Tag: maldives

Phone calls are traced in accordance with the law: Communications Authority

The Communication Authority of the Maldives (CAM) has declared that phone calls are traced in the Maldives in “accordance with the law”.

Head of CAM Ilyas Ahmed told newspaper Haveeru that CAM gave priority to ensuring the privacy of phone calls made in the Maldives, and said it would not be easy to trace them.

He insisted that  CAM would not allow anyone to listen and record phone calls illegally.

Ilyas also stated that a normal citizen would not be able to record or listen to traced phone calls,  but said police did have the capacity.

He told local media that police and the MNDF did not have to seek permission from CAM to listen or record phone calls, and therefore CAM was not aware of the extent of the phone tapping.

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Two men to be charged with the stabbing of MP Hamdhoon’s bodyguard

Police have sent the names of two men to the Prosecutor General’s Office (PG) requesting they be charged with the stabbing of a Maldives National Defense Force (MNDF) officer, who was serving as the bodyguard of Inguraidhoo Constituency MP Hamdhoon Hameed.

Police identified the two men as Ghanim Abdul Gafoor, 20 of Male’ and Ramiz Ali, 23 of Isdhoo in Laamu Atoll.

In a statement issued today, police alleged that in March 2013 the pair men assaulted the MNDF officer while he was in Lonuziyarai Magu. According to police the incident occurred at about 10:30pm.

MNDF officer Private Ibrahim Areef of the Special Protection Group was stabbed while he was near Imperial Medical Clinic. Areef sustained injuries to his head, torso and arm in the  attack.

The MNDF told the media at the time that Areef was attacked by a group of eight men. He was immediately taken to Indira Gandhi Memorial Hospital (IGMH) with the assistance of civilians and police.

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President Waheed meets with New Zealand High Commissioner accredited to the Maldives

Bernadette Cavanagh, the recently appointed High Commissioner of New Zealand accredited to the Maldives, presented her credentials to President Dr Mohamed Waheed in Male’ yesterday.

During their meeting, Dr Waheed discussed a number of issues with the commissioner, including recent political developments in the Maldives and the upcoming election scheduled for September, according to the President’s Office website.

The president also thanked the New Zealand government for assistance in strengthening the Maldives’ education sector.

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Two-thirds of Maldivians back moratorium on flogging: survey

Nearly two-thirds of Maldivians support a moratorium on flogging, according to the results of a survey conducted by Asia Research Partners and social activism website Avaaz.org.

The survey, the first of its kind to be conducted in the Maldives, found an “overwhelming” 92 percent of Maldivians believe that laws and systems to protect women from sexual assault should be reformed.

Of those polled, 62 percent supported an outright moratorium on the practice of flogging, while 73 percent declared existing punishments for sexual crimes were unfair to women.

Moreover, only one in five of those surveyed said current systems and laws were “adequate or fair”, according to a statement issued by Avaaz.

“While honeymooners relax in paradise, a war against women is being waged in the Maldives which the government is refusing to stop. Over two million people from around the world want them to act and now 92 percent of Maldivians want laws against rape and sexual abuse. President Waheed can easily pass a law banning flogging but refuses to act to end this medieval practice,” said Avaaz Campaign Director, Alice Jay.

“The poll flies in the face of the country’s parliamentarians who have claimed it would be “political suicide” to outlaw flogging and have done nothing to stop the practice, but instead given in to hard-line Islamist calls for harsher Sharia punishments.”

The survey was conducted across Male’ and Hithadhoo in Seenu Atoll in May 2013 by Asia Research Partners, both over the phone and through face-to-face interviews. All respondents were aged over 18 years.

‘Horror in paradise’ petition

The survey comes months after a case in which a 15 year-old rape victim was sentenced to 100 lashes and eight months’ house arrest for a separate offence of fornication garnered substantial international attention and condemnation.

The 15 year-old’s case attracted worldwide media attention and was widely condemned by international organisations and other nation states. Media condemnation was particularly strong in the UK and Germany, two of the Maldives’ most significant tourism markets.

In March, an Avaaz petition calling for the repeal of the sentence and a moratorium on flogging in the Maldives collected more than two million signatures – a figure more than double the number of tourists who visit the country annually.

“Since the campaign launched four months ago, Avaaz has been in discussions with the Maldivian government officials who have so far refused to take action on this issue,” the organisation said in a statement.

“Despite promises from the Gender Ministry, the President’s Office, the Attorney General’s office and the Foreign Ministry, this 15-year old child still faces the flogging sentence and far from ending this practice, some Maldivian political parties are calling for even harsher punishments.

“As a result of their failure to act, Avaaz is now planning to run hard hitting targeted adverts urging President Waheed and several parliamentarians who own some of the major Maldivian resorts, to act,” the organisation declared.

Stalling

After the sentencing initially made international headlines, President Mohamed Waheed issued a statement expressing “deep concern” over the verdict and pledging an appeal.

At the same time his coalition partner, the Adhaalath Party, warned that “Allah has decreed that expressing disapproval of issues such as this contradicts with faith in Islam”, and cautioned that “If such sinful activities are to become this common, the society will break down and we may become deserving of divine wrath.”

Then-Attorney General Azima Shukoor – now Minister for Human Rights, Gender and Family – subsequently lodged an appeal of the decision in the High Court arguing that the girl’s confession to the fornication offence had been taken in violation of established procedure.

The first hearing was held on April 29 behind closed doors, with no apparent movement in the case since.

Avaaz meanwhile moved to pressure the government into entertaining a moratorium on the practice of flogging.

The most recent Avaaz statement cited UK-based religious scholar Sheikh Dr Usama Hasan, who said “Sharia is not a fixed set of laws that can never be changed. Modern penal codes are thus fully Islamic if they share the values of justice and compassion, even if they do not include amputations, floggings or stonings to death. The latter punishments should be seen as ancient cultural practices, not essentially Islamic.”

The government’s position has meanwhile wavered between broad support for a moratorium and legal reforms to suspicion over the motivations of the Avaaz campaign and allegations of politicisation.

President’s Office Spokesperson Masood Imad was not responding to calls at time of press, but has previously noted that the Maldives had for over 50 years turned away from practicing Sharia punishments such as stoning, amputation and the death penalty, and suggested similar space for a debate on flogging.

However he cautioned that all authorities involved in proposed legal reforms would have to tread “a very fine line” in order to tackle long standing “traditions” and beliefs in the country.

At the same time, recently dismissed Deputy Tourism Minister Dr Maleeh Jamal has called for “negative news to be minimised”, emphasising that “People should not be doing anything to damage the industry. In Switzerland, you would not see a campaign designed to damage Swiss chocolate.”

A parliament committee currently reviewing the new penal code has meanwhile come under pressure from conservative religious elements, including the Adhaalath Party, to ensure Hadd punishments were included in the code – including flogging and amputation.

Speaking recently to Minivan News, one member of the committee said he feared not including such punishments would lead to backlash from conservative groups and amount to “political suicide”.

“We want to remove it as well. But, our hands are tied. Only public pressure can stop it,” he said.

Flogging stats

Almost 90 percent of the people found guilty of “Zina” – fornication – and sentenced to flogging in 2011 were female, according to statistics from the Department of Judicial Administration.

A total of 129 fornication cases were filed in 2011 and 104 people sentenced, out of which 93 were female.

These included 10 underage girls (below 18), 79 women aged 18-40, and four women aged above 40 years.

Gender Ministry statistics meanwhile show 1 in 3 Maldivian women between the ages of 15 and 49 have suffered either physical or sexual abuse over the past five years. At the same time, there has not been a single conviction for rape in the last three years.

Read about the practice of flogging in the Maldives

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Governance, socio-economic and political issues threaten Maldives’ reefs: study

Governance, socio-economic and political issues within the Maldives are reducing the ability of local, atoll and national management to address threats to coral reefs nationwide, according to a recently published study.

The extent of coral reef recovery following the 1998 and 2010 bleaching incidents was collaboratively studied by Reef Check, the Marine Conservation Society and Biosphere Expeditions, with the results recently published in the expedition report entitled “Little and Large: Surveying and Safeguarding Coral Reefs and Whale Sharks in the Maldives”.

“Given the severity of the initial catastrophic bleaching [in 1998], there has been a moderate to good recovery of corals in the central Maldives atolls… [however] most coral communities in the central reefs are still recovering from the massive bleaching event,” the study found.

Furthermore, human activities causing local environmental pollution and global climate change impacts are “suppressing recovery” from coral bleaching incidents for reefs nearer to “more heavily populated centres” as well as threatening sustainable “maintenance of the very corals on which the Maldives exist,” the report noted.

“[However] the potential for a full recovery of Maldives corals in many sites is good,” it continued.

The report identified numerous government and management shortcomings that exacerbate the threats impeding reef recovery in the Maldives, despite ongoing government efforts to establish Marine Protected Areas (MPA) as well as reduce carbon emissions nationally and internationally.

Governance problems must be addressed if the Maldives is to achieve UNESCO Biosphere Reserve status for the entire island nation, the study emphasised.

Governance shortcomings harm reef resilience

Political instability and the recent economic downturn in the Maldives have shifted immediate priorities away from marine conservation, according to the report.

“Unfortunately, the monitoring budget for the [Maldives] Marine Research Centre (MRC) appears to have been drastically cut in the recent past, with little information coming out of the MRC in terms of reef conditions,” noted the study.

There is also “inadequate investment in enforcing” environmental conservation laws, particularly in MPAs.

“Enforcement has been undervalued as a net contributor to the nation’s wealth, because economic returns from such an investment are not easily apparent or quickly attainable,” the study explained.

Inadequate reporting of rapid environmental degradation was a key concern highlighted in the study, because this destruction has “degraded the natural capital of the islands and the reefs that support local and tourist islands.”

Reefs have been “heavily modified” over the past 30 years – due to the lack of “concurrent precautionary management” – as “resource exploitation has expanded to meet the demands of an increased human / tourist population,” the report added.

Education and awareness regarding sustainable reef management is lacking, as balancing environmental resource extraction with protection is not included in the national curriculum, according to the report.

Meanwhile, business and tourism remain heavily dependent on a carbon-based economy due to the Maldives’ geographic remoteness, the study noted.

Given that the “Maldives’ islands are entirely, naturally made from the fine coral sand washed up onto the very shallowest coral platforms, with the highest point reaching approximately 2.4 meters above sea level” the study emphasised the importance of correcting these governance issues for reef protection.

Reef destruction threatens Maldives’ survival

Coral reefs play an unrivalled role in the Maldivian culture, lifestyle, and for fisheries relative to most other Indian Ocean states, in addition to supporting an expanding tourism and recreation industry, noted the study.

Human activities such as “tourism, reef fishing, coral mining, dredging, reclamation and the construction of maritime structures and pollution represent most impacts on coral reefs,” the study identified.

Overfishing of keystone species that are important for keeping reef predators in check, as well as inappropriate atoll development, sedimentation, and pollution were also identified as key threats.

Climate change induced impacts including sea surface temperature increases and seawater acidification from increasing concentrations of atmospheric carbon dioxide are, respectively, leading to coral bleaching as well as decreased coral skeletal strength, growth rates, and reproductive outputs. Carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere need to be reduced to less than 350 parts per million, the report noted.

The mutually reinforcing combination of these threats will have “detrimental consequences” for the Maldives unless national and local government, tourism, and local island groups manage the local and global impacts threatening reefs, the report emphasised.

“Only with the development of capacity-building, training and resources committed to conservation at the local atoll and island level will mitigating measures be implemented,” stated the study.

Proactive island level sustainable environmental management is essential for coral reef health and recovery from previous “catastrophic, massive bleaching”, the report recommended.

This includes establishing and promoting sustainable fisheries that protect species from overfishing, including enforcing and expanding “no-take zones” for one in every three reefs, particularly around grouper spawning locations.

“Pollution must [also] be tackled” to prevent algal growth, which harms reef health.

The study concluded that “local islands, their political administrators and resorts should adhere and enforce these environmental standards, where possible, in order to stave off the most severe detrimental effects of climate-driven change to the health of the reefs.”

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Former President Nasheed calls on MDP to vacate ‘Usfasgandu’ in favour of meeting halls

Former President Mohamed Nasheed has called on Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) supporters to vacate the ‘Usfasgandu’ protest area in favour of the various ‘jagaha’ (meeting halls) established across the capital ahead of September’s election.

Nasheed was quoted in local media as requesting that the opposition party’s supporters make use of the official meeting areas being set up by the MDP across Male’, rather than the protest site that has been the basis for many of the party’s activities since the controversial transfer of power last year.

“I will ask members of the MDP’s executive committee very sincerely to clear Usfasgandu. We are a party that wisely takes whatever steps are needed at the time,” he was quoted as saying by Haveeru.

Usfasgandu, which is presently being leased to the party, has been at the centre of an ongoing legal dispute over the last 12 months between the MDP-dominated Male City Council (MCC) and the government’s Housing Ministry, which is seeking to claim ownership of the site.

Minister of Housing and Infrastructure Dr Mohamed Muiz told Sun Online last week that a notice had been sent to the MCC requesting they clear and vacate the area by June 27 – or else police would be requested to assist in clearing the site.

Dr Muiz was not responding to calls from Minivan News at time of press, while Deputy Housing Ministers Abdulla Muththalib and Mohamed Faiz today declined to comment on the matter.

A police media official, who declined to be named, said it had also received no communications from the ministry requesting assistance to clear Usfasgandu by tomorrow’s supposed deadline.

Despite reports of the Housing Ministry’s intent to reclaim the Usfasgandu area, Mayor Ali Manik said no order had been received by the MCC requesting the land be returned. He added that any decision on whether to clear the are could only be made by the MDP.

The MDP told Minivan News today that while it has also not received any notice of attempts by the state to clear the site, the importance of the area to the party had “waned” as its campaigning spread across the capital and country ahead September’s election.

The opposition party said it intended to focus on local campaigning through the establishment of various jagaha across the Maldives.

Nasheed today opened the latest MDP jagaha adjacent to the country’s justice building – despite authorities contesting the legality of its location. The MDP contends that the jagaha was further than a distance of 50 feet from the building as demanded by law, and was therefore legally situated.

Relevance

Addressing the future of Usfasgandu, MDP MP and Spokesperson Hamid Abdul Ghafoor said there was a “general feeling” within the party that Usfasgandu was believed to have served its purpose.

He added that the party had been considering vacating the area over the last week in order to limit the possibility of confrontations with authorities.

Ghafoor added that an official parade to commemorate eight years since the founding of the MDP would begin at Usfasgandu this evening, but its relevance as an area for campaigning was already waning with the establishment of jagaha areas.

“The general view of the party is that the area is not really useful anymore and is slightly irrelevant to our campaigning, though I understand there is nostalgia among many people for the area,” he said. “In time, I think we would have seen the site slowly die out.”

Intimidation allegations

Ghafoor alleged that reports of the Housing Ministry seeking to reclaim Usfasgandu reflected an attempt by the state to intimidate political rivals such as the MDP and its supporters ahead of an election.

He claimed that this intimidation was part of attempts by the state to destabilise the country ahead of September’s presidential election in order to cast doubt on whether the country was capable of holding a national vote.

Ghafoor said as a result the MDP was wary of any potential clashes with authorities, such as those seen during attempts to evict the party from Usfadsgandu in May last year. He said that many in the party believed that keeping the area was “not worth” the potential for unrest should police intervene.

Land dispute

Although Usfasgandu was later returned to the MDP after the clashes in May 2012, police once again moved to cordon off the area by January 2013 at the request of the High Court.

The court at the time ordered that Usfasgandu not be occupied by any party until it delivered a verdict over a dispute between the Housing Ministry and the MCC over ownership of the site.

In early February, the Civil Court ordered the MCC to clear the land plot and hand it over to the Housing Ministry, though the order was later overturned by the High Court. The High Court ruled that the Civil Court order had failed to follow legal procedures in its hearing of the case and was therefore unlawful.

Usfasgandu was handed back to the MDP by the MCC in March of this year, with the council claiming at the time that no other party had requested use of the land at the time.

A spokesperson for the High Court today said that no further rulings had been made concerning the legal ownership at present, with its previous order overturning the Civil Court still said to stand.

Despite now opting to vacate the site, Ghafoor claimed that the lack of notification from the Housing Ministry over its attempt to reclaim the Usfasgandu reflected a further breakdown in communication between state departments.

“The Housing Ministry had been completely isolated on this matter and no one seems to be taking it seriously,” he said.

President’s Office Media Secretary Masood Imad was not responding to calls at time of press from Minivan News.

‘Paint war’

The MDP’s political rivals have continued to criticise the MCC for providing a plot of land to the opposition party, expressing concern that their supporters had not been given similar opportunities in the capital.

Government-aligned Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) MP Ahmed Nihan alleged last week that it was this sense of disparity among political rivals that had led to a so-called ‘paint war’ across the capital resulting in private property and even plant-life painted in political colours.

Supporters of the PPM were accused of covering state property and government buildings, such as walls outside the new Supreme Court compound in Male’, in the party’s official colour of pink.

PPM MP Nihan meanwhile accused MDP supporters of instigating the painting throughout Male’ by covering entire areas of the capital such as Usfasdgandu in yellow, leading to reprisals from rival supporters.

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Seven islanders to be charged for assault of Indian teacher on Kumundhoo

Police have sent the names of seven islanders of Kumundhoo Island in Haa Dhaalu Atoll to the Prosecutor General’s Office (PG) requesting they be charged in connection with the assault of an Indian teacher.

Police identified the seven persons charged as Hassan Riyaz, 27, of Male’,  and Hassan Rasheed, 35, Abdulla Hassan, 41, Husain Naseer, 36, Husam Ibrahim, 22, Junaidh Ibrahim, 18, Hajara Ali, 35, all from the island of Kumundhoo.

Police alleged that on May 14 the group entered the island school of Kumundhoo and assaulted the teacher while he was inside a classroom teaching.

According to police the investigation into the case was concluded and sent to the Prosecutor General for prosecution on June 17.

On May 15 Minivan News reported that an Indian physics teacher was hospitalised after a group of angry islanders confronted him and beat him up after accusing him of hitting a student in the chest.

“The expat teacher hit a 13 year-old student in the chest and the child fell and couldn’t breathe and was taken to the health centre,” Island Councilor Ali Anwar told Minivan News at the time.

“The islanders became angry at the teacher and gathered outside the school. The security guard and school staff were unable to control them.”

He said the islanders destroyed a power distribution unit outside the school cutting off its electricity, and then attacked the expat teacher.

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Comment: Drug abuse prevention saves lives and cuts costs

It is unacceptable for us to think that we can ignore the drug problem and it will just go away.

We are a country still living in deep denial about drug use by youth.

Journey believes that the three sentences destroying youth – more than any other sentences known to man – are, “Not my child, not in our school, not in my island.”

Today we cannot afford to ignore this problem or assume it is not going on in our households, our schools and our communities. We have yet to rid our homes, schools and communities of drugs.

Journey is not stating that nothing has been accomplished. Rather, we need to have a very critical look at what we have done to oppose drug abuse in the past and reevaluate our steps. We need to leave behind our ideologies about what works in theory and instead accept the evidence-based methods that have made a positive impact in other parts of the world.

Our focus needs to shift from simply strengthening treatment to implementing a strong evidence-based prevention strategy. But unfortunately we are living in a country where prevention is still not a top priority, even though evidence proves that every 100 MVR (US$ 6.55) spent on prevention saves 1,000 MVR (US$65.49) on treatment.

Research shows preventing drug use before it begins is the most cost-effective, common-sense approach to promote safe and healthy communities. Preventing drug abuse, particularly by injecting drug abusers, reduces the rate of HIV transmission through unsterilised needles creating safer homes and communities. Simply put, drug abuse prevention save lives and cuts costs.

When we choose to ignore the drug problem in the Maldives, we continue to lose children (and adults), which Journey finds unacceptable. The ongoing drug crisis in the Maldives has taken many years to develop, and there is no quick fix, but ignoring [the crisis and failing] to identify and intervene is a serious problem. Scientific research proves drug addiction to be a progressive disease which starts during early adolescence.

We all want our children to grow up to be honest, successful and healthy adults who make valuable contributions to our society. But sadly, all of this could be put at risk when young people are offered drugs before they are mature enough to grasp the magnitude of the consequences of their actions. It saddens Journey to see people suffering because of the results of these actions.

Journey is very concerned about the damage and pain drugs cause individuals, families, communities and it’s an issue we consider significant. That is why our new evidence-based universal prevention program “RISE” will place particular emphasis on educating Maldivians, especially young people and their parents, about the negative health and other effects of drug abuse, while also enhancing their skills to deal effectively with issues that may instigate drug abuse.

Today’s youth are in desperate need of positive role models. We all must look at our own actions and ask ourselves if this is what we want our children to follow.

It isn’t an easy task and it is going to take time to accomplish what we need to for our children.

We believe our children deserve nothing less. It’s also our firm belief that together we can help young people make healthy choices. Let us encourage them to stay alert, engaged and to grasp every opportunity that will help make them build a nation free from drugs.

Thank you.

Journey is a Male’ based NGO formed by group of Maldivian recovering addicts with a mission to help other addicts to maintain their recovery and to raise public awareness on drug addiction and its related issues.

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]

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Police arrest Bangladeshi man following raid of Thinadhoo restaurant

Police have arrested a 30 year-old Bangladeshi national in connection with the discovery of a large quantity of illegal narcotics stashed inside a restaurant on Thinadhoo in Gaafu Dhaalu Atoll.

According to police, the restaurant was raided as part of an ongoing special operation to prepare the island for the upcoming presidential elections.

Police said the Bangladeshi man was arrested on June 23 inside a house on the island.

During the raid of the restaurant, police discovered 36 bullet sized packets of illegal drugs, three empty film cans containing illegal drugs, 15 rubber packets and a small plastic bag containing illegal drugs.

The raid on the restaurant was a joint operation conducted by the Drug Enforcement Department (DED), Special Operations (SO), police intelligence and Thinadhoo police station.

Earlier this week, police issued a statement announcing a decision to station officers of the Special Operations (SO) command on Thinadhoo.

A police spokesperson who declined to be named told Minivan News the Bangladeshi man was still in police custody.

“We have not arrested anyone else in connection with the case,” the spokesperson said.

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