Tag: maldives news

Minor arrested for allegedly brewing alcohol

A 17 year-old boy has been arrested on the island of Hithadhu in Laamu Atoll for allegedly brewing alcohol.

Police Sergent Abdul Muhusin told Minivan News that the minor had been now released after being questioned about the alleged incident.

”Police were informed that a group were brewing alcohol in a place, but when police officers attended the area nobody was  there,” he said. “However materials that were supposedly used to ferment alcohol were discovered in the area,”

Staff at the island office told Minivan News that it was the first case of brewing alcohol that was reported to have occurred in the island.

”I heard that some substances were added to an empty bottle and cooked,” he said. ”They did it in the forest in an area that is half a mile away from an area where people live.”

He said that group of islanders knew about the incident and reported it to police.

”They have a list of persons that are allegedly involved in brewing the alcohol – most of them minors,” he said.

Recently, police have reported a number of similar incidents where persons were arrested on suspicion that they were brewing alcohol.

Last December, police arrested two brothers in Gan of Laamu Atoll on suspicion that they were allegedly brewing alcohol inside a kitchen.

Materials that can be used to brew alcohol were discovered inside the kitchen, police claimed at the time.

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Immigration Controller to exchange roles with National Disaster Management chief

Immigration Controller Ilyas Hussein Ibrahim is to trade roles with head of the National Disaster Management Centre Abdulla Shahid, also Minister of State for Housing and Environment.
Minivan News understands that the official letters of appointment have not yet been delivered but are awaiting the President’s signature, after news of the decision was leaked.

Ilyas told Minivan News that the Haveeru report was the first he had heard of the proposal: “No one’s shared it with me yet,” he said.

The move may have a political dimension, as Ilyas is one of the few remaining members of the Vice President’s Gaumee Itthihaad Party (GIP) in government, which was dropped as a coalition partner by the ruling Maldivian Democractic Party (MDP) last year after Vice President Dr Mohamed Waheed Hassan publicly criticised the government for sidelining him.
The supposed reshuffle also comes a month after President Mohamed Nasheed called on the Immigration Department to postpone the roll-out of the Nexbis electronic border control system for the Maldives in accordance with concerns by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) over the project’s selection process.

The President’s Office previously confirmed to Minivan News that Nasheed has requested that the Department of Immigration and Emigration adhere to the ACC’s guidance until it rules over the next step for the project, with no appeal expected to be heard on the current decision.

Nexbis has meanwhile said it will be taking legal action against parties in the Maldives, claiming that speculation over corruption was “politically motivated” in nature and had “wrought irreparable damage to Nexbis’ reputation and brand name.”

The project is intended to curb illegal immigration by tying biometric data to an individual at point of entry, thus reducing the reliance on potentially forged paper documentation. Labour trafficking in the Maldives is thought to be worth at least US$42 million a year and up to US$200 million, according to the former Bangladeshi High Commissioner.

Both positions – Immigration Controller and head of the National Disaster Management Centre – share the same rank.

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New UK High Commissioner, Vietnamese Ambassador present credentials

The new British High Commissioner to the Maldives, John Rankin, has presented his credentials to President Mohamed Nasheed.

During the ceremony, Nasheed thanked the High Commissioner for the UK’s assistance in introducing and consolidating democracy in the Maldives, and discussed the political and economic situation in the country.

Nasheed also raised the struggle for democracy in Egypt, and called on Western countries to support rather than fear the forces of democracy in Muslim countries.

Rankin succeeds Dr Peter Hayes at the UK’s High Commission in Colombo. He has served as Deputy Head of Mission at the British Embassy in Dublin, working on the Northern Ireland peace process, and was Her Majesty’s Consul General in Boston between 2003 and 2007.

The new Vietnamese Ambassador Nguyen Thanh Tan also presented his credentials to President Nasheed.

The pair discussed the potential to increase cooperation between the Maldives and Vietnam, such as expanding the local aquaculture industry.

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Libyan protests spread to capital after Gaddafi uses African mercenaries to quell uprising

Protests that erupted in the Libyan city of Benghazi have spread to the capital, after a vicious military crackdown that opposition supporters are claiming may have killed up to 200.

Despite the news blackout, yesterday reports of assorted incidents filtered out from the country, often over the phone to news media. Libyans accused their leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi of using mercenaries from Chad to attack protesters, deploy sniper teams firing indiscriminately on protesters, and even of firing an anti-aircraft missile to disperse a crowd. A cleric told the BBC he had seen a tank crush a car containing two passengers, another said African mercenaries has shot and killed a two year-old boy.

Last night Gaddafi’s son Saif Gaddafi appeared on state television and warned that the overthrow of the 42 year regime could lead to civil war. At least one military battalion has sided with the demonstrators following the Benghazi crackdown.

The BBC’s Middle East correspondent Jon Leyne described Saif Gaddafi’s rambling speech as “one of the strangest political speeches I think I’ve ever sat through. He was completely and utterly detached from the reality of what is going on in his country.”

“To put it bluntly, most Libyans will just treat it as gibberish – it was completely meaningless to them. The idea that they’re somehow going to sit down and have a national dialogue with a government that’s brought in foreign mercenaries to shoot at them is laughable.”

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ADK dentist handed to police

A 55 year-old orthodontist at ADK hospital in Male has been handed to police after the discovery that he had fled the US facing charges of child molestation.

According to a 1997 report in the New York Times, Kenneth D’Cunha was accused of fleeing the US to escape charges of involvement in a Manhattan pedophile ring and in particular, the sodomy of three young boys.

“Prosecutors said he was part of a ring of men who gave teen-age boys drugs and cash in exchange for sex. The ring was broken up in 1986. Five members of the ring were found guilty. Mr D’Cunha was charged but fled the country,” the NYT reported.

He was eventually discovered by chance 11 years later working in New Zealand when he sued an employer for wrongful dismissal, and was extradited to the  United States. He appeared in the State Supreme Court of Manhattan and pleaded not guilty, and was eventually released.

ADK Managing Director Ahmed Afal told Haveeru that hospital management had received complaints from staff. The Indian doctor was still in his probationary period and had been cleared by the Maldives Medical Council, Afal said.

Maldivian police said the dentist was being investigated.

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Elections Commission suspends funds to ‘inactive’ political parties

The Elections Commission has suspended public funding of six political parties it claims are inactive.

The parties were the Islamic Democratic Party (IDP), the Maldives National Congress (MNC), the Social Liberal Party (SLP), the Maldivian Social Democratic Party (MSDP), the People’s Party (PP), and the Labour Party.

Haveeru reported Deputy Elections Commissioner Ahmed Fayaz Hassan as saying that payments would only be resumed on a court order, or if parties could prove they were politically active.

The budget allocates Rf 13.65 million (US$1.1 million) for the functioning of political parties. Of that money, reported Haveeru, the ruling Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) received (Rf 3.57 million), opposition Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) Rf 3.15 million, Adhaalath Party Rf 842,441.62, Jumhoree Party Rf 816,538.47, People’s Alliance (PA) Rf 622,691.85, Gaumee Ithihaadh Party (GIP) Rf 643, 471.30, and Dhivehi Qaumee Party (DQP) Rf 618, 279.78.

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ACC files case against former STO MD Mohamed Manik

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has filed a case against former Managing Director of the State Trading Organisation (STO), Mohamed Hussein Manik, alleging corruption in a US$1.3 million deal with Yacht Tours Maldives (YTM).

Haveeru reported the commission as stating it had filed the case with the Prosecutor General as the money may have been used to purchase shares of Emerald Resort Private Limited to buy Olhuveli Resort.

Manik is currently the CEO of the Pension Administration Office, and was previously Maldives Ambassador to the US.

Yacht Tours is owned by Abdulla Jabir, a former DRP member who joined the MDP following the Presidential election.

Last year the Maldives Tourism Development Corporation paid US$3.8 million to Yacht Tours after a long-running legal dispute over Herathera Island Resort.

MTDC claimed that YTM had been running Herathera Island Resort without paying rent and took the company to court. In May 2009 the court ordered YTM to pay US$8 million in outstanding rent to MTDC, however YTM successfully claimed that MTDC had failed to fulfil a contractual obligation to build a channel between Herethere Resort and Hulhudhoo, an adjoining inhabited island.

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UNICEF urges support for “overwhelmed” social services

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has praised developments in the reporting of child abuse cases in the Maldives, but is concerned at the challenges posed to “overwhelmed” social services.

Mohamed Naeem, a UNICEF Child Protection Officer based in the Maldives, told Minivan News that although he believed developments in the area of child protection were proving “quite promising”, greater collaboration with members of the public, NGOs and government authorities remained key challenges ahead.

The claims were made as a number of stakeholders from across the Maldivian child protection system met at Bandos Island Resort and Spa last week to try and outline a programme on how to best cooperate on improving the welfare of children in the country, particularly in far flung island communities.

In a speech delivered at the Conference on Child Protection, Ron Pouwels, UNICEF Regional Advisor for Child Protection told the audience assembled at Bandos that outlining a strategy against violence towards children on a national level represented important societal developments.

“Across countries, many challenges remain and violence against children is still often accepted as a lawful practice in the education system, as a form of sentencing by judicial bodies and as a disciplinary measure in care institutions,” he said. “The gap between law and practice also remains wide and challenging. Protective legislation needs to be enforced, permeate the work of institutions and shape the training and ethical standards of professionals.”

Figures taken from an unpublished UNICEF report conducted back in 2008 to study violence against Maldivian children reported that abuse of minors was found to exist across wide sections of Maldives society, both at home and in school – as well as the wider community.

The report claimed that eight percent of student respondents had apparently been hit by a teacher, children with disabilities were found to come under higher risk of receiving physical punishment and girls faced a high risk of being sexually abused, particularly in the capital of Male’.

The findings also reported that eleven percent of boys in the study and 20 percent of girls were believed to have been sexually abused at least once in their life.

Looking ahead

Mohamed Naeem said at present there were no comparative figures on how the child abuse situation had changed in the country since 2008, though he believed there had been improvements in the reporting and monitoring of child abuse in its different forms at the very least.

“Cases of reporting child abuse is up immensely, however this has brought additional challenges that need to be faced,” he said. “With a growing number of cases being reported, social services are being overwhelmed and need to be strengthened.”

Naeem said that a key consideration in bolstering the country’s child protection would be in the provision of more support from local communities and government agencies to social services.

The UNICEF Child Protection Officer claimed that existing initiatives such as Child Protection Committees made up of public citizens who liaised with social services from islands where they did not have a presence were strong examples of the type of collaboration the organization hoped to see.

Naeem claimed that the Child Protection Committees model could be adopted by NGOs and government agencies to maintain a nationwide network focusing on child protection – an area UNICEF has said it will be actively supporting.

In light of this month’s local council elections, Naeem added that decentralised councils and governance were a further positive opportunity to install monitoring and protection systems to benefit young people.

“There are a lot of challenges that would remain in terms of getting such systems up and goin,g” he said. “However, the situation in terms of preventing child abuse is quite different since 2001, I think it’s quite promising.”

Beyond general optimism in terms of developments in national child protection, Naeem said that another key challenge remained for UNICEF and authorities in trying to identify children who were seen as being most vulnerable to possible abuse in society.

The Child Protection Officer claimed that although actions plan were being drawn up, difficulties remained in pinpointing vulnerable groups.

“This could involve cases where children are away from their families for education reasons, have disabilities, or come from single parent families or environments of drug abuse,” he said.

The Conference on Child Protection was held as UNICEF and its partners announced the allocation of US$1.72 million to promote children’s rights in the Maldives as part of a country-wide programme outlining development between 2011 and 2015.

In a statement, UNICEF said that activities identified in the 2011 plan include improving the legislative framework for child rights, strengthening the evidence base for policy planning, and improve capacity of government to deliver improved quality health care and water and sanitation services.

Support will also be provided to ensure enhanced national capacity to deliver inclusive and child friendly education, and to scale up services to protect the most vulnerable children and women from violence. UNICEF will also partner with civil society organizations and the media to enhance their capacity for active monitoring and reporting on children’s issues.

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Shaheem calls for studies in comparative religion at National University

Former State Minister for Islamic Affairs Sheikh Mohamed Shaheem Ali Saeed has written an article calling for studies in comparative religion to be included in courses at the Islamic Faculty of the recently inaugrated National University.

The national university “should be a place that conducts research on issues that the Maldives faces today, especially issues related to human rights, comparative religion, terrorism and the rights of women,” Shaheem wrote in an article (Dhivehi) on the Adhaalath Party’s official website.

Shaheem first floated the idea in April 2010, emphasising that  the subject should not be taught at a secondary level “because [students’] minds are not [yet] prepared to deal with these philosophies.”

However at a university level, “it is very important to research and understand other religions,” said Shaheem. “You will not become an infidel for learning about other religions.”

”At Medina’s University Faculty of Shariah they teach comparative religion as well as at the International Islamic University in Malaysia,” he said. ”Terrorism is a rising issue today, and it is very important to know the difference between terrorism and jihad, and the obligations and reasons for jihad.”

He also said that it was the former government that paved way for the Maldives College of Higher Education to progress to a University.

The National University of the Maldives was inaugurated on February 15 by President Mohamed Nasheed, who appointed former Education Minster Dr Mustafa Luthfy as the university’s first chancellor and presented him with the institution’s seal.

The last time to the topic of comparative religion was raised in the Maldives, Adhaalath Party President Sheikh Hussein Rasheed told Minivan News the party would not support the prospect until an understanding of the basic principles of Islam were strengthened. will not support the study of comparative religion in the Maldives until understanding of the basic principles are strengthened.

While he did not disagree with it in principle, Rasheed said that before introducing comparative religion the government should teach Islam in more advanced manner.

President of Jamiyyathul Salaf Sheikh Abdullah Bin Mohamed Ibrahim said in April that people should understand Islam comprehensively before comparative religion was introduced.

Sheikh Abdulla said there were some necessary subjects of Islam many people in the Maldives did not yet understand or were not being taught.

”Only a few people understand the ‘Tafsir’ [exegesis] of Quran,” he said, adding that ”knowledge of other religions is already taught in verses of Quran and Hadith.”

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