paradise Island health talks

Working papers on the need for more regional training of medical staff, as well as overcoming nutrition, sanitation and efficiency issues will be presented to the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) by the Maldives Health Ministry this week.

With a meeting of SAARC health ministers and secretaries taking place at the Maldives’ Paradise island Resort between Tuesday April 10 to Thursday April 12, local media reports that providing greater opportunities for medical training across South Asia is seen as a key focus for the country’s authorities.  A total of four working papers will be presented by Maldives health authorities during the talks.

The Ministry of Health and Family has stated that representatives from all SAARC members nations with the exception of Pakistan and Afghanistan will be in attendance at the talks.

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Maldives “too small” for involvement in India-China rivalry: The Hindu

Maldives Foreign Minister Abdul Samad Abdullah has said his government is committed to the safety of 23,000 Indian expatriates based in the country during talks between the two nations, Sandeep Dikshit writes for The Hindu newspaper.

Mr. Abdullah, speaking to The Hindu at a time when the Maldives is in the middle of a political stalemate of sorts, called upon strategic analysts not to drag his country into their vision of an India-China rivalry playing out in the Indian Ocean, because “we are too small.”

The Minister also spoke of anti-corruption investigations into the money spent for the SAARC summit, the emptying of the Central Exchequer and liberal grant of islands which were subsequently sold to foreigners, all of which took place during the previous President Mohd. Nasheed’s watch and could inflame political acrimony between his Maldives Democratic Party (MDP) and the others who have formed a unity government.

Mr. Abdullah gave the interview after meeting External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna and discussing the situation in his country with senior MEA officials. India has helped shore up Maldives foreign reserves and extended an agreement to supply essentials like pulses, vegetables and rice.

It is also insisting that the warring parties settle their differences, preferably through polls towards the end of this year.

Mr. Nasheed, who now says he didn’t want to resign but was coerced into demitting office in February, is making efforts to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh but there has been no word so far from the PMO.

“There are 23,000 Indians in the Maldives including doctors, teachers and nurses. They have been of tremendous help and obviously we will continue to have security arrangements,” Mr. Abdullah said, pointing out that after Mr. Nasheed ‘resigned’ as President in February, the government did not change in technical terms. “It was just a change of the President. The policies of the government by and large towards international relations will continue as before.”
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“Two political films, two very different codas,” LA Times on The Island President

The LA Times’ John Horn finds interesting parallels in the amendments made to two films chronicling the respective political careers of former Maldivian President Mohamed Nasheed and Burma’s Aung San Suu Kyi.

The world moves at the speed of life. Hollywood, not quite as fast. The discrepancy is usually not an issue, but in the case of two politically minded films coming to theaters this month — the documentary “The Island President” and the feature”The Lady” — the gap between real time and movie time has lent the movies two very different postscripts.

“The Island President” from director Jon Shenk (“Lost Boys of Sudan”) follows Mohamed Nasheed, the president of the Maldives, as he fights to stop or at least slow global warming; if it’s left unchecked, scientists predict, his low-lying island nation will be submerged by the end of the century. The movie played at the Telluride and Toronto film festivals in September, but in February — before “The Island President” could be released in the U.S. theatrically — Nasheed was forced out of office in what he and his supporters called a coup.

Shenk has added a coda to the film addressing the plight of his subject, but he didn’t otherwise edit the documentary following the recent developments. Although Nasheed’s new status has given him a lot more time to promote “The Island President” — he’s chatted in recent days with David Letterman and Jon Stewart — his ouster means that the movie now ends with as much of an ellipsis as an exclamation point.

“It’s hard to separate the film from the man. So it’s inevitable that people will ask the question, ‘Does this make you feel anything different about him? Does it add to the story?'” Shenk said of Nasheed’s removal from office.

“I feel there’s some distraction, instead of having the typical discussion about how the film was made and reviewers liking or not liking it. It feels both distracting and it gives it a sense of immediacy that for certain people might make it feel more exciting.”

Said Meyer Gottlieb, whose Samuel Goldwyn Co. is distributing “The Island President”: “What’s happened to Nasheed makes him far more visible. From a press perspective, he’s a much more interesting figure now.”

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