Sri Lankan firm Malwatte Valley Plantations has announced its intention to invest US$26 million in a resort in the Maldives, consisting of 70 villas.
The company told the Colombo Stock Exchange that the project would begin in September and be completed in two years. The new property would be managed by the Hilton chain, following the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).
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(0)Endemic sexual violence against women and children, violent crime, abuse of migrant labourers and a persistent culture of torture in detention facilities are among a catalogue of serious issues facing the country, the Human Rights Commission of the Maldives (HRCM) has informed the UN Human Rights Committee.
The document summarises areas relevant to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which the Maldives acceded to in 2006. It heavily references the Maldives Journalists Association (MJA) and several news sources, including Haveeru and Minivan News, with little reference to primary research conducted by HRCM itself.
Violence against women
“One in five women between the ages of 15 and 49 years reported physical or sexual violence by a partner, and one in nine reported experiencing severe violence,” HRCM noted, referencing a 2006 study by the then Ministry of Gender and Family.
“One in six women in the capital Male’ and one in eight countrywide reported experiencing childhood sexual abuse under the age of 15 years. Of those women between the ages of 15 and 49 years who had ever been pregnant, 6 percent reported having been physically or sexually abused during pregnancy,” it cited.
“The survey further reported that many respondents’ perceived women to be subordinate to men, and that men used Islam to justify restrictions and violence against women.”
Parallel to this, HRCM observed a particularly low conviction rate for rapists and sexual assault offenders.
Reasons for this, the report claimed, included “the absence of an Evidence Act, the lack of witness protections provisions and fear of reprisals by abusers, finding witnesses (two male or equivalent women), awareness on the side of the victim regarding the condition that she should be in while reporting, such as not showering before consulting medical personnel, lack of national guidelines on medico-legal documentation, failures of existing laws and procedures leading to re‐victimisation of the victim, and intimidation of being stigmatised by the community.”
Forced labour
Abuse of migrant workers in the Maldives is occurring on an industrial scale, with at least 30,000 foreign workers (8-10 percent of the total population of the country), completely undocumented. Most of these are Bangladeshi nationals, with 2200 of those 2700 migrant workers deported in 2009 by the Department of Immigration and Emigration of Bangladeshi origin, HRCM noted.
“The State needs to enforce existing regulations relating to work place standards and regularly monitor the same,” the report noted. “In addition, the state should develop a mechanism whereby the wages to the workers are duly paid and the travel documents of migrant workers are not held in hands of employers in order to eliminate the undue influence by employers on the migrant workers to work in unfavourable conditions, including forcing them to do labour against their will.”
Documents of migrant workers such as passports were routinely confiscated by employers, the report stated.
“In the Maldives, it is a practice to take hold of the passport of the migrant worker by his/her owner for the intention of safe keeping, and this applies to both government and private sector together with the individuals,” HRCM said.
HRCM observed that the maximum fine facing labour traffickers for fines under the Employment Act was Rf 5000 (US$324). It noted that the Maldives had conceded to ratify the International Convention on Protection of Rights of All Migrant Workers and Their Families (ICPRMWF).
Violent crime
HRCM noted six crime-related deaths in 2010 and eight in 2009, and stated that this was high relative to the population.
“It is to be noted that most of the people who are involved in cases of extreme violence, and murders are repeat offenders (sometimes juveniles) providing clear evidence into the failure of the criminal justice system in the country,” HRCM stated.
Factors involved, the report noted, included “inadequate legislation pertaining the criminal justice system, such as a Penal Code does not reflect the spirit of the present Constitution, inadequate legislation pertaining to evidence and witnesses, dismissal of forensic evidence by courts, absence of a witness protection program and inadequate correctional and rehabilitation system for convicted offenders.”
Detention concerns
Visits from the National Preventive Mechanism (NPM) to Dhoonidhoo Police Custodial in March 2011 identified that five detainees had been kept in solitary confinement cells for periods ranging from several days to up to four months, without being let outside for exercise, HRCM stated,
HRCM also raised concerns about the standard of a “hastily built” jail in Addu Atoll in 2009, consisting of metal cages, to accommodate prisoners following a prison fire in Maafushi, and the confiscation of clothing as a disciplinary measure.
HRCM noted a general failure to keep arrested suspects separate from convicted criminals, and commented on the use of Maafushi prison as a police custodial.
The report also stated that “a high profile politician, Mr Abdulla Yameen, was held under protective police custody for a short period in 2010 in a place outside the formally established places for police custody” (Yameen, the leader of the opposition-aligned People’s Alliance and the former President’s half-brother, was detained in the Presidential Retreat at Aarah).
HRCM expressed concern that “in the case of Mr Yameen, he has not been compensated so far [for his detention on the Presidential Retreat].”
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(0)Dislikes(0)Police have arrested a 36 year-old Maldivian man and a 33 year-old Thai woman for premarital sex, both of them staff at Herethera Island Resort in Addu Atoll.
Police Sub-Inspector Ahmed Shiyam said the pair were arrested last Thursday following a complaint received by police.
”Both of them have been arrested and are in police custody,” Shiyam said, noting that the pair were arrested on charges of sexual misconduct.
”They were not arrested while they were on Herethera Resort, but while they were on an island in Addu Atoll.”
He said police were currently investigating the matter.
Local media reported that an islander alerted police and when police officers attended the scene the couple were involved in sexual activity.
An islander told newspaper Haveeru that the individuals were involved in a relationship and used to visit the house they were arrested inside very frequently.
Staff at Herathera declined to comment in the absence of the general manager, who was overseas at time of press.
Under the 1968 Penal Code the penalty for premarital sex is 100 lashes. A updated Penal Code has been at committee stage in parliament for more than a year.
(0)Dislikes(0)MPs of the opposition Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party’s (DRP) Z-faction are in the process of joining forces with minority opposition parties People’s Alliance (PA), Jumhooree Party (JP) and Dhivehi Qaumee Party (DQP) to form a new “opposition parliamentary group.”
After months of internal strife within the DRP, coalition partner People’s Alliance (PA) broke its agreement with the largest opposition party this week at the behest of the Z-faction, threatening DRP Leader Ahmed Thasmeen Ali’s status as the minority leader of parliament.
Formerly the majority leader, Thasmeen became minority leader at the beginning of the current parliament session in June when the ruling party secured 34 seats, making the parliamentary group leader of the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, the new majority leader.
Z-DRP MP Ahmed Mahlouf told Minivan News that the new parliamentary group will consist of MPs from PA, JP, DQP and a few Independent MPs along with about 11 DRP MPs disaffected with Thasmeen’s leadership.
“We will appoint a leader and deputy leader for the new parliamentary group very soon,” he revealed.
The DRP MP for Galolhu South added that embattled DRP Leader Thasmeen was “welcome to join” the new group.
“But it was Thasmeen’s failure that led us to form this opposition parliamentary group, he failed us as the Majority Leader,” Mahlouf said.
Mahlouf told Minivan News yesterday that 11 of the party’s MPs met with MPs of the minority opposition parties and an independent MP Saturday night “to discuss how to move forward.”
Parliamentary procedure prevented the Z-DRP MPs from forming a new party, Mahlouf claimed, but he speculated that the MPs would potentially leave the main opposition and operate either as independents, or join one or other of the opposition aligned parties.
If that scenario were to happen, the DRP would be reduced to 13-15 MPs and Thasmeen would no longer be minority leader, as the the new opposition PA-JP-DQP alliance would number 21-22 MPs.
Thasmeen has meanwhile hit out at the PA’s decision this week to split with the DRP. The PA had claimed lack of cooperation and “initiative” by the DRP leadership in holding the government accountable as the main reason for the decision.
The DRP leader told local media this week that the PA had to “take responsibility for the weakening of the opposition” due to the dissolution of the coalition.
Appearing on private broadcaster DhiTV last night, PA Leader Abdulla Yameen however contended that the termination of the coalition agreement did not entail “any disadvantage or loss to opposition parties.”
Yameen, half-brother of former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom and potential presidential candidate for 2013, explained that the party would still vote with the DRP to hold the government accountable.
“PA did not break the coalition to support MDP,” he said. “PA parted ways [with the DRP] because we believe that under our new management we can improve efforts to hold the government accountable.”
The opposition MP for Mulaku noted that six months had passed since the PA announced its decision not to follow the DRP’s whip line.
He added that the PA had voted with the DRP “91 percent of the time.”
Yameen said that “any weakening of the opposition” occurred “when the DRP-PA coalition was at its strongest.”
“The opposition parties were weakened when the [concession agreement to hand over management of the Male’ International Airport to Indian infrastructure giant] GMR issue emerged,” he claimed. “I was arrested. [JP Leader] Gasim [Ibrahim] was arrested. Where was DRP then? What hardship did they have to bear? No DRP senior officials were arrested.”
(0)Dislikes(0)Tourism Employees Association of Maldives (TEAM) has urged employers to pay Ramadan Allowances prior to the beginning of the month as stated in the Employment Act.
‘’We call on all employers to pay the Ramadan Allowance they are obliged to pay in the Employment Act, to be paid before the beginning of the month of Ramadan,’’ TEAM said in a press release .‘’Article 51[a] of the Employment Act states that each year, prior to the beginning of the month of Ramadan, one third of the employee shall be paid as Ramadan Allowance.’’
TEAM expressed concern that some of the employees working in the tourism sector have not received last year’s Ramadan Allowance.
‘’We also call on all employees to work to have the Ramadan Allowance paid,’’ TEAM added.
Vice President of TEAM Mauroof Zakir told Minivan News that TEAM’s press release was not only targeted at employers in the tourism industry but to all employers.
‘’It is a right of all the Muslim employees and it is also mentioned in the Employment Act,’’ Mauroof said.
Mauroof expressed concern that although the Ramadan Allowance was introduced in 2008, there have been some employees that were not receiving the allowance.
‘’We have received information that 12 tourist resorts in the Maldives have not paid Ramadan Allowance to their employees last year,’’ he said. ‘’Following an amendment presented by the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) MP Ahmed Easa, now all employees earning less than Rf2000 are supposed to be paid Rf2000 as Ramadan Allowance according to the Act, and we urge all employees working in all the sectors not only tourism sector, to work to have it.’’
Mauroof said he did not wish to reveal the names of the resorts that have not paid last year’s Ramadan Allowance.
”It would be better not to mention their names, just not yet,” he added.
(0)Dislikes(0)The decision by the People’s Alliance (PA) to split from the opposition Dhivehi Rayithunge Party (DRP) could redraw the political boundaries in parliament.
The PA decided on July 13 to break the longstanding coalition agreement, with the backing of DRP MPs loyal to former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom collectively known as the party’s Z-faction.
“I believe it is a good move. Since Ahmed Thasmeen Ali’s leadership there has been no cooperation with the PA,” said Z-DRP MP Ahmed Mahlouf. “Nothing has been done with the PA for the past two years – they were just told how to vote.”
Mahlouf told Minivan News that 11 of the party’s MPs last night met with the opposition-aligned Jumhoree Party (JP), the Dhivehi Qaumee Party (DQP) and an independent MP “to discuss how to move forward.”
Parliamentary procedure prevented the disaffected MPs from forming a new party, Mahlouf claimed, but he speculated that the MPs would potentially leave the main opposition and operate either as independents, or join one or other of the opposition aligned parties, and had discussed the appointment of a parliamentary group leader.
If that scenario were to happen, the DRP would be reduced to 13-15 MPs and Thasmeen would no longer be minority opposition leader, as the the new opposition PA-JP-DQP alliance would number 21-22 MPs.
Asked whether this move would leave Thasmeen open to cooperation with the ruling Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), Mahlouf alleged that “Thasmeen and [Speaker] Abdulla Shahid have already been helping President Mohamed Nasheed for two years. The separation won’t change that.”
“I don’t think he will join them though – Thasmeen will want to run in the Presidential elections,” Mahlouf predicted.
The MPs affiliated with the Z-DRP include Ilham Ahmed, Ahmed Mahlouf, Ahmed Nihan, Ali Arif, Abdul Muhsin Hameed, Dr Afrashim Ali, Hamdhoon Hameed, Yousuf Naeem and Mohamed Rafeeq Hassan.
Mahlouf noted that joining another party would also involving discussing potential Presidential candidates once the party lines were redrawn.
Addressing concerns raised yesterday by DRP MP Abdulla Mausoom – that the representation of constituents in strong DRP areas such as Laamu Atoll who elected opposition coalition MPs would effectively become PA electorates – Mahlouf said that such islands “voted for the PA because President Gayoom asked them to do it. Even now Zaeem is with the PA, they are working together. Voters in Laamu didn’t vote for Thasmeen – they voted for Gayoom.”
The redrawing of party lines will likely affect the controversial compromise on the composition of committees, which led to fistfights in parliament last week.
Article 101(b) of the parliamentary rules of procedure states the number of MPs each party has “should be taken as the basis” for determining the composition of committees.
The DRP-PA coalition, with 39 percent of seats in parliament, were therefore entitled to four seats in each of the 11-member standing committees.
The rules also states that Independent MPs should be given equal opportunity to select a committee of their preference.
The PA council accused the DRP leadership of not putting “a substantial effort into maintaining the DRP-PA coalition” and failing to adhere to “the spirit of the [coalition] agreement.”
Moreover, the DRP leadership did not “take initiative for the many efforts needed to hold the government accountable” while also not supporting or backing “the efforts of other opposition parties.”
It adds that DRP Leader Thasmeen did not adequately shoulder responsibility and take initiative as befits the majority leader of parliament when the opposition coalition controlled a narrow majority.
“PA council members also took note of the serious divisions within DRP and the failure to resolve the disputes as well as splits between DRP members in parliament and the failure to appropriately enforce the party’s whip line,” the party said.
The PA observed that “as a result of matters deteriorating to the point where DRP MPs cannot communicate with the leadership,” the party doubted that it could “perform the hard and noble work” of holding the government accountable.
The PA council members further noted that “senior figures of the Z-DRP faction that works closely with the PA” had urged the minority opposition to split with the DRP.
Following a compromise reached over the revised constitution of standing committees, DRP Deputy Leader Ilham Ahmed, affiliated with the Z-faction, publicly called on the PA to sever ties with the main opposition party.
DRP Leader Thasmeen acknowledged to Haveeru today that the decision would weaken the opposition, and said that “both sides failed to comply with the agreement.”
“I don’t think dissolving the agreement would make much of a difference now. As far as I’ve noticed, both sides failed to keep up with the agreement,” Haveeru reported Thasmeen as saying.
(0)Dislikes(0)Maldivian financial authorities are reportedly in negotiations with Sri Lanka to try and establish a currency swap mechanism in an effort to stabilise the value of the rufiya against the US dollar – a move opposition MPs claim is at best, a short-term relief.
Sources linked to the country’s financial sector have told Minivan News that a deal between the Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA) and the Central Bank of Sri Lanka was “in the pipeline” in order to try and create a system for a direct exchange between the rufiya and the Sri Lankan rupee.
Mahmood Razee, the Maldives’ Economic Development Minister, did confirm that talks were taking place over a possible exchange movement with Sri Lanka, reflecting the government’s intentions to try and stabilise the local currency against high demand for the dollar.
While claiming to welcome government initiatives for economic stabilisation, a spokesperson for the opposition Dhivehi Rayithunge Party (DRP) said that although a currency exchange may provide “short-term” relief for dollar demand, the government would be required to show shrewd financial management to maintain confidence in the rufiya in the long run.
Income aims
The currency swap is the latest development in the government’s plan to boost income of foreign money that has maintained a lucrative blackmarket for the US dollar in the country. Three months ago, the government began pursuing a controversial plan to devalue the rufiya. The local currency, which was pegged at an exchange rate of 12.85 to the dollar since July 2001, was this year amended to within 20 percent of this figure to try and bridge a limited national supply of foreign money in circulation.
The devaluation stance was welcomed at the time by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), yet was domestically met with derision by opposition politicians and a week of public protests across the capital during April over fears about the resultant rises in living costs.
Despite accusing certain opposition parliamentarians of manipulating protests and media coverage for their own political gain, financial authorities requested patience for three months for the dollar demand and supply to stabilise – a deadline that passes this month.
With local news reports claiming the local currency was trading at up to Rf16.5 to the dollar on the country’s black-market, Mahmood Razee said at the time that authorities could consider additional support measures such as currency exchanges if its stabilisation aims were not met.
While discussions are said to have been ongoing for sometime over trying to establish methods to exchange currencies with other nations, a report in the Pakistan Observer newspaper today cited Razee as claiming discussions were very much continuing between finance heads in Sri Lanka and the Maldives.
However, a source with knowledge of the discussions who wished to remain anonymous told Minivan News that “figures” at the very top level of the MMA were involved in ongoing talks with the Central Bank of Sri Lanka to provide a currency exchange system.
Talking to Minivan News today, Razee confirmed that talks were ongoing, though he said he was unsure as to what stage they had currently reached. The economic development minister claimed that although the currency exchange talks had begun before the decision to devalue the rufiya, he added that it did form part of the government’s response for trying to balance local dollar demand.
However, with the initial three-month target period to introduce economic stabilisation now passed, Razee said that he believed the finance ministry was limited at present in terms of additional support measures that could be introduced to the economy, particularly during the low-tourism season and its impact on government earnings.
“At present, I’m not so sure the Ministry of Finance will be able to undertake any urgent [new] measures to ensure stabilisation,” he said. “It would be more difficult at the moment to introduce these measures due to the low tourism season.”
Since January this year, the government had pledged to try and balance its books with a focus on generating direct revenue through the gradual introduction of taxation schemes. These schemes have included a Business Profit Tax scheduled to be launched this week for higher income enterprise and the tourism Goods and Services Tax (GST) introduced over the new year.
DRP Spokesperson Ibrahim ‘Mavota’ Shareef claimed that although the opposition party welcomed stabilisation measures from the government, it did not believe that longer-term measures had been successfully planned by authorities to bridge the dollar demand. However, Shareef said that the black market was testament to the fact that dollars did exist in the country, but that they required sufficient management to ensure they are finding their way into wider circulation.
“Any measures that encourage financial stabilisation we would welcome. This is more a national than political issue. But we do not see [stabilisation]happening yet,” he said. “If we are all spending more than we earn, especially the government, then we cannot balance the economy. These currency swaps are a short-term solution to achieve this.”
Claiming that the government had shown limited long-term measures to protect the economy, Shareef said he believed that there was a danger many local people would not want to keep savings in the form of rufiyaa as a result of “deceptive” government policy. “When the government said that three months of the [rufiyaa float] policy would bring stabilisation people believed them,” he said.
Yet with government earnings expected to increase on the back of taxation drives, Shareef said that there were reasons to believe stabilisation was possible and that the tourism industry was a strong example of where sufficient foreign currency revenue could be generated.
“This depends though if the market is well managed. When the government first decided to manage the ruifya float [devaluing the currency against the dollar] they should have calculated the availability of foreign currency,” he said. “Dollars are clearly available on the black market and it is the duty of the government to supply them to [society].”
As such, Shareef claimed that it was therefore the government’s responsibility to have managed the devaluation “properly”, alleging that it had instead hoped for a positive outcome for finance rather than ensuring correct measures were available.
(0)Dislikes(0)Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) Religious Council’s Chair Al-hafiz Ahmed Zaki has said that many Maldivian religious scholars were invited last night to preach in a sermon organised by the council but the sheikhs refused to show up “because it was an MDP podium”.
“The scholars have decided not to preach to MDP members to try and let others believe that MDP members belong to another religion,” Zaki said, speaking last night. “However, MDP members are all Muslims and they do want to hear religious sermons.”
Zaki speculated that the scholars refused the invitation thinking that the series of religious sermons commenced by the MDP Religious Council was politically motivated.
“The religious sermons are not only targeted solely for MDP members but for all the Maldivians,” he said.
Zaki said the result of handing over the Islamic Ministry to another political party was that the party assigned to implement the MDP manifesto in upholding religion was not implemented.
“Despite the Maldives consisting of many religious scholars, it was a big challenge that there are many scholars that refuse to preach on MDP podiums,” he said.
He urged religious scholars to preach to everyone, from the President to normal citizens.
Former President of Adhaalath Party Sheikh Hussein Rasheed told Minivan News that the Adhaalath Party has always cooperated MDP in its religious sermons.
“I don’t have any information that anyone among us received an invitation to go preach at last night’s religious sermon,” Shaikh Hussein Rasheed said. “Last year also we went to Seenu Atoll with MDP to preach, so we have always cooperated MDP in that.”
Sheikh Rasheed said that the reason why scholars refused to preach on an MDP podium might be that scholars think it meant getting involved in politics.
“Now many of the scholars are independent and they are not involved in any political activity or political party, perhaps that’s the reason why they won’t go on sermons organised by political parties,” he said, adding that Adhaalath had “no issues” with MDP.
In November last year, former Chair of MDP Religious Council Sheikh Adam ‘B. A’ Naseem resigned claiming that he was unhappy with the party’s religious policy.
(0)Dislikes(0)Criminal Court yesterday acquitted Hassaan Ali, 22, from the island of Fares-Maathoda in Gaafu Dhaalu Atoll, who was identified by police as a ”dangerous criminal” and charged with assault by the Prosecutor General’s Office (PGO).
The accused faced charges of allegedly assaulting Mohamed Shuaib, Ma. Shady Cabin, on August 12, 2008.
According to the Criminal Court, none of the witnesses presented by the prosecution testified that they saw Hassaan commit the assault.
Hassaan was accused of stabbing Shuaib in the neck with a bayonet knife.
The Court ruled that the PGO had not submitted sufficient evidence or witnesses statements to prove that Hassaan was guilty of the crime.
Hassaan had meanwhile denied the charges in court.
According to police records, Hassaan had previously been arrested 13 times for offences ranging from violent assault to robbery, with two cases forwarded to the PGO.
In March this year, Hassaan was arrested again during a special operation conducted to avoid potential clashes between rival gangs following the fatal stabbing of 21 year-old Ahusan Basheer.
After holding the “dangerous suspect” in pretrial detention for several days, Hassaan was released by the Criminal Court to house arrest. However he was arrested again shortly afterward.
The Criminal Court at the time extended his detention for three days, and after keeping Hassaan in pretrial detention for a further three days, he was released by the court after denying a police request for a further extension.
However Hassaan was taken into custody on his way home from the court, who requested yet another extension of detention.
On the last occasion, the judge ordered Hassan be placed under house arrest for his alleged involvement in a fight that occurred in Boduthakurufaanu Magu on December 3, 2010.
The PG then accused Hassan of aiding the escape of assault suspect Aseel Ismail, who had allegedly attacked Rilwan Faruhath with a machete.
In April this year, police publicised criminal records of 17 persons taken into custody and identified as “dangerous criminals.” The list includes Rilwan and Aseel as well. All 17 suspects have been arrested on average more than 10 to 15 times.
While the court has acquitted Hassan yesterday, he remains in remand custody until the trials of his pending cases could be conducted.
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