President Abdulla Yameen will conduct an official visit to Japan later this month, the President’s Office has revealed.
Yameen will visit Japan between April 14 and 17, during which time he will meet with Emperor Akihito, Prime Minister Shinzō Abe, and other senior Ministers of the Japanese Government.
The President’s Office has said that Yameen will discuss ways to expand Maldivian-Japanese relations, as well as meeting with business leaders and potential investors.
Last week, the president promised that his government was to open up the Maldives in a huge way to foreign investors”.
Japan is the biggest bilateral donor to the Maldives, with data from the Japanese International Cooperation Agency showing that the east Asian nation had given over US$450 million to the Maldives in development assistance between 2004 and 2010.
Projects benefiting from Japanese aid have included the first mechanisation of fishing vessels between 1973-76, the development of Malé’s seawall between 1987-2003, and the extension of loans amounting to US$34 million for post-tsunami reconstruction.
Japan is also one of the Maldives largest trading partners, importing over US$3million worth of fish from the Indian Ocean nation in 2012.
Since winning last year’s election, President Yameen has paid official visits to Sri Lanka and India. He is currently in Saudi Arabia on an unofficial trip.
Police have yesterday arrested two more people from the island of Thinadhoo in Gaafu Dhaalu atoll in connection with the death of Ali Rasheed,79, who was found dead inside his house last Friday (April 4).
Police have said that the two persons arrested were Maldivians aged 33 and 39.
The 33 year-old man was arrested late yesterday afternoon while the 39 year-old man was arrested last night, the police told local newspapers.
Ali Rasheed was found dead lying on the floor of his room. He was living alone following the death of his wife some years earlier.
A source from the island told online newspaper Sun that Rasheed had a six-inch laceration on his head and a swollen left eye.
Police said the death was being investigated as they suspected foul play. An investigation team was dispatched to the island.
Police have said today (April 8) that two individuals have been taken into custody for possession of what is suspected of being illicit narcotics, along with alcohol from M. Aathari.
The two locals arrested were a 27 year old and an 18 year old male.
The operation involved the raid of M. Aathari where 3 packets of suspicious substances were found, along with 7 bottles of alcohol, 16 empty bottles, a large amount of money and implements used to partake in illicit narcotics.
The Drug Enforcement Department is investigating the matter further, stated Police.
Yesterday, police revealed that a large cache of alcohol had been seized from a house in Malé the previous day.
A total of 115 bottles and 48 cans of liquor were seized in the raid.
The Criminal Court yesterday sentenced a man to two and a half years imprisonment for stealing ten ‘Enchanter’ brand body lotion bottles from a shop in Malé. The sentence was delivered after he confessed to committing the crime.
The case, sent for prosecution in December 2013, was scheduled five times before the perpetrator was brought before the court yesterday in police custody.
The man was earlier sentenced for one year banishment in 2013 for shoplifting and was sentenced for six year imprisonment in 2004 on drug charges.
At retail price ten bottles of the lotion in question would cost around MVR320 (US$20).
Maldives Civil Servants’ Association is planning to go on strike within the month, local news outlet CNM has reported.
Quoting the association’s President Mohamed Shaugee, CNM said that the strike is largely a result of discrepancies in pay among various state institutions which are disadvantageous to civil servants – particularly in comparison to independent state institutions.
“There is a huge difference in take home pay for civil servants and those working in other institutions. But Article 4 of the Employment Act and article 37 (b) of the constitution says there cannot be any discrimination,” Shaugy said.
He said that the issues have been raised for six consecutive years and that even the Civil Service Commission accepted that these issues needed to be addressed.
“I don’t want to make this political, but we still haven’t received an answer for our letter requesting to discuss this issue with President Abdulla Yameen,” Shaugee was quoted as saying.
Yesterday, a large number of teachers participated in a ‘black protest’ to bring their issues to public attention. The Maldives Teachers Association (MTA) which organised the protest after the government ignored several attempts to discuss the issues said it was just a first step in taking action.
The MTA have also threatened to go on strike over various issues in education sector – also including pay discrepancies – but has said it would only take such action as a last resort.
There are more than 25,000 civil servants in the Maldives.
Police Commissioner Hussain Waheed has opened a new detention centre in Fuvahmulah during a special ceremony held yesterday (April 6).
The facility – which is established within the premises of Fuvahmulah police station – can hold up to 20 detainees and consists of ten cells.
According to local media Sun Online,Commissioner Waheed said that while the police have the authority to detain persons suspected of crimes, he hoped that the facility would stay vacant most of the time.
He reportedly said that this can only be achieved if all groups work together to prevent crime in the atoll.
The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has confiscated the passport of an expatriate doctor who signed the medical report recommending that Ibrahim Shafaz Abdul Razzaq be sent abroad for medical treatment.
Shafaz was sentenced to 18 years in prison last November for drug trafficking, but was permitted to leave the country unaccompanied in February. Shortly after his arrival in Sri Lanka, Shafaz asked the High Court to review his sentence.
The ACC has told the local media that the doctor’s passport was held last week after a warrant had been obtained from the Criminal Court.
Speaking to Minivan News today, President of ACC Hassan Luthfy said that he could not give any information except to confirm that the passport of an expatriate doctor had been held by the commission.
He said that detailed information on the case will be revealed to the media as soon as the commission concludes its investigation.
Commissioner of Prisons Moosa Azim has previously told Minivan News that all due procedures had been followed in allowing Shafaz to leave to get medical treatment.
“A medical officer does not have to accompany the inmate. He was allowed to leave under an agreement with his family. Family members will be held accountable for his actions, including failure to return,” Azim told Minivan News at the time.
Former head of the Drug Enforcement Department, Superintendent Mohamed Jinah, told the press at the time that police had raided Henveiru Fashan based on intelligence information gathered in the two-year long ‘Operation Challenge’.
Jihah labeled Shafaz a high-profile drug dealer suspected of smuggling and supplying drugs since 2006.
He claimed that the network had smuggled drugs worth MVR1.3 million (US$84,306) to the Maldives between February and April 2011.
Since the formation of the new government late last year, the Home Ministry has made the combating of illegal drugs its top priority, culminating in the confiscation of a record 24kg of heroin.
Last night group of masked men broke into Thakandhoo School in Haa Alif atoll after threatening the security guard with a knife in order to cut down what they claimed was a ‘Jinn Tree’ with evil spirits.
Thakandhoo Island Council Vice President Ibrahim Saeed said the incident happened around 3am this morning.
“Three masked men jumped over the school wall last night and one of them threatened the security guard with a knife. And while he held the security guard, the other two went in with a hand saw and cut down the tree,” he said.
The Maldives Police Service confirmed that the incident is currently under investigation and that a police team from Ihavandhoo arrived on the island within an hour of the incident.
Local media outlet CNMhas reported that the tree is approximately 13 years old and was planted by the school staff.
“It was a beautiful tree planted to give a good look to the school compound. Sometimes students try to climb it, and last year three students were possessed by Jinns,” CNM was told by the school staff member.
“People say it is because of that tree, so we even brought five people to look into the matter. But even they didn’t recommend to cut down the tree.”
CNM also quoted the staff member as saying that the Jinns [of the tree] had already “stabilised” when it was cut down last night.
Fanditha politics
Speaking to Minivan News, a local who supported the cutting down of the tree said that many believed the tree was connected to the jinn possession of children last year.
“Thing went really bad last December,” explained the local man. “Many of those children have recovered now but there is a child who is still possessed. And there is young girl who loses consciousness whenever she walks past by this tree.”
“Even when things are like this, the island is so politically divided that these issues are politicised and an agreement is not reached as to how it should be dealt with.”
He said the rivalry between two group of islanders dates back to the pre-democracy era and that issues have further polarised with party politics.
“Fanditha practice is very common here. The island is divided into two rival groups even before party politics.”
“But now it [the divide] is [politically] colored, and represented by supporters of PPM [ruling Progressive Party of Maldives] aligned with the former island chief’s family and friends, and those supporting MDP [opposition Maldivian Democratic Party]. There are magicians on both sides,” he explained.
Last September a group of ‘Islamic exorcists’ uncovered ‘hexed clay tablets’ buried near the school compound following a series of ‘jinn possession’ incidents. A police team went to the island with a court warrant and searched all the houses for black magicians and traditional fanditha magic related objects.
The incident, which took place as the whole country was preparing for the second (cancelled) round of presidential election, left the island community in shock and fear.
MDP supporters from the island claimed it was a political plot to frame their members for practicing black magic as reports of black magic emerged across the country during the 2013 election period.
Practice of black magic is a criminal offense under Shariah Law, which it is punishable by death – a sentence still handed down for the offence in countries like Saudi Arabia.
In 1953 local black magician Hakim Didi was sentenced to death in the Maldives for practicing magic which eventually lead to the murder of an atoll chief by poisoning and use of black magic in a plot to kill President Mohamed Ameen Didi.
Along with a group of magicians and other co-conspirators, Hakeem Didi is said to have confessed to carrying out many disturbing black magic practices. These include the brewing of a magic poisonous fish potion, the extraction of liver oil from corpses of children, and eating them along with flour dough effigies of the president.
Didi was executed by a firing squad, after which there has been an unofficial moratorium on death penalty in the Maldives.
The permitted forms of white fanditha magic are also regulated by the government and can be legally practiced only with a written permission from the Ministry of Health according to the Traditional Medicine, Fanditha (Magic), Circumcision and Midwifery Services Act of 1978.
The Tourism Ministry has assured that the development of resorts will take place throughout the atolls following an online petition calling for tourism growth in Haa Dhaalu.
Placed on the Avaaz website last week, the petition calls upon the government of President Abdulla Yameen to alleviate the atoll’s economic and social problems by bringing resorts to the area.
“It has been over 40 years since the tourism industry flourished in Maldives. However, the atoll with approximately 20,000 people has not yet got the opportunity to enjoy the economic benefits of this sector,” read the petition.
Noting that Haa Dhaalu is the only atoll not to have any operational resorts, the petition argues that development of the region’s “pristine uninhabited islands” would halt the “mass migration” to the capital Malé, which was “tearing up the social fabric of our society”.
“We have waited long enough to enjoy the success and development that tourism industry has brought to other regions of the Maldives,” the petition argues.
“Hence, on behalf of all the people from Haa Dhaal Atoll, we humbly ask the government not to exclude us from this prosperous and growing industry.We urge the government to give the utmost importance to solve the issue of income disparity caused by uneven development of tourism industry in Maldivian atolls.”
The Maldivian economy is heavily dependent on tourism, accounting for an estimated 80 percent of GDP, generating 38 percent of government revenue in 2012. Tourists arrivals grew by 17 percent between 2012 and 2013.
In response to the petition, State Minister for Tourism Ahmed Musthafa Mohamed told Minivan News today that the government’s promises to develop ten resorts a year would include Haa Dhaalu.
“I can’t comment on previous governments but this government in their manifesto had mentioned that they are planning to develop ten new resorts each year – I’m sure sure that developments will be throughout the Maldives.”
Musthafa noted that a lot of issues affected the location of developments, with the issue of transportation in Haa Dhaalu – part of the country’s northernmost natural atoll, Thiladhunmathi – having been a longstanding one.
Thought the Maldives is now home to over one hundred island resorts spread across 26 natural atolls, the majority of resorts are clustered around the country’s capital Malé and the country’s main international airport.
Despite the opening of Hanimaadhoo International Airport in Haa Dhaalu atoll two years ago, the continued lack of economic activity has led to significant local support for a second regional airport in nearby Kulhudhuffushi.
While the new development threatens to destroy much of the island’s mangrove habitat, recently re-elected island MP Abdul Ghafoor Moosa has previously argued that his constituents’ economic concerns outweighed the environmental.
“Over fifty percent in the north are below the poverty level,” Ghafoor told Minivan News in January. “Still they need economic activity. If they don’t get it, it’s very difficult to survive.”
Haa Dhaalu “unnoticed or perhaps unheard”
The Avaaz petition – which has received over 460 signatures – argues that, despite its relatively high population of 20,000 people, the atoll had gone “unnoticed or perhaps unheard” by consecutive governments.
“The state of our local economy is a great concern for the people of Haa Dhaal Atoll. More importantly, the absence of tourism industry within this atoll has become a major barrier for economic and social development.”
The petition goes on to suggest that the limited local opportunities in the civil service, fisheries, and agriculture had failed to provide enough employment opportunities.
“We do understand that three of our islands have been given for resort development but it has been over 12 years without any of them being opened for tourists. This has cost 2,000 jobs that was promised for us with these resorts.”
The 2013 Tourism Yearbook produced by the Tourism Ministry shows that three resorts are currently under development in the atoll, although only one had been given an estimated opening date – for December this year.
Reasons for the failure to develop secondary tourism hubs in the north and south of the were addressed in the ministry’s ‘Fourth Tourism Master Plan – 2013-2017’.
The document explained that historical growth patterns in the tourism industry had centred on the Malé area after private investors sought greater economies of scale. The introduction of sea planes – expanding the area serviceable from Ibrahim Nasir International Airport – had further delayed regional expansion.
“If, as the last two masterplans strongly suggested, the suitable islands around the Malé’s hub are now more or less fully developed, the time has come to give priority to the secondary hubs,” read the document.
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