Tag: maldives

Tribunal orders CSC to reinstate job of DPRS Superintendent Husham

The Employment Tribunal has today ordered the Civil Service Commission (CSC) to reinstate Mohamed Husham to his job at the Department of Penitentiary and Rehabilitation Service (DPRS) after the tribunal determined that he was terminated from his post without grounds as specified in the Employment Act.

Husham was a Superintendent at the DPRS and the head of Maafushi Prison.

According to the tribunal he was terminated on September 7 last year. Haveeru  reported that during the hearings Husham claimed that he was terminated for refusing to obey “unlawful” orders.  He claimed that he was transferred from Maafushi Jail to an office in Male’ where he was not even provided with a chair for one and a half years.

The CSC was ordered to consider Husham as an employee of the CSC and to pay his full salary and allowances from September 7 until his reinstatement. The order also obliges the CSC to pay Husham within 15 days and to then inform the tribunal.

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Chief Justice assures full cooperation to National Crime Prevention Committee

The National Crime Prevention Committee formed to curb the rise in gang violence in the Maldives has said it has met with Chief Justice Ahmed Faiz and other judges on the Supreme Court bench, who have said they will fully cooperate with the committee to control gang violence.

The Supreme Court said it will resolve the issue of cases left pending in the courts without trials being conducted, said the committee in a statement.

The Supreme Court also offered assurances that it would assist the committee in issues related to the judiciary, the President’s Office said it a statement.

‘’Discussions at the meeting held at the Supreme Court were mainly focused on the prosecution of crimes such as rape, fraud, theft, drug related violence and other serious criminal offences within the existing legal framework,’’ the President’s Office said. ‘’The Chief Justice and the Prosecutor General, who also attended the meeting, assured the Committee it was working swiftly to prosecute and deliver justice and to reduce crime rate and tolerance of criminal activity in society.’’

The Chief Justice said it was important for the committee to work closely with the police and requested public cooperation with the police in their effort to find and bring criminals to justice.

President Mohamed Nasheed formed the crime prevention committee to curb gang violence and gang related crimes in the Maldives two days ago.

The committee consists of National Security Advisor Ameen Faisal, Home Minister Hassan Afeef, Attorney General Abdulla Muiz, State Defence Minister Mohamed Muiz Adnan and Prosecutor General Ahmed Muiz.

The President’s Office said that the committee had during their first meeting decided to establish a special task force to curb serious and organised crime.

The task force will be led by Maldives Police Service and will consist of officials from the Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF), Department of Penitentiary and Rehabilitation Services (DPRS), Attorney General’s Office, Ministry of Education, Courts of law, Prosecutor General’s Office, Maldives Customs Service, Ministry of Health and Family, Ministry of Human Resources Youth and Sports, Immigration Department and officials from the Local Government Authority.

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Police ask banks to track people trading large amounts of dollars

The police have met with the senior officials of local and international banks based in Male’ to track persons who are found to buying dollars continuously, in a crackdown on the trading of dollars in the Maldives.

There are people who take advantage of dollars provided by the banks for persons who require travel abroad for medical purposes, said police.

“Police asked the banks to identify those who take advantage of the dollars that are supposed to be provided to people who need the money for medical purposes, and to share this information with us,” police said.

Police said they also discussed with banks about how to resolve the issue and what measures would be more effective.

“Police discussed the upgrading on banks’ policies to monitor staff suspected of trading dollars illegally,’’ said Superintendent of Police Mohamed Jinah.

Police would identify those buying dollars and collect information the information according to monetary laws, Jinah said.

He also said that Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA) was cooperating with police in its special operation to control the black market for dollars.

The special operation began this week after President Mohamed Nasheed during a Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) rally said that he would “put a police officer behind evey dollar” in the country if necessary.

Nasheed said that there were adequate amount of dollars in the country and that there should be no reason the country was suffering a dollar shortage.

After the police operation started, police have been checking suspicious people and places where illegal dollar transactions are likely to happen.

The set dollar rate in the Maldives is Rf12.75, however during the dollar shortage it has increased to 13, 14, 15 and sometimes even as high as 16 on the black market. However banks routinely refuse to change rufiya into dollars, and experts have claimed that the crackdown will do little to address the demand for foreign currency or the budget deficit, which has led to the pegged rate not reflecting the value of the rufiya.

In 2009 June, to ease the dollar shortage, the cabinet decided to give letters of credit facility to importers of basic food items and other necessary commodities to the Maldives.

The President’s Office then formed a committee consisting of senior officials of the Ministry of Finance and Treasury and the Ministry of Economic Development, to review applications for receiving letters of credit, and give the letters of credit in a priority order.

”The government believes that this measure will ease the problem of the dollar shortage,” the President’s Office said at the time. ”The increased number of expatriate workers in the Maldives has contributed to the problem of dollar shortage in the Maldives. It is estimated that every month more than US$2 million is sent out from the Maldives by the expatriate workers. The cabinet members noted that reducing the number of expatriate workers was also an important measure to be taken.”

In December 2009, Spokesman of MMA Ibrahim NaseerNaseer told the local media that the deficit in foreign exchange is a result of MMA printing a large amount of Maldivian rufiyaa to make up to government spending which was more than the government income.

In August 2009, MMA Governor Fazeel Najeeb told the press that the cause of the dollar shortage was that rufiya notes had been printed in large amounts, exceeding the amounts of dollars in the country and dollars coming in to the country, and had been injected into circulation.

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Bhutanese Prime Minister to visit the Maldives

Prime Minister of Bhutan Jigme Thinley will meet with President Mohamed Nasheed later today, during a visit to the Maldives.

Press Secretary for the President Mohamed Zuhair told Haveeru that the talks would focus on a proposed ferry network to be established between SAARC member countries, and that Nasheed was seeking Thinley’s support.

Thinley will visit the tsunami monument and “other significant places in Male'”, said the President’s office. National Fflags have been put up at the ‘Lonuziyaaraiykolhu’ area near the monument.

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Maldives to face UN committee over continental shelf extension

The Maldives will today claim an extension of its continental shelf before a UN committee in New York.

The claim for an additional 168,000 square kilometres of exclusive economic zone (EEZ), is expected to be opposed by the UK and Sri Lanka. The claim overlaps with one made by Sri Lanka, while the UK will likely want to preserve the integrity of the Britain Indian Ocean Territory.

The UK is likely to vigoroursly oppose the Maldives’ claim given its interest in the US-run Diego Garcia airbase south of the Maldives.

Following a Wikileak US diplomatic cable on the topic, the UK’s creation of the BIOT, the world’s largest marine park in the Indian Ocean was been exposed as less of an ecological project than a means to “put paid to resettlement claims of the archipelago’s former residents” and retain the area for military use.

In the leaked US embassy cable, Colin Roberts, the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s (FCO) Director of Overseas Territories, is quoted as saying that the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) has “served its role very well”.

“Establishing a marine reserve might, indeed, as the FCO’s Roberts stated, be the most effective long-term way to prevent any of the Chagos Islands’ former inhabitants or their descendants from resettling in the BIOT,” the cable read.

“[Roberts] noted that the establishment of a marine reserve would require permitting scientists to visit BIOT, but that creating a park would help restrict access for non-scientific purposes. For example, he continued, the rules governing the park could strictly limit access to BIOT by yachts, which Roberts referred to as ‘sea gypsies’.”

National Security Advisor Ameen Faizal, Attorney General Abdulla Muizzu, Deputy Foreign Minister Haula Ahmed Didi, Brigadier General Abdulla Shamal and Major Mohamed Ibrahim from the Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF) are part of a delegation now in New York to argue the case.

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Regional transport links on the agenda during SAARC Secretary General’s Maldives meeting

Fathimath Dhiyana Saeed, the recently appointed Secretary General of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), has met with President Mohamed Nasheed this week in the Maldives ahead of hosting an annual summit in Addu City later this year.

Saeed, a Maldivian herself as well as the first woman to be appointed to SAARC’s most senior post, used her visit to discuss a number of the association’s key policies with the president, including connectivity between the various members states through the development of a cargo ferry link.

During the discussions, Nasheed called on SAARC to try a reach a “material outcome” on the transport project by the time of the Addu conference expected to take place in May.

The association aims to cooperate over economic and social development issues and consists of eight member nations that include Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka as well as the Maldives.

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Swimmers complain of rashes after STELCO pipe leaks

An area of Male’s ring road Boduthakurufaanu Magu was closed yesterday after an oil pipeline belonging to the State Electric Company Limited (STELCO) burst.

Six barrels of oil were pumped from the area of the leak, reported Haveeru.

Swimmers at the track have reported oil seeping in the water. According to the Maldives Swimming and Lifestyling School, which spoke to Haveeru, oil has been leaking into the water for almost a year.

“For the past ten days the amount has been very high. No matter how much we wash our swimwear it doesn’t get washed off,” Head of the School Mohamed Shizleen told Haveeru.

“There are some two or three students with rashes around their necks who complain of an oil taste in their throats,” Shizleen said.

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Libyan foreign minister defects while Obama authorises covert action

US President Barack Obama has authorised the use of covert US support for the Libyan rebels, as forces loyal to President Muammar Gaddafi pushed the poorly-disciplined rebels out of several recently-taken towns.

His signature has been widely reported as the first stage of authorising the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to arm the rebels, however neither the CIA or the US State Department would confirm the decision.

Obama never ruled out providing direct assistance, and Saudi Arabia and Qatar have expressed support for arming the rebels.

“It’s fair to say that if we wanted to get weapons into Libya, we probably could. We’re looking at all our options at this point,” Obama told US media.

Involvement of Western powers in Libya following the UN Security Council’s resolution has escalated from initially disabling Gaddafi’s air defenses in order to provide a no-fly zone, to attacking armour columns threatening rebel-held towns, and now to providing direct assistance to opposition forces.

Meanwhile, Gaddafi’s Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa, also the head of the country’s infamous intelligence service, has defected from the Libyan dictator and arrived in London via Tunisa.

Koussa reportedly told waiting UK officials that he was “no longer willing” to represent Gaddafi’s government.

The US was also this week grappling with the fallout of an article in Rolling Stone magazine and German newspaper Der Spiegel, concerning a rogue army unit in Afghanistan accused of killing three civilians for sport and cutting off their fingers as trophies.

Photos collected by the soldiers showed members of the Fifth Stryker Brigade posing with the dead bodies. The soldiers involved reportedly killed the civilians and planted ‘drop weapons’ near the bodies, claiming they were enemy combatants.

After a concerted effort to repress the photos from publication, the Pentagon has apologised and claimed the images are “in striking contrast to the standards and values of the United States Army.”

Five soldiers have been charged with murder and are being tried in a military court.

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Syrian President dismisses cabinet as protests grow violent

President of Syria Bashar al-Assad has dismissed his cabinet in an effort to satiate protesters after two weeks of unrest, mirroring the approach of desposed Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

At one stage the 45 year-old Western-educated leader had promised to step down at the end of his term, but now appears to be trying to placate the protesters with the heads of his cabinet ministers.

Death tolls from the crackdowns have reached 130, according to activists in the country, while the official count is 30.

AFP reported that Syrian authorities were now “studying the liberalisation of laws on media and political parties as well as anti-corruption measures.”

In his first speech since the uprising began, Assad claimed that genuine protesters calling for reform were being led astray by instigators and “foreign plots”.

Syria, he claimed, was “a target of a big plot from outside, both internally and externally. If there is something happening it is using the cover of accusing Syria of popular response. If there are reformers we will support them. Those people have mixed and confused intellectual ways.”

“The plotters are the minority… we didn’t know what had happened until the sabotage operations had happened, since then we could see the difference between reform and killing. We are for people’s demands but we cannot support chaos and destruction.”

The US has backed calls for reforms in Syria – a key antagonist of the country’s Israeli allies – but stood short of calling for regime change.

“”We support the timely implementation of reforms that meet the demands that Syrians are presenting to their government, such as immediately eliminating Syria’s state of emergency laws,” said Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. “We want to see peaceful transitions and we want to see democracies that represent the will of the people.”

Meanwhile besieged Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi, who has refused to step down even as rebel forces take town after town on the road to Tripoli, backed by NATO air power, has lashed out at world leaders for their interference.

“Stop your barbaric and unjust offensive against Libya,” Gaddafi wrote in a letter to the European Parliament and the US Congress, warning that the country was on the brink of becoming a second Afghanistan”.

“Leave Libya for the Libyans. You are carrying out an operation to exterminate a peaceful people and destroy a developing country. We are united behind the leadership of the revolution, facing the terrorism of al-Qaida on the one hand and on the other hand terrorism by Nato, which now directly supports al-Qaida,” he wrote.

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