Tag: maldives news

Foreign dignitaries arrive as Addu prepares for largest event in atoll’s history

Foreign dignitaries and heads of state from around the region have begun arriving in the Maldives for the 17th Summit of the South Asian Association For Regional Cooperation (SAARC).

The main Summit will run over November 10-11, however Minivan News understands that most of the talks between leaders will take place in the preceding days, together with the key decisions.

Leaders of all SAARC countries – including Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan – have confirmed their attendance, according to the Maldives’ Foreign Ministry, while President Nasheed has already departed to oversee the remaining preparations.

In addition, ministers from Australia, Japan and China will join the Summit as observers. The Maldives’ former envoy for South Asia, Fathimath Dhiyana Saeed is serving as SAARC’s Secretary-General.

Media coverage of the event across the region has sharply increased with the departure of national leaders from their home countries.

One particularly anticipated event is the meeting between Pakistan’s Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and his Indian counterpart Dr Manmohan Singh, with Pakistan’s Business Recorder reporting that the meeting “on the sidelines” has been finalised for the 11th by the Foreign Office of Pakistan and India’s External Affairs Ministry.

According to the Recorder, the pair are due to discuss resuming dialogue between the two countries, as well as trade concessions. The two leaders also met earlier this year in Mohali on the eve of Pakistan-India cricket World Cup semi-final.

The Hindu reported India’s Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai as stating that topics of discussion between the two leaders would concern “the quick return of the military helicopter that had strayed into Pakistani territory, the in-principle decision by Pakistan to give most favoured nation (MFN) status to India and the visit of a Pakistani Judicial Commission to Mumbai.”

Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina, is meanwhile due to depart Dhaka on the 9th, arriving at 3:30pm on the Wednesday, reports the Bangladeshi media.

Sheikh Hasina is due to have a bilateral meeting with Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh at Dr Ali’s Restaurant on the Shangri-La Villingili Resort, reports Bangladesh’s Daily Star newspaper, and will later attend a state banquet on Hulhumeedhoo.

Bangladeshi officials outlined key topics at the Summit as revolving around poverty alleviation, economic cooperation, the SAARC Development Fund, food security, connectivity, energy and climate change, with four regional agreements: Rapid Response to Natural Disasters, Seed Bank, Multilateral Recognition of Conformity Assessment and Implementation of Regional Standards as likely to be signed during the event.

Security at the event will be tight, with all traffic in the atoll restricted to military-run vessels. Joint Inter Agency Taskforce Commander Hassan Ziyad has observed that many of the leaders attending are “considered high risk even in their own countries,” and that respective domestic security threats are being taken into account by SAARC security forces.

All attending countries are providing security measures. Indian surveillance aircraft and navy vessels are patrolling the areas around Addu City and Fuvahmulah, while Sri Lanka has deployed six teams of sniffer dogs.

In India, the Hindu has meanwhile reported that a parallel “People’s SAARC” would be held in Thiruvananthapuram, in which political leaders would share the podium with “historians, writers, human rights activists and representatives of people’s movements”, during a two-day meeting of social action groups beginning on November 8.

“It will also focus on trade and livelihood issues, women’s role in people’s movements, de-militarisation and de-nuclearisation, natural resources and people’s movements and rebuilding the labour movement in the region. Other major concerns and topics to be discussed include exclusion, discrimination, oppression and tolerance, syncretism and secularism,” the Hindu reported.

Organisers of the parallel summit were reported as stating that “SAARC has comprehensively failed to take up issues confronted by the people of this region, which is home to the largest number of the world’s working poor.”

The Maldivian government has touted the SAARC as revitalising the southern atoll, highlighting its potential for development and putting it forward as a flagship for its ambitions to decentralise the country and take the pressure off Male’ – the most densely populated 2.2 square kilometres in the world.

Addu was granted the status of city in the lead up to the local council elections earlier this year, a move which met with heated disagreement from political opposition groups. The new city voted overwhelmingly for the ruling Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), with the party winning all council seats in both Male’ and Addu.

The MDP claimed victory after winning the major population centres, while opposition claimed victory in overall numbers of councillors elected, with strong support across many of the country’s less populated islands.

Addu’s new council meanwhile plans to use the Rf 115 million (US$7.4 million) convention centre, a two-storey building of glass, wood and marble with a capacity of 3000 today unveiled as the ‘Equatorial Convention Centre’ with the main convention hall dudded ‘Bodu Kiba’, to transform the atoll from a quiet place to a hub of business and tourism.

“We have some representatives talking to businesses in Singapore and Malaysia about hosting events here,” Sodiq told Minivan News.

“We will be soliciting bids to find the right event manager to look after the convention center as well. I think there are people interested in what Addu has to offer, and I’m sure we can get a market for it.”

This evening almost 1000 students are expected to turn out to march on the streets of Addu to mark the Eid al-Adha holidays, while bashi’, futsal and beach volley tournaments are due to take place, reports Haveeru.

Entertainment, music and cultural activities will take place through the week.

Minivan News reporters will be stationed in Addu reporting on the SAARC Summit November 7-12. 150 foreign reporters from around the region are expected to attend the event.

Likes(0)Dislikes(0)

Comment: Against dolphin captivity

I am Karam Ibrahim and I am 15 years old. It is my sincere request that this article I have written in order to express my views and make the public about dolphin captivity is published.

I am a 15 year-old student. I have been fascinated by dolphins and whales as long as I can remember. Since I opened my eyes into a blessed island surrounded by the ocean, I have seen dolphins more than a few times in the wild.

In my eyes, I saw breathtaking creatures that teased and leaped in the endless ocean. They are definitely interested and curious about human beings, and it was impossible not to feel their joy and freedom just watching them. To me, dolphins resembled freedom, and I’m sure that any Maldivian who had encountered the amazing cetaceans in the wild will feel it to some extent too!

About three years ago, my interest in animals made me persuade my parents to take me to the Safari World during a trip to Bangkok, Thailand. We visited the Dolphin and Beluga Whale show, which I profoundly regretted later.

I could see the difference between the wild dolphins in Maldives and the dolphins in the show. They were miserable! Sure, the tank in which they were kept was gigantic, but I questioned myself. Is the tank big enough for these mammals that were once swimming in an endless ocean which by no means can be compared to this cage?

Dolphins are mammals, not fish. They are huge, meaningful creatures with big hearts confined in a small body. Thus, that visit to the Safari World turned out to be my last trip to a place where dolphins and whales were cruelly kept in captivity. It was merely a feeling that these animals did not belong there.

Later, I saw the movie “The Cove” which confirmed that it was not only a feeling! Dolphins and whales do not belong in captivity.

In the wild, they’re travelling 40 miles a day. They could be surfing at one area in the morning, and the next hour they could be 25 miles away teasing or socialising. Dolphins are acoustic creatures. These dolphins are captured and put in a concrete tank surrounded by a stadium full of screaming people. Imagine how they would feel!

When I heard the news about the opening of a dolphinarium in Maldives, it was like a nightmare come true! Since the government ministers have given Amir Mansoor the right to open a dolphinarium, I did a research on the internet, trying to understand why the government would promote this absurd proposal to open a dolphinarium in an eco-friendly country like the Maldives. Here are a few facts that I believe the public, and the Maldivian government should be aware of:

  • The average life span of a dolphin in the wild is 45 years; yet half of all captured dolphins die within their first two years of captivity. The survivors last an average of only 5 years in captivity.
  • When a baby dolphin is born in captivity, the news is usually kept secret until the calf shows signs of survival. Although marine mammals do breed in captivity, the birth rate is not nearly as successful as the one in the wild, with high infant mortality rates.
  • Wild dolphins can swim 40 to 100 miles per day – in pools they go around in circles.
  • Many marine parks subject their mammals to hunger so they will perform for their food. Jumping through hoops, tail walking and playing ball are trained behaviors that do not occur in the wild.
  • When trapped together, males often become agitated and domineering. This creates pecking orders (unknown in the wild) and unprovoked attacks on each other and the trainers. In the ocean, although fights are not unknown, the wild dolphins have a chance to escape.

As dolphins and whales are large wild animals, the stress and trauma caused by captivity makes them dangerous, which proposes a threat to their trainers. The following is evidence:

In the year 2000, a dolphin entangled a trainer in a net, spun her around and held her underwater during a dolphin capture exercise at Sea World, San Diego. The trainer suffered three fractures and torn ligaments in her right arm.

In the year 2002, a Killer whale Orkid pulled a trainer into the pool by her foot at Sea World, San Diego. The trainer broke her arm before being rescued.

In the year 2006 a dolphin bit a boy celebrating his 7th birthday with a sleepover at SeaWorld Orlando. The boy, under the supervision of a SeaWorld employee, was petting the dolphin at the Dolphin Cove, a petting attraction.

The boy’s mother, Hollie Bethany, told the Orlando Sentinel two adults had to pry the dolphin’s mouth open to free the boy’s hand. The bite bruised the boy’s thumb but did not break the skin.

A dolphin at the same attraction had bitten a 6-year-old Georgia boy on the arm three weeks earlier, the Sentinel reported. The resort’s spokesperson told the paper that the dolphin in that incident might be sent to a “behavior modification” program.

In 2010, trainer Dawn Brancheau, 40, was grabbed by a killer whale, pulled into the water and held there at Sea World, Orlando. She was killed brutally by this stressed out whale in front of thousands of spectators.

Like Richard O’Berry once said, dolphins are whales. Size does not matter!

I would like to state that no matter how much we try to replicate the features of the sea in a dolphin cage, there is no possibility that a dolphin held captive will be happy and healthy.

This is not a matter of keeping the dolphins in Maldives safe. The dolphins that are bred in captivity and transported to Maldives are also dolphins. This is a matter of saving and protecting these wild animals and discouraging the brutal hunting and slaughtering of dolphins worldwide.

I wish that this could not only be about the huge amounts of profit that could be made from this industry, but also about what a good deed we are doing for the environment and ways of life and nature by refraining from such activities which can only be stated as inhumane animal abuse.

I sincerely hope that the government ministers and Amir Mansoor will consider this, and find sympathy and love in their hearts to prevent this nightmare from happening by abstaining from holding dolphins, which can help diminish the number of dolphins that are captured every year in order to be sold to dolphinariums all over the world.

All comment pieces are the sole view of the author and do not reflect the editorial policy of Minivan News. If you would like to write an opinion piece, please send proposals to [email protected]

Likes(0)Dislikes(0)

Male’ quietens over Eid-ul-Adha

The pace of life in the normally bustling Maldivian capital has slowed as the country celebrates Eid-ul-Adha.

While many local residents travel abroad during the week-long holiday, this year many government and civil service workers have also travelled south to Addu to work on the SAARC Summit.

In his weekly radio address, President Mohamed Nasheed extended Eid greetings to the people of the Maldives, and all the Maldivian pilgrims in Mecca.

¨Eid-ul-Adha is an occasion to spread compassion and happiness. It is a day to help and care for people in need,” President Nasheed said.

The President also sent Eid greetings to the leaders of Islamic countries and to the Heads of Islamic Organisations.

Likes(0)Dislikes(0)

PPM holds first political rally

The newly-formed Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) held its first major political rally last night with a large number of supporters at artificial beach in Male’, vowing to “enter the presidential palace” in the 2013 presidential election.

Following the completion of the registration process with the Elections Commission (EC) on Sunday and pending verification of over 10,000 membership forms, PPM becomes the third largest party in the Maldives with 13,000 members.

As of October 30, 2011, the ruling Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) has 47,904 members, followed by opposition Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) with 35,260 and religious conservative Adhaalath Party with 6,140 members.

Speaking at last night’s rally, PPM Registrar Dr Mohamed Saud said the party submitted 13,000 membership forms in 55 days, with the number expected to reach 30,000 by the end of the year.

Dr Saud claimed PPM’s membership would reach over 60,000 in the next six months before its inaugural national congress.

Vili-Maafanu MP Ahmed Nihan told supporters that the new party was “the English version of [first Maldivian President] Mohamed Ameen’s party.”

MP Abdulla Yameen, who has announced his intention to contest the party’s presidential primary, meanwhile said the executive was attempting to grab all powers of the state, accusing the current administration of being incapable of governing under a lawful and democratic system without street activism and “intimidation” of state institutions such as the judiciary.

“I would like to tell the Supreme Court, other courts and independent institutions on behalf of the beloved and honourable PPM members in attendance here, we will definitely be the watchers between you and MDP’s activism,” he said. “We will not allow any harm to come you.”

Yameen also claimed senior leaders of the MDP government were “drenched in the blood of the martyrs” of the November 3, 1988 coup attempt with mercenaries from Sri Lanka.

Likes(0)Dislikes(0)

High Court upholds Criminal Court guilty verdict against MP Ismail Abdul Hameed

The High Court last night upheld the Criminal Court’s guilty verdict against Independent MP Ismail Abdul Hameed for corruption and abuse of authority as former director of waste management at the Male’ municipality.

Under article 73(c)(3) of the constitution, MPs found guilty of a criminal offence “and sentenced to a term of more than twelve months” would be stripped of their seat.

Hameed was accused of abused of authority to financially benefit a Singaporean company named Island Logistics in a deal to purchase a barge.

In the verdict delivered on August 29, Criminal Court Judge Abdulla Didi noted that the agreement stipulated the barge was to be delivered within 90 days of signing the agreement, upon which 50 percent of the value was to be paid to Island Logistics.

Although the barge arrived in the Maldives on October 23, 2008, Hameed had signed a a protocol of delivery and acceptance of the vessel on April 28, 2008.

The judge ruled that Hameed’s actions were intentional and in violation of the Anti-Corruption Act.

The High Court judges ruled unanimously last night that there were no grounds to overturn the guilty verdict.

Likes(2)Dislikes(0)

MNBC to report MP Mahlouf to police for alleged assault of journalist

A journalist at the Maldives National Broadcasting Corporation (MNBC) has claimed that Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) MP Ahmed Mahlouf assaulted him after Tuesday’s night live coverage of the National Security Committee meeting.

”He came towards me while I was waiting in the corridor and asked me rudely why I was broadcasting the parliament live” said the MNBC reporter, who wished to remain anonymous. ”I said that decision was not up to me and he told me to inform all my superiors that any equipment brought inside the parliament will be destroyed.”

He said the Galolhu South MP then pushed him against the wall and elbowed him on the stomach.

”I told him to get off me, but he then again hit me in the chest,” he said. ”Then he left the area.”

Board members of the state broadcaster were considering reporting the case to police, he said.

Mahlouf however denies the allegations.

An MNBC journalist at the committee meeting suggested that the incident would have been caught on CCTV cameras inside the building.

Prior to the alleged assault, opposition MPs disrupted a National Security Committee meeting to object to live coverage by the state broadcaster.

The meeting was held to vote on a proposal to summon PPM Parliamentary Group Leader MP Abdulla Yameen for questioning.

Committee Chair MP Ali Waheed told press that the rules of procedure did not prohibit live telecasts or dictate terms for media coverage.

The disruption of the live broadcast saw MDP activists gather outside the parliament building to protest.

With opposition MPs still inside parliament over an hour and half after the meeting ended, a group of PPM supporters gathered for a counter-protest.

Riot police in the area separated the rival protesters and cordoned off the area shortly before midnight.

Likes(0)Dislikes(0)

MP Yameen questioned by National Security Committee over alleged illegal oil trade

MP Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom was grilled by parliament’s National Security Committee today over allegations of an illegal oil trade worth US$800 million with Burma while the Mulaku MP was chairman of the State Trading Organisation (STO).

In the face of repeated questioning during today’s meeting, Yameen denied any involvement in “micro-management” of STO subsidiary companies during his time as chairman until 2005.

A resolution proposed by Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) MP Mohamed Musthafa to investigate the allegations was sent to the National Security Committee on August 2, which has since summoned and questioned senior STO officials.

Article 99 of the constitution grants parliamentary committees the power to “summon any person to appear before it to give evidence under oath, or to produce documents.”

The allegations first appeared in February this year in India’s The Week magazine in a cover story by Sumon K. Chakrabarti, Chief National Correspondent of CNN-IBN, who described Yameen as “the kingpin” of a scheme to buy subsidised oil through STO’s branch in Singapore and sell it through a joint venture called ‘Mocom Trading’ to the Burmese military junta, at a black market premium price.

Mocom Trading
“The Maldives receives subsidised oil from OPEC nations, thanks to its 100 percent Sunni Muslim population. The Gayooms bought oil, saying it was for the Maldives, and sold it to Myanmar on the international black market. As Myanmar is facing international sanctions, the junta secretly sold the Burmese and ‘Maldivian’ oil to certain Asian countries, including a wannabe superpower,” alleged Chakrabarti.

“Sources in the Singapore Police said their investigation has confirmed ‘shipping fraud through the diversion of chartered vessels where oil cargo intended for the Maldives was sold on the black market creating a super profit for many years’,” the report added.

Referencing an unnamed Maldivian cabinet Minister, The Week stated that: “what is becoming clear is that oil tankers regularly left Singapore for the Maldives, but never arrived here.'”

The article drew heavily on an investigation report by international accountancy firm Grant Thornton, commissioned by the government in March 2010, which obtained three hard drives containing financial information of transactions from 2002 to 2008. No digital data was available before 2002, and the paper trail “was hazy”.

In 2004, investigators from accountancy firm KPMG found in an STO audit that Mocom Trading was set up in February that year as a joint venture between STO Singapore and a Malaysian company called ‘Mocom Corporation Sdn Bhd’, with the purpose of selling oil to Myanmar and an authorised capital of US$1 million.

According to The Week, the company had four shareholders: Kamal Bin Rashid, a Burmese national, two Maldivians: Fathimath Ashan and Sana Mansoor (employees of STO), and a Malaysian named Raja Abdul Rashid Bin Raja Badiozaman, who was the Chief of Intelligence for the Malaysian armed forces for seven years.

As well as the four shareholders, former Managing Director of STO Singapore, Ahmed Muneez, served as the director.

Malaysia’s Mocom Corporation was one of four companies with a tender to sell oil to the Burmese junta, alongside Daewoo, Petrocom Energy and Hyundai.

Muneez, Ashan and Sana have been questioned by the National Security Committee over the past two weeks.

“Ex officio”

At today’s committee meeting, Yameen maintained that chairmanship of the STO board was an “ex officio” (by right of office) post, and as the affairs of Mocom Trading was managed by the STO subsidiary company in Singapore, “it doesn’t reach the STO board in Male’.”

The STO chairman under the previous government was not an executive chairman who handled day-to-day management of the state-owned enterprise, Yameen explained, adding that appointing board members to subsidiaries was handled by the Managing Director.

“Yameen is the chairman of STO, Singapore STO’s chairman is Mohamed Hussein Manik, Mocom Singapore – its called Mocom Singapore because it was formed in Singapore – has a board, a chairman and MD,” he said. “So information about STO subsidiary companies and STO JVs (joint ventures), even if its run in the Maldives, does not come to the STO board.”

The STO board would not know of the dealings of companies such as Fuel Supply Maldives, which supplies oil to resorts and inhabited islands, “because each company is a legal entity and its board has full discretion to conduct any legal business as broadly as it wants.”

He added that “micro-management issues” of subsidiary companies were not dealt with by the STO board and the chairman “did not know and did not have to know”.

Asked by MDP MP Mohamed Thoriq if he believed Mocom Trading was formed illegally, Yameen said he did not know “even the date the company was formed” or Mocom’s board members.

Former STO Managing Director Manik had previously told the committee that he discovered Mocom’s existence when the issue came up at an annual general meeting.

Asked by Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) MP Mohamed Nashiz if he visited Singapore on official trips on behalf of STO, Yameen said he never went to Singapore with the express purpose of evaluating STO Singapore.

Nashiz had said at last night’s meeting that the total value of STO’s oil trade amounted to over US$4 billion – or Rf61 billion – over the course of 14 years and six months “if the information [STO Singapore MD] Muneez gave us was accurate.”

Nashiz suggested that Muneez’s claim that he “made all the decisions on his own” was dubious.

DRP MP Rozaina Adam meanwhile noted today that testimony by STO MD Manik and STO Singapore MD Muneez “conflicted” as Manik insisted he was unaware of Mocom’s formation but Muneez said it was formed after the head office provided all the required legal documentation.

Manik had also revealed at the committee that Muneez’s annual bonus was withheld as a result of his role in forming the joint venture without a board resolution.

Asked by Rozaina if the MD had shared any concerns with the chairman, Yameen said he had not.

Yameen however said he found it “very hard to believe” that the MD or accounting section would have been unaware of the transactions with Mocom.

Moreover, Singapore had the strictest commercial laws in the region and the trade in question was conducted with “back-to-back LCs (lines of credit)” with “first-class banks,” said Yameen, making it difficult to siphon off money to a third party as it would require a letter with instructions to do so, which would have been noted as “highly unusual.”

Today’s meeting was disrupted at frequent intervals by shouting matches that broke out between MDP and the former president’s newly-formed Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM). MP Yameen, half-brother of Gayoom and long-serving Trade Minister in his cabinet, was elected by the PPM interim council as its parliamentary group leader.

Likes(0)Dislikes(0)

Civil Court orders MDP Chairman Reeko Moosa to pay Rf2.9 million in three months

The Civil Court has today ordered Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) Chairperson and MP ‘Reeko’ Moosa Manik to settle an outstanding debt of Rf2.9 million to Caterpillar Financial Service’s Asia Branch within three months.

Caterpillar claimed that in 2007 Heavy Load Maldives – a family business of the Hulhu-Henveiru MP – took a loan of US$700,000 (Rf10.5 million at the current exchange rate) from Caterpillar, which was co-signed by Moosa.

Caterpillar said at the Civil Court that Heavy Load had not settled the debt and requested Moosa be ordered to pay the loan as the co-signatory.

Delivering the verdict, Judge Mariyam Nihayath said that in the agreement made between Moosa and Caterpillar, Moosa had also agreed to pay a compensation fee plus the amount paid to hire a lawyer without any obligations.

Judge Nihayath ordered Moosa to pay the total amount which is Rf2.9 million in three months.

However, following the court ruling Moosa expressed concern and criticized the judiciary saying that the judiciary was like a “mad lion.’’

MDP official website quoted him saying that the court should not order him to pay the money without ordering Heavy Load Company to pay the loan.

The former MDP parliamentary group leader told the ruling party’s website that today’s ruling gave him more courage to continue the work to free the judiciary and make it independent.

He also said that Civil Court was issuing such rulings because Moosa and his lawyer Hassan Afeef was publicly advocating judicial reform. .

According to the constitution, if a MP has a decreed debt and is not paying the debt according to the court ruling, he will be disqualified and lose his seat in parliament.

Likes(0)Dislikes(0)

Drug kingpin arrested in India

A Maldivian drug kingpin, who was among the top six dealers the President announced had been identified by the government, has been arrested in India on a joint special operation conducted by Maldives police and the Indian Drug Bureau.

Police Sub-Inspector Ahmed Shiyam confirmed that the man was arrested yesterday while he was in India.

“He was arrested in a joint special operation conducted by the police Drug Enforcement Department and India’s Drug Bureau,” Shiyam said. “He is currently being held in detention in India.”

Shiyam said that his name and other details of the operation will be provided later.

On February 28 last year, Criminal Court ruled that Adam Naseer of H. Reendhooge was innocent of dealing drugs. He was later named by the President as one of the top drug dealers in the Maldives.

Police searched Naseer’s home in Addu Atoll on 30 June 2009, where they found over Rf6 million (US$461,500) in cash and a tin containing drugs outside his house.

On June 26, police arrested an individual suspected of being one of the Maldives’ most high-profile drug dealers after spending several months collecting information about his procedures for importing narcotics.

The Head of the police’s Drug Enforcement Department (DED), Superintendent Mohamed Jinah, told members of the press that the alleged drug lord was arrested on June 24, along with several companions also suspected of being involved in supplying drugs.

Likes(0)Dislikes(0)