Tag: maldives news

Islanders allege black magic performed in Maalhos School after students inexplicably start to faint

At least four students in North Ari Atoll Malhos have been taken to hospitals in Male’ after they mysteriously fainted.

Five students attending the school have experienced the unusual incident, but the fifth student’s condition was not as serious as the other four.

One male student, who was the first to experience the unusual effects, reportedly lost conscious and was brought Male’ for treatment after he was found in a hypoxic condition, characterised by a lack of oxygen in the blood supply.

Several days later another female student experienced the same condition and was brought Male’ for treatment.

Third student studying at the school fainted while she was at home yesterday, and remains hospitalised in Indira Gandi Memorial Hospital (IGMH).

‘’She fainted while she was at home and she was taken to the health centre immediately,’’ said a family member of the girl, no older than 14. ‘’She remained unconscious for more than two hours in the health centre.’’

The family member said the girl had not claimed to have observed anything unusual before suddenly fainting.

‘’She did not see or feel anything unusual before she just fainted like the others,’’ he said. ‘’The health centre advised her to come Male’ for more treatment and for necessary examinations.’’

He said that many tests conducted so far all showed the results as normal.

‘’It is very strange, we do not know what is going on,’’ he said.

He also said that the fifth student to experience the symptoms, who was of the same age and fainted yesterday, was brought Male’ with her.

‘’The other girl that was brought with her was in a far worse condition. She remained unconscious for more than three or four hours and she does not know what happened to her,” he said.

The family member said that more than four men were needed to hold the girl down when she became conscious, and people observed that she was extremely strong for a girl of her age.

‘’We are suspecting that this is something related to black magic practices,’’ he added.

Another islander, Ahmed Adil ‘Ahukko’, alleged that the cause of the fainting spells was the performance of black magic during the Local Councils Elections in an effort to win votes.

‘’Because it was the island school where the elections were held, the person who did it would probably do it to the school so that it has effect on anyone that enters there,’’ he claimed. ‘’Parents are very concerned and have expressed concern about it now.’’

Although the island is small and isolated with a population of only a few hundred, belief in black magic remains very common and many claim to be victims of such spiritual attacks.

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Criminal Court asks police to find Gayoom’s brother, former Atolls Minister Abdulla Hameed

Police have confirmed a request from the Criminal Court to bring former Atolls Minister Abdulla Hameed before a court in the Maldives, after a summons could not be delivered to him in a pending case.

Several hearings have been cancelled in a high-profile corruption case involving Hameed, who is the brother of former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, after the court was unable to determine his whereabouts and deliver a summons.

Police said that the Immigration Department had been instructed to hold Hameed’s passport should he ever return to the Maldives.

Police spokesperson Sub-Inspector Ahmed Shiyam explained that when the court first requested police to produce Hameed he was not in the Maldives.

”But the court have not yet issued an arrest warrant or requested his arrest via Interpol,” Shiyam said. ”His whereabouts remain unknown.”

Hameed is being sought by the court in a trial concerning corruption allegations in the former Atoll’s Ministry’s Audit Report.

The audit of the Atolls Ministry’s showed that 17 staff employed by the Ministry in 2007 never appeared for work but were being regularly paid by the Ministry, at a total cost of Rf1.4 million (US$109,000).

According to the report, a further 38 persons employed by the ministry were not assigned any daily work, but were also paid regularly. The report stated that occasionally the heads of atolls were brought to Male’ and kept for a long period of time without assigning them any duties. One such atoll head was brought to Male’ in October 2007 and left 10 months later in August 2008, at a cost to the Ministry of Rf 241,862 (US$18,800).

Web of corruption

In March last year, minority opposition People’s Alliance MP Ahmed Nazim pleaded not guilty to charges of defrauding the atolls ministry.

At a press conference in August 2009, Chief Inspector Ismail Atheef said police had uncovered evidence that implicated Hameed along with Eydhafushi MP Ahmed “Redwave” Saleem, former director of finance at the ministry, and Deputy Speaker Nazim in fraudulent transactions worth over US$260,000 (Mrf 3,446,950).

Police exhibited numerous quotations, agreements, tender documents, receipts, bank statements and forged cheques proving that Nazim received over US$400,000 in the scam.

A hard disk seized during a raid of Nazim’s office in May allegedly contained copies of forged documents and bogus letter heads.

Police maintain that money was channelled through the scam to Nazim who laundered cash through Namira Engineering and other unregistered companies.

Police further alleged that MP Saleem actively assisted the scam in his then-position as director of finance at the ministry, while Nazim’s wife Zeenath Abdullah had abused her position as a manager of the Bank of Maldives’ Villingili branch to deposit proceeds of the fraudulent conspiracy.

Police said Hameed, also long-time Speaker of the People’s Majlis, played a key role in the fraud by handing out bids without public announcements, making advance payments using cheques against the state asset and finance regulations, approving bid documents for unregistered companies and discriminatory treatment of bid applicants.

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Parliament endorses Naseem as Foreign Minister and Muiz as Attorney General

Parliament has approved the appointment of Minister of Foreign Affairs Ahmed Nasheed and Attorney General Abdulla Muiz.

Muiz was approved by 74 out of the 76 members present while Naseem received 62 votes endorsing him as Foreign Minister, replacing Dr Ahmed Shaheed.

The appointments mark the end of an extensive cabinet reshuffle prompted by the short-lived resignation of Nasheed’s entire cabinet in July 2010, in a statement against what they described as the “scorched earth” politics of the opposition majority parliament.

However under the Maldivian constitution ministerial appointments are subject to parliamentary approval, and the opposition seized the opportunity to vote out seven of Nasheed’s 13-strong cabinet, and the Attorney General, during a vote in November 2010 that was boycotted by the ruling Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP). The vote came after three weeks of disruption in parliament, with some sessions terminated by Speaker Abdulla Shahid – himself an opposition Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) MP – mere minutes after opening.

Seven ministers – Finance Minister Ali Hashim, Education Minister Dr Musthafa Luthfy, Foreign Minister Dr Ahmed Shaheed, Fisheries Minister Dr Ibrahim Didi, Home Minister Mohamed Shihab, Defence Minister Ameen Faisal and Attorney General Dr Ahmed Ali Sawad – did not receive a majority of votes from the 42 MPs in attendance during the November vote.

The government had contested that the only way ministers could be removed was through a majority vote of no-confidence, and further argued that parliamentary approval of ministers appointed by Nasheed was a “ceremonial” function.

“No consent does not amount to no-confidence,” the President’s Press Secretary Mohamed Zuhair argued at the time.

The question of whether ministers could perform their duties without parliamentary approval eventually went before the Supreme Court, which ruled in favour of the opposition. A number of Ministers, including Dr Ahmed Shaheed, resigned on the eve of the ruling.

However the opposition’s victory celebration following the December 2010 ruling was short-lived, and came to blows when Umar Naseer, the party’s dismissed Deputy Leader prior to his dismissal by the party’s disciplinary committee, and his supporters gatecrashed the venue. What had been an acrimonious war of words descended into an outright split of the party into factions loyal to either the party’s ‘honorary leader’ former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, and elected leader Ahmed Thasmeen Ali and Speaker Ahmed Shahid.

The MDP saw the opportunity to rush the remaining appointments through parliament while the DRP was absorbed in  internal politics; Thasmeen was accused by Naseer’s more uncompromising faction of “secret meetings” with President Nasheed.

In a vote last month, replacement Education Minister Shifa Mohamed (66 in favour) and Tourism Minister Dr Mariyam Zulfa (71 in favour) were approved by parliament. More surprising was that Home Minister Hassan Afeef and Transport Minister Adhil Saleem were both narrowly approved despite being unpopular with the opposition and claims by the party that it would impose a three-line whip to reject the two nominees. Several senior figures in the President’s Office privately acknowledged that they had held little hope for either.

The only casualty was Attorney General Dr Ahmed Ali Sawad, whom Nasheed had appointed to the post a second time after his first dismissal by parliament, and who was ousted by one vote.

That same afternoon President Nasheed appointed State Minister Ahmed Naseem as Foreign Minister and Solicitor General Abdulla Muizz as Attorney General, the subject of today’s approval, suggesting that the MDP may indeed have gained leverage in parliament at the expense of the fractured opposition.

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New mobile towers cut power consumption in half, claims telco

The Maldives “need not return to the stone age” and neglect creature comforts for the sake of the environment, Maldives’ Environment Minister Mohamed Aslam has said, and should instead find alternative ways to continue enjoying technological developments.

Certain environmental groups remain skeptical of the true effectiveness of green business developments, even in the tourism sector where restrictions on developers are more comprehensive, however Aslam said he believed the Maldives had nonetheless taken a “bold step” in its own commitment to sustainable practices over the remaning decade.

Aslam made the claims while speaking at the launch of a new ‘green’ mobile tower by Wataniya, one of the country’s two telecos, at the Adaraan Hudhuranfushi resort on Saturday afternoon.

Wataniya claims the new Single Radio Access Network (RAN) tower provides more sustainable and operationally-efficient mobile phone and data coverage, albeit at a significantly higher cost of acquisition.

According to the company, the first tower installed will cover a 60 kilometre radius around Hudhuranfushi at a 54 percent reduction in total power consumption and 80 percent reduction in carbon footprint compared to existing installed technology, and could be easily upgraded to handle upcoming 4G developments with the addition of a single card. It also claims the smaller size of the tower – essentially a single metal pole anchored to a concrete footprint the size of an office chair, makes it more attractive for roll-out on resort islands concerned about the visual impact of a conventional lattice structure mobile tower.

Aslam, speaking at the resort during the launch, told media that the support of foreign corporations such as Wataniya that had invested in the Maldives was a key part of the Maldives’ meeting its carbon neutral commitment by by 2020. Although details of how the country can efficiently meet its 2020 target remain elusive beyond broad political support for investment in green technology and renewable energy, President Mohamed Nasheed said last year that failure to meet the goals would be a “disaster” for the country in ensuring long-term stability both economically and geologically.

Despite the adoption of the new technology at Adaaran’s Hudhuranfushi resort, Ali Rilwan, Executive Director of local environmental NGO Bluepeace told Minivan News that he believed that the Maldives’ tourist resorts’ general commitment to effective sustainable practices was not limited to green technology and day-to-day issues like waste management.

Rilwan claimed that although tourist regulations did tend to be stricter in regards to the amount of natural land being developed and not allowing buildings to tower over an island’s tallest trees, other viable development areas included solar and renewable energy technologies.

“I think very few resorts are taking responsibility. Waste management is another vital area and only a few resorts have sewage treatment plants rather than pumping it into the ocean,” he said. “Some [resorts] are also not disposing of their garbage correctly either so they hire local boats to transport garbage to the island of Thilafushi.  In some cases management may be unaware that some boats travel just a few hours off shore and then dump trash in the sea without travelling all the way to Thilafushi.”

Despite his concerns Rilwan said that he saw developments such as those taken by Wataniya to introduce more energy efficient equipment like the RAN towers as a “good move” to cut environmental impact, although he believed the company’s spending on sustainable developments could be widened to a number of areas.

He pointed to telecommunications companies fully replacing plastic cards used by customers to recharge their mobile phone credit or looking at alternatives to spending on billboard advertising and promotions and simpler activities like planting more trees.

“Each resort is required to be working on projects like planting trees,” he said. “These companies could instead use their funding to do very visible commitments like plant coconut trees around islands.”

Perhaps more unlikely, Rilwan stated that Wataniya and its competitors such as Dhiraagu could also consider sharing and maintaining telecommunication commitment together to try and cut down on the space and energy requirements in supplying separate services to Maldivian customers.

With local councils elected into office in February, Rilwan said that he expected more visible measures and local projects to be managed to help local islands in boosting their sustainability.

Speaking to Minivan News in October, environmental organisation Greenpeace said it believed the Maldives acted more as a symbol than a practical demonstration of how national development and fighting climate change can be mutually exclusive.

Wendel Trio, the organisation’s Climate Policy and Global Deal Coordinator, said he believed that the Maldives could nonetheless play an iconic role in promoting the potential benefits of adopting alternate energy programmes.

“By coupling both strong words and the need for the big emitting countries in the developed and the developing world to reduce their emissions sharply, with a strong commitment at home, the Maldives has also gained respect,” Trio explained to Minivan News. “However, obviously none of the big emitting countries are looking at the Maldives as an example, as they all claim that their social and economic development cannot be compared to that of a small island state.”

He accepted that the country was somewhat limited by its size but said it could have play a role in advocating for more sustainable business and lifestyle practices.

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President relaxes exchange rate crackdown

The government has relaxed a blackmarket crackdown on the illegal exchange of dollars into rufiya, announcing today that the currency could be traded at a rate within 20 percent of the pegged 12.85 to the dollar.

The announcement effectively defangs the police crackdown by allowing trade of the rufiya up to Rf15.42, at a time when the supply of dollars sits below demand and banks are refusing to exchange the local currency.

Haveeru reported that President Nasheed had sent a letter to MMA Governor Fazeel Najeeb requesting he announce the new exchange rate. The government has criticised Najeeb for not addressing the dollar shortage and for lack of response to requests for advice and assistance, and has requested the MDP parliamentary group to press for his dismissal.

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Nihan renews calls for Nasheed no-confidence motion as DRP factional strife intensifies

Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) MP Ahmed Nihan renewed calls for a no-confidence motion against President Mohamed Nasheed, during a rally on Friday.

Nihan said the motion, which requires 25 signatures from MPs to be put before parliament and a two-third majority vote to be passed, was in response to an increase in problems such as gang violence and the dollar shortage.

“Galaxy Enterprises can no longer sell air tickets because of the dollar shortage, and I received at least 20 desperate calls last night from people needing medical treatment who are suddenly unable to travel to Colombo. The public is very unhappy,” Nihan said.

“I strongly believe the opposition should seriously consider this motion because the President is ignoring problems. There is inflation, and people are in a mess and getting reckless,” he said, claiming that Nasheed had been “lying to the country over the extent of the problem.”

The government, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), have contended that a key contributor to the dollar shortage is the high spend on civil servant salaries in rufiya relative to its dollar income.

The government hopes a reform of the tax system, including a business profit tax and a tourism goods and services tax – delayed in parliament and passed only late last year – will eventually increase its income, but contests that political obstacles prevent it from reducing the size of the civil service.

Nihan acknowledged that while the civil service was “quite large”, blaming it for the dollar shortage was “just an excuse”.

“This country has survived for the last decade as a well-governed country. There was no problem getting dollars on this scale, only now due to mismanagement,” Nihan claimed.

He also acknowledged that even with 25 signatures, the no-confidence motion was unlikely to get the two-thirds majority required to oust Nasheed. It was, he claimed, an attempt “to get the President to take notice of the problems people are facing.”

The brief resignation of Nasheed’s cabinet in July 2010 was in part prompted by letters from six ruling party MPs who claimed they had been offered bribes by the opposition to vote against the party line. As the opposition parties already have a majority in parliament, this was widely interpreted as an attempt to secure a two-thirds majority to remove the President.

Nasheed promptly arrested the respective leaders of the minority opposition Jumhoree and People’s Alliance parties, businessman Gasim Ibrahim and the former President’s half brother Abdulla Yameen, and charged them with treason and bribery.

No charges stuck in court, and Nasheed was eventually pressured by the international community to release Yameen from his “protective” extrajudicial detention on the Presidential Retreat of on Aarah.

The possibility of the Dhivehi gaining a two-thirds majority is particularly unlikely given the recent fracturing of the party into factions loyal to either former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom or the DRP’s leader Ahmed Thasmeen Ali. Gayoom had endorsed Thasmeen as his successor on his retirement from politics early last year, but cemented his disapproval of Thasmeen’s performance with an open letter faulting his leadership and particularly the party’s dismissal of Deputy leader Umar Naseer, ostentiously for conducting protests without party approval.

During a rally on Thursday, Thasmeen told the press that he could not stand aside and watch when the internal dispute has reached the point where “the people are not sure what the DRP is.”

“When a rally is announced, it’s not clear who is calling for it,” he said. “A person dismissed from the party is using the party’s logo and giving press conferences as the party’s deputy leader.”

As the factional strife has reached “the limit where we can’t remain without taking measures,” Thasmeen said he would bring the matter to the party’s council seeking a decision.

Meanwhile Riyaz Rasheed, the sole DQP MP in parliament, participated in the Gayoom faction rally for the first time, despite the recent coalition agreement between the Dhivehi Qaumee Party (DQP) and Thasmeen’s faction. The party’s existing coalition partner, Yameen’s PA, supports Gayoom.

At the Thasmeen faction rally at Immadhudheen School, speakers strongly criticised Umar Naseer for “disregarding the party’s charter.”

Leading the attack, Deputy Leader Ali Waheed argued that the opposing faction consisted of “presidential candidates who couldn’t get 3,000 votes (Umar) and leaders of parties with less than 3,000 people (Yameen),” and accused them of hijacking the DRP’s membership base.

“These people are holding rallies in DRP’s name because it has 40,000 members. Why won’t they hold a rally in their the name of their own party?”

The Gayoom faction was “obsessed with the DRP” because “when the time comes, it’s the DRP that has the ace of spades,” Waheed said.

“But what they don’t know is that we’re not playing cards,” said Waheed. “We’re playing joker. God willing, we will put down the joker and win the presidential election. When you’re playing joker, the ace of spades isn’t that important.”

Waheed argued that rallies held by Gayoom faction were “in truth Yameen Abdul Gayoom’s presidential campaign.”

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Dispute between MNCCI and Male’ City Council over night market settled

The dispute between Maldives National Chamber of Commerce and Industries (MNCCI) and Male’ City Council over the night market has been settled, reports SunFM.

SunFM reported that the City Council granted permission to hold the Night Market after the MNCCI agreed to pay Rf750 (US$58) per table.

The location of the night market has also been changed. The tables will be arranged starting from Boduthakurufaanu Magu near the State Electric Company (STELCLO) to the park near the Tsunami monument.

It will be held on the 10th of July, according to SunFM.

During the night market many of the shops in Male’ set up tables on a location determined by the MNCCI to sell different types of products at low prices, a longstanding annual event.

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President appoints new Finance Minister

President Mohamed Nasheed has appointed Ahmed Inaz as Finance Minister.

Inaz previously held the post of the Minister of State for Economic Development, said the President’s Office.

”Prior to the presentation of the Letter of Appointment, Inaz took the oath of office of the members of the Cabinet before the Supreme Court Judge Abdulla Areef,” the President’s Office said.

Former Finance Minister  Ali Hashim was dismissed from his position after it refused to approve his reappointment.

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PG rejects case concerning alcohol bottles found in MP Moosa’s car

The Prosecutor General’s office has rejected a case sent by police concerning 168 alcohol bottles discovered inside the car of Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) Parliamentary Group leader MP ‘Reeko’ Moosa Manik.

Police Sub-Inspector Ahmed Shiyam said the case was sent back by the Prosecutor General requesting the inclusion of missing information concerning the investigation.

”After including this information we will send it back to the Prosecutor General’s Office,” Shiyam said. ”We can’t disclose what information the Prosecutor General is requiring us to include.”

The bottles were found in Moosa’s car in February 2010 while he was out of the country. Moosa has claimed his driver was bribed to put the bottles of “cheap alcohol” into his car in an attempt to frame him for the crime.

That same week police arrested four expatriate men loading 168 bottles of whiskey and menthol gin into the car registered to Moosa, on the same day controversial liquor licensing regulations were unveiled by the Ministry of Economic Development.

Last year October police said the investigation in to the case was concluded and had beensent to Prosecutor General.

At the time the police refused to say whether Moosa would stand trial in the case.

Prosecutor General Ahmed Muiz did not respond to Minivan News at time of press.

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