Tag: maldives

MNSL reduces debt by US$7 million

The Maldives National Shipping Limited (MNSL) has reduced its US$16 million debt to US$9 million, closing its Sri Lankan branch, downsizing its Singapore office and gave off leased containers.

“Our objective is to settle the [remaining] debts by next year,” Haveeru reports Chairman Mohamed ‘Senco’ Shareef, as saying. “After we took over the management of the company, we took several measures to reduce expenditure including reducing employees and administrative expenses.”

The company now expects to purchase a 5000 tonne cargo carrier following the sale of the 12,000 tonne “MV Maldive Enterprise” currently anchored at an African port because of a malfunctioning engine and costing the company US$2,000 daily.

“We are checking the prices. We expect to buy a 5000 tonne cargo carrier for about US$1.9 million. We hope that we would be able to settle the debts with the new cargo carrier and an existing one,” Haveeru reported Shareef as saying.

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Police investigate man’s alleged sexual assault of granddaughter

Police are investigating allegations that a 72 year-old man from Seenu Atoll sexually abused his five year-old granddaughter.

Police Sub-Inspector Ahmed Shiyam said the suspect was arrested on December 2, 2010, and released three days later.

He said that the allegations against the man were made by the girl’s father, who was now separated from the mother.

“It seems like there is a family problem as both father and mother are separated,” he said.

As with any cases relating to alleged sexual assault, Shiyam said that the police would also be working with the Ministry of Gender and Family to provide support to the family.

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Marine reserve a plan to keep out ‘Man Fridays’ and ‘sea gypsies’, reveals leaked US cable

The UK’s creation of the world’s largest marine park in the Indian Ocean has 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.

The Chagos were forcibly evicted from the archipelago after the British bought it from Mauritius for £3 million (US$476,000) in 1965, with then-Mauritian Prime Minister, Seewoosagur Ramgoolam, receiving a knighthood the same year.

The island is presently occupied by the US base at Diego Garcia due to an agreement made in 1966 whereby the UK received favours, including a US$14 million discount on submarine-launched Polaris missiles, in exchange for use of the island until 2016.

The Chagos won a high court victory in the UK in 2000 enabling them to return to archipelago, but the decision was extraordinarily overruled by the Queen’s royal prerogative. In 2008, the House of Lords overturned the high court verdict, forcing the Chagos to appeal in the European court of human rights.

In April 2010, the UK declared the Chagos Archipelago a marine reserve – an area larger than France – theoretically making it the world’s largest marine protected area (MPA). Funds to manage the MPA for the next five years have been provided by Swiss-Italian billionaire Ernesto Bertarelli.

However, a leaked US Embassy cable dated May 5, 2009 and marked ‘NOFORN’, or ‘No foreigners’, the highest level of security among the 250,000 leaked cables, suggests the marine park was a calculated attempt by the UK Foreign Office to scuttle the resettlement claims of 3000 Chagos islanders in the European Court of human rights.

In the leaked US 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”.

“‘We do not regret the removal of the population,’ since removal was necessary for the BIOT to fulfill its strategic purpose, he said. Removal of the population is the reason that the BIOT’s uninhabited islands and the surrounding waters are in ‘pristine’ condition,” the cable read.

“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.”

In the cable, Roberts emphasised that the establishment of the marine park would ensure it was reserved for military use and “would have no impact on how Diego Garcia is administered as a base.”

“‘We need to make sure the US government is comfortable with the idea. We would need to present this proposal very clearly to the American administration… All we do should enhance base security or leave it unchanged,”’ the leaked cable reports Roberts as saying.

“[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’.”
As a result of the British government’s “current thinking” on the reserve, there would be “no human footprints” or “Man Fridays” on the uninhabited islands of the archipelago, Roberts stated in the cable.

‘Man Friday’ is the disparaging nickname given to a cannibalistic ‘black savage’ by castaway Robinson Crusoe, in the 1719 Daniel Defoe novel of the same name.
In response to concerns from US Political Counsellor Richard Mills that advocates of Chagossian resettlement might continue “to vigorously press their case”, Roberts replied that the UK’s “environmental lobby is far more powerful than the Chagossians’ advocates.”

Prior to their eviction, the Chagos were known to Maldivians in the southern atoll of Addu as they occasionally rescued a stranded fishermen who had strayed too far south. The islands themselves were never settled by Maldivians, although they retained the Dhivehi name of Feyhandheebu.

Second Secretary at the British High Commission in Colombo, Dominic Williams, told Minivan News in September that the UK believed a Marine Protected Area (MPA) “is the right way ahead for furthering the environmental protection of the Territory.”

The decision to establish the MPA was, he added, “without prejudice to the current pending proceedings at the European Court of Human Rights. As such, there is no need to wait for a decision from the European Court of Human Rights before implementing the MPA.”

“The establishment of this MPA has doubled the global coverage of the world’s oceans benefiting from protection and gives the UK the opportunity to preserve an area of outstanding natural beauty containing islands and reef systems rich in biodiversity.”

Both the US and UK have said they will not be discussing or verifying specific information contained in the leaked cables.

The Gibraltar Chronicle has meanwhile reported that Mauritius has summoned the UK’s top diplomat in the country to explain the marine park “smoke screen”.

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Leaked cable from 2008 reveals US concerns about Maldivian national’s “unspecified links to al-Qaida”

United States diplomats expressed concern back in October 2008 regarding the activities of “al-Qaida associates” in the Maldives.

In a leaked cable prepared by then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the US reveals that the Maldives Police Service investigated and monitored the activities of Yoosuf Izadhy, Easa Ali, and Hasnain Abdullah Hameedh, the former of whom was believed to be in contact with a militant group in Waziristan with “unspecified links to al-Qaida.”

“Izadhy was clandestinely working to recruit others into his organisation, specifically seeking individuals who had undergone basic terrorism training in Pakistan,” the cable read, adding that Izadhy “planned to create a terrorist group in the Maldives with the assistance of the Waziristan-based group.”

In addition, the cable said that “Hameedh was in close contact with a number of individuals who had undergone training in Pakistan, including individuals who were members of Jamaat-ul Muslimeen and completed basic and advanced training by Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LT) in Pakistan. They followed the ideology of Abu Easa.”

Izadhy was among the nine Maldivians that Defence Minister Ameen Faisal said in April 2009 were “arrested with weapons” near the Pakistani-Afghan border. Two men were arrested in Waziristan, the religiously conservative mountain region of northwest Pakistan.

In addition to Ali Shafeeq, 25, of R.Kandholhudhoo, who was arrested for alleged involvement in the Sultans Park bombing in 2007 but later cleared of all charges and released, those arrested included: Yoosuf Izadhy, 38, of M.Nicosia in Male’, Ahmed Ashraf, 31, of Hdh.Vaikaradhoo; Abdullah Sameer, 38, of Sh. Lhaimagu; Ali Faiz, 31, of Hdh.Vaikaradhoo; Moosa Yoosuf, 30, of L.Kalhaidhoo; Yoosuf Mohammed, 52, L.Kalhaidhoo; Mohammad Zuhree, 28, of Gdh. Dhaandhoo; and Arif Ahmed, whose details were unavailable.

The Defence Minister told press at the time that all nine of these individuals had travelled on three separate flights to Pakistan between February 27 and the March 1, 2009.

In Feburary 2010, the Maldivian government repatriated the nine Maldivian nationals held in Pakistan, who had been arrested by Pakistani authorities following a military raid on several armed groups.

No charges were filed against the men, and they were released to their families. Minister of Foreign Affairs Ahmed Shaheed emphasised at the time that the nine men had not been formally charged and stressed that “the types of activities they are alleged to have been involved in, while illegal, do not necessarily fall under terrorism.”

The role of the Foreign Ministry, Dr Shaheed said, was to “repatriate Maldivians when it is in the national interest to do so” and “not to mix that up with judgements of character”.

President’s Press Secretary Mohamed Zuhair told Minivan News there had originally been 12 Maldivians arrested in Pakistan “but three died while they were being transported between facilities”

Reports the group were carrying weapons were “conflicting”, he said.

Sleeper cell

Concerns about plans by Lashkar-e-Tayyiba to establish a ‘sleeper cell’ in the Maldives periodically surface in the Indian media – the group is believed to be responsible for the Mumbai attacks on November 26, 2008. The attacks saw gunmen enter the city by sea before going on to kill at least 173 people and leave 308 wounded. President Mohamed Nasheed has since downplayed the claims.

While the cable describes the “operational aspirations” of Izadhy, Easa , and Hameedh as “unclear”, “past reporting suggests Maldivian extremists have demonstrated interest in actively participating in global jihadi activities by attempting to arrange travel and terrorist training in Pakistan.”

“While many Maldivian participants of extremist online forums aimed to ultimately fight Coalition forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, mid-October 2007 debrief information following the September 29 bombing in Male’ that targeted tourists indicates at least two of the operatives participated in the attack in exchange for travel from the islands after the operation and arranged study at a madrassa in Pakistan.”

The Maldivian government has repeatedly expressed concern about Maldivian nationals travelling to Pakistan for free ‘Islamic education’ at unmonitored madrassas.

The leaked cable further mentions “recruitment activity” in May 2008 for a Kashmiri offshoot of Lashkar-e-Tayyiba by a Maldivian national Ahmed Zaki.  The document refers to reports from 2006 detailing linkages between Maldivians belonging to a UK-based extremist group called Jama-ah-tul-Muslimeen (JTM) and an “anti-American Islamic extremist online forum called Tibyan Publications.”

“JTM is an extremist group based in the UK set up to follow an extremist ideology known as Takfiir that actively encourages violent jihad and supports criminality against apostate states,” the cable notes.

The US has stated that it will not comment on the specific contents of the 250,000 diplomatic cables published by Wikileaks.

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India pledges financial support for Male’ hospital overhaul: report

India’s government has pledged to provide Rf2.7m in aid designed to try and boost services being offered at Indira Gandhi Memorial Hospital (IGMH) in Male’, Haveeru has reported.

The funds form part of a package that is expected to provide new examination equipment and medical consumables at some point during the next month ahead of additional plans to renovate the hospital.

Zubair Mohamed, Managing Director of Male’ Health Services Corporation (MHC), reportedly announced that more details on the nature of aid being made available for renovating IGMH would be announced after the completion of negotiations between the Maldivian and Indian governments.

The hospital has recently experienced uncertainty over the issue of its future management on the back of protracted discussions with the India-based medical company, Apollo Hospitals.

Just last month, local media reported that Health Minister, Dr Aminath Jameel, claimed a deal between the Maldives government and Apollo Hospitals to manage IGMH had fallen through.

“We had to terminate the agreement because they [Apollo] were unable to meet the terms and conditions stated in the agreement.
Every agreement specifies deadlines to settle certain matters,” Dr Jameel reportedly said. “We have also informed them [Apollo] that the agreement has been terminated.”

Senior staff at the Health Ministry and Chair of the Maldives’ Privatization Committee, Mahmoud Razee, told Minivan News at the time that they had not been informed of the deal’s collapse and had only heard media reports.

The government reportedly terminated the agreement with Apollo after the Indian medical giant was unable to invest the agreed amount to develop the hospital.

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Hulhumale door-knocking reveals lack of awareness of constitution

Preliminary findings from the ‘Did you Know’ door-knocking campaign have revealed that half the 500 homes in Hulhumale visited by the volunteers were unaware that the Maldives had a new constitution, let alone what it contained.

The UNDP-run campaign, which launched on November 26, is an attempt to address a lack of public awareness into how the judicial system works – a critical problem for the development and promotion of human rights in the Maldives, according to the UN body.

One component is the ‘Did you Know?’ campaign, involving a team of 27 volunteers door-knocking around Male’, Hulhumale’ and Villingili explaining rights and distributing brochures.

“I found it was women who were the most disinterested, and I think more so among the older generation,” UNDP National Project Manager Naaz Aminath told Minivan News, after knocking on the doors of 500 houses in Hulhumale.

“But they would sit there and listen, particularly to subjects such as employment rights, and the right to a pension. One mother said she’d never heard of the constitution, but we asked her if she worked and talked about her employment rights, which she said was really useful.”

Only about 20 of the 500 homes approached in Hulhumale’ were unwilling to invite the volunteers in, Naaz noted.

“In those instances we left a pamphlet. But mainly people were very welcoming, even though they were busy doing things like cooking and minding children. We were often invited in for a drink.”

Many men showed awareness of their rights, but felt that getting involved in understanding the constitution meant getting into politics “and said they did not want to get involved. But they generally did listen,” Naaz said.

Glimpses into the private lives of so many homes was confronting for some of the volunteers – “We came across other issues – in one house a victim of domestic violence broke down in tears when we walked in. We can’t fix everything [with this project], but we can provide directions on how to contact authorities.”

The consensus after the Hulhumale’ campaign was that while households had an awareness of the new constitution gleamed through television, “there’s a difference between being aware of it and knowing what’s in it.”

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Civil Court asks JSC for documentary proof it is carrying out constitutional responsibilities

The Civil Court has given the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) a week to locate ‘missing’ evidence it claims will exonerate it from accusations of bias and unconstitutional conduct.

JSC, the independent body constitutionally mandated to maintain ethical and disciplinary standards of the judiciary, is facing charges of professional negligence arising from its decision not to investigate complaints of serious misconduct made against two judges by Treasure Island Limited in 2009.

Treasure Island alleges that JSC decisions to dismiss his complaints against former Supreme Court Justice Mujthaz Fahmy and Judge Ali Naseer were taken arbitrarily and in breach of the Constitution. At the time Treasure Island made the complaints to the JSC, Justice Fahmy was the Commission’s deputy chair.

The JSC has denied any wrongdoing and, since the case began in early October last, has maintained that proper procedure was followed in responding to the complaints.

JSC regulations, and the Constitution, require that any decision or action it takes regarding a complaint against the judiciary must have the majority support of its ten members. The regulations also require that records be kept of the members present and how they voted when the decision was taken.

On Sunday Judge Mariyam Nihayath acceded to Treasure Island’s repeated requests for the court to demand that JSC provide documentary evidence to support its claims of having observed proper procedure.

JSC legal representative, Abdul Faththah, admitted in court yesterday that despite his many valiant efforts he had been unable to locate any such evidence – “yet”.

The court also noted that JSC had responded to one of the complaints by Treasure Island saying it was beyond the Commission’s duties to review the ruling of a judge. The letter sent, in August 2009, was signed by then Chair of JSC, High Court Chief Justice Ghani.

Faththah admitted in court yesterday that there was no evidence to prove the letter was based on a majority decision taken by Commission members as is required.

He told Judge Nihayath, however, that he had consulted with Ghani on the matter, and had been advised that circumstances do exist in which the JSC Chair has the legitimate authority to deal with a complaint without a majority vote by members.

Proof of when and how the JSC chair can exercise the said discretionary power, however, have not been located “yet”, Faththah said.

Judge Nihayath told Faththah the court could not wait indefinitely for the proof to turn up, and ruled that JSC provide the court with the documents when the case resumes on 14 December 2010.

She will also decide then, she said, whether to agree to Treasure Island’s request to summon as witnesses some current and former members of the JSC to verify their involvement – or lack thereof – in a majority decision not to investigate the company’ complaints.

The JSC has been increasingly riven with conflict. Some members have accused current Chair Supreme Court Justice Adam Mohamed Abdulla – in association with several others – to have deliberately and systematically avoided adopting a Standard Operating Procedure according to which it should be run.

Tensions escalated further last week when one of its members, Aishath Velezinee, accused Justice Abdulla of being mentally unfit to hold office. She has also accused certain members of the JSC of abusing their powers and using the JSC to sabotage all efforts to consolidate the new Maldivian democracy.

The JSC was required to have adopted a Standard Operating Procedure by 26 January last, but has so far failed to do so. By October this year there were over a 100 complaints against the judiciary the JSC had not attended to.

It also failed to meet the deadline for appointing an interview panel to approve judges to the High Court bench, almost two months after the deadline for applications elapsed.

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Aircraft collision not a major incident, says Civil Aviation Department

A collision that occurred yesterday between a Maldivian Air Taxi seaplane and another aircraft at Male’ International Airport resulted in no injuries or major damage, the country’s Civil Aviation Department has said, claiming it has no concerns over the safety of the aircraft.

Hussein Jaleel, Deputy Director General for the Civil Aviation Department that oversees airline regulation, said it had been made aware of a collision yesterday, which it downplayed as a minor accident involving the wingtip of an aircraft colliding with another aircraft that was not seen as “a major safety concern.”

“There was a collision yesterday involving a Maldivian Air Taxi aircraft, but it was actually not a serious incident,” Jaleel said. “No person was injured and no damage was recorded to the aircraft that could affect flight operations.”

Local newspaper Haveeru reported that the seaplane collided with the wing of an aircraft taking-off from Hulhule, at 6:30am while it was approaching the water runway.

The official, however, said the number of passengers and the cause of the accident could not be identified yet, as a full report has not been filed so far.

“We receive urgent reports only if it is a serious accident. So it will take some time to receive reports of minor accidents,” the official said.

MAT Ground Operations Manager, Inthikaab Ahmed said he was not aware of any accidents.

A spokesperson for airline operator Maldivian Air Taxi told Minivan News that there had not been any reports of an accident or minor collision in the company’s fleet, a track record they claimed has not changed for some time.

When asked about the Civil Aviation Department claims, the company spokesperson said its management had not been informed of any incidents with its vehicles and it had no idea where the information had came from.

“We [Maldivian Air Taxi] have had no accidents in the last few years, maybe even longer,” said the spokesperson. “There have not been any collisions.”

Regardless of whether the accident reported was a serious or a minor collision, Jaleel said Civil Aviation Department regulations required an investigation into any accident. However he added that “no further reports would be required” in relation to yesterday’s incident.

“We have no issues that the accident was the result of negligence, though if we ever have any serious concerns relating to safety issues then we would of course take action,” he added.

The Civil Aviation Department claimed it therefore remained confident of the effectiveness of safety measures employed by seaplane operators in the Maldives.

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Private groups sought for local heritage promotion

Private parties are being sought by the government to aid in the conservation and promotion of historical sites across the country, according to news reports.

Haveeru has reported that a total of 68 sites, including Utheemu Palace and the Ihavandhoo Hirigalu Mosque in Haa Alif Atoll, the Matheerashu coffin, the National Museum and a host of historical mosques, will all be included in the plan.

The country’s Heritage Department, which is linked to the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture, said that the decision was made due to growing demand and interest among the public.

December 15 has been set as a deadline for private groups wishing to express an interest to the Heritage Department in supporting the programme, the paper added.

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