Nihan Zafar
Stories
March 23rd, 2008
Maldives: Living with contaminated groundwater
· 09:51 · South AsiaAs the world observed World Water Day on March 22, issues concerning sanitation and access to safe water were discussed and debated in the media. This year’s theme for WWD is sanitation as 2008 is the International Year of Sanitation.
Maldivian bloggers have brought water and sanitation issues to the forefront of discussion in the country. It has emerged that the groundwater in several islands of the Maldives is contaminated with sewage.
It began with the death of 5 young people in a water well on March 3. They were part of a construction team working to bore a hole in the well when toxic gases caused the death. When there was no news of two persons, another person climbed in for rescue, and this cycle repeated till five people were in the well. The well was used to supply water for the Fish Market in the capital Male’.
When the accident took place, the eyewitnesses alerted Maldives Police Service. However, in such emergencies it is the Maldives National Defense Force (MNDF) which has to be alerted. The hospital ambulance which arrived did not have paramedics as in the Maldives ambulances are no more than simple vans which carry patients in stretchers. The MNDF rescuers who arrived to the scene did not give CPR to the victims.
The Maldives Medical Watch blog examines the failures of emergency services to respond to this accident and gives recommendations on improving the medical rescue services.
We asked some of our friends about who they would contact in a similar event. The answers we got were not surprising. Most of them said that they would contact MPS or IGMH. The MNDF Fire and Rescue services were mentioned by only one of the 25 people we contacted. This maybe a biased assessment but this highlights one issue. The general public have not been made aware of what emergency service they need to contact in which kind of incident.
This brings us to our argument for the need for a common Emergency Services. Why can't we organize an emergency response service that has teams from various fields (Fire, Rescue, Police, Medical Services) that could be contacted by calling an umbrella Emergency Service?
International practice is to have a single body responsible for Emergency services. They will be comprised of the different teams that will be mobilized to respond to an event. It would them be easier for the common people to know which number to call in an emergency. Much like the 911 service we see on Reality TV.
We also note that the information conveyed at the time of calling the rescue service is vital. If details were not provided by the caller, the person receiving the call should have the sense to keep him or her online and to gather more information till the rescue services could reach the site.
Another issue that has been raised is how unprepared workers are when they are at high risk work. With inadequate safety regulations and laws to make it mandatory for employers to provide safe working environments, many workers in the Maldives are facing work-related risks while accidents at work are common.
The blogger Hamdun examines the issues concerning work safety in the Maldives.
The state in any country bears the burden of legislating and implementing laws to serve and protect its citizens. Legislating Rules and Regulations on workplace safety standards also falls on the government’s shoulder in making work sites safe for the people who work in them and also the general public from those work sites. It is also the government’s responsibility to monitor the workplaces to ensure the state of the workplaces are with the workplace safety standards, and penalise those who fail to adhere to it.
Poor workplace safety Standards and poor monitoring of the standards is equal to inviting tragedy with open arms. The Bopal tragedy in India serves the best example of this. The state of Madhya Pradesh was aware of the poor workplace safety observed in Bopal plant but decided to ignore the issue on the ground that it provided much needed employment and income for the locals. Then, on the night of 3 December 1984 tragedy struck, when a reaction in one of the storage tanks resulted in leaking more than 40 tones of Methyl Isocynate (MIC) gas into the air killing 3800 people instantly and more than 30000 people to date. Should the Maldives wait on for proper workplace safety standards till we experience a similar tragedy? Obviously no, if a Workplace Safety Standard means saving a single life it is definitely worth it. Thus, it is time for the government to introduce tighter Workplace Safety Standards and develop a monitoring mechanism to ensure that the standards are well observed within worksites and no more lives are lost to poor safety conditions.
It was the work safety angle that the mainstream media picked up immediately after the deaths of the five people. However, Bluepeace blog examined the reasons as to why toxic gases were built up in the well and came up with a shocking conclusion: the groundwater in Male’ is contaminated with sewage. Male’ Water and Sewerage Company (MWSC) providing sewerage services has built a sewerage system which discharges effluent without any treatment.
Unlike other inhabited islands in the Maldives hardly any household in Malé sink effluent (sewage and waste water) into the ground using septic tanks. Household effluent is collected in catch pits and transferred to MWSC’s Central Sewage System. If this is the case, why is the groundwater in Malé contaminated with sewage? For more than a decade, sewage manholes have been causing sewage infiltration into groundwater because of defective manhole housing. In addition, the poor design and construction of catch pits used in households have lead to further infiltration of sewage into groundwater. In order to reduce the pressure from sewer gases in manholes and thus reduce infiltration, MWSC erected sewage vents in Malé, some of them located in public parks.
The use of septic tanks and the primitive sewage systems in the rest of the country causes equally alarming problems. Sinking of effluent into the ground has caused contamination of groundwater in several islands of the Maldives. Unlike Malé, in the other islands the people use groundwater for washing clothes, dishes and for bathing, as piped desalinated water is not available. When rainwater is depleted, during dry spells, the people drink groundwater in several islands. In fact, 25% of the people of the Maldives depend on groundwater for drinking according to State of the Environment Report 2002.
After the issue was raised by Bluepeace blog, mainstream media picked on the issue and newspapers started running articles on it. Another interesting revelation that came in the wake of this debate is that Maldives Food and Drug Authority (MFDA) was aware that contaminated water was used to clean fish at the Fish Market but did not intervene to stop it, as Bluepeace blog reports.
According to Miadhu, the Maldives Food and Drug Authority (MFDA), which has been established in 2006 to centralise the setting of standards relating to food and drugs in Maldives, has carried out a groundwater testing in the Fish Market area in January 2008. The tests carried out by the MFDA indicated presence of “considerable amounts of hydrogen sulphide and ammonium in that area”.
What is amazing to learn is that even the MFDA, while being scientifically aware of the high concentration of deadly gases in the groundwater of Male’, much prior to the deaths on Youth Day, had failed to take measures to stop the use of contaminated water to wash fish and the Fish Market’s floors.
After the tragic death of five young men on Youth Day in the Maldives, the various government agencies are involved in a game of pointing fingers and blaming one another. Meanwhile the public has been made more aware of water and sanitation issues through blogs and other media outlets. An increasing number of people have stopped buying fish from the Fish Market although contaminated water is no longer used to clean the fish. However, Maldives Water and Sanitation Authority (MWSA), the regulatory body on water and sanitation, has so far not responded to the circumstances surrounding the recent deaths, and have not issued any statement. With irresponsible authorities in charge, a large number of Maldivians live in islands with contaminated groundwater, leaking toxic gases, and sewerage systems discharging untreated effluent.
As UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said in his message on World Water Day, the biggest culprit in failure to achieve the Millennium Development Goal of halving the proportion of people without access to basic sanitation by 2015 is the lack of political will.
2 comments · »»January 14th, 2008
Maldives: Aftermath of an assassination attempt
· 11:22 · South AsiaIt looks like a scene out of a Tintin or Asterix comic book. On January 8, during a campaign tour of a northern atoll, while the Maldives dictator Maumoon Abdul Gayoom was shaking hands with people gathered to welcome him at Hoarafushi island, a 20 year-old lunged at him with a kitchen knife concealed in a national flag. He was intercepted by a 15-year-old Boy Scout who injured his hand while trying to save Asia’s longest serving ruler who has completed 29 years in office. The Boy Scout Mohamed Jaisham becomes an overnight celebrity and a national hero.
Most Maldivians ridiculed the comic nature of this incident and it is only natural that foreigners talk about it with some sense of humour as seen from this post by Sri Lankan blogger Ravana.
Apparently, some Maldivian chap attempted to assassinate their President with a kitchen knife. Coming from a country with a raging internal conflict, personally, I am used to slightly more specialized weaponry. Like a suicide bombing. Or a Claymore mine. Or an AK-47. I find it difficult to comprehend a political assassination with a sharp pointed object first invented in the paleolithic era. It was not even a sword, a machete, or a rambo knife that was used; it was a kitchen knife, presumably stolen from a mother or a wife in the middle of cooking a tuna curry. How quaint, how homegrown…
How bloody ineffective. Predictably, the assassination attempt with the kitchen knife failed. The President’s life was saved by a boyscout, armed to the teeth with scarf and woggle, who happened to be standing nearby.
Ravana received some blunt comments from some Maldivians for his post but a look at Maldivian blogosphere shows that several Maldivians share the same view that the incident had a comic feel.
Moyameeha points out an odd coincidence that it was on a January 8 that Lord Baden-Powell, the founder of the scout movement died.
there are some interesting things about this event.especially about the boy scout part.Gayom is the chief scout of maldives.and robert baden powell, the founder of scouting died on 08th january 1941.and also galileo galilei died on that day in 1642 and elvis presley was born on the same day 1935…. not a bad day to die eh? … but once again ‘thanx to mohamed jaisham and allah!', he didn't.
Anarchist Radical Maldivian Youth also makes fun of the fact that Gayoom is the Chief Scout of the Maldives. During his 29 years of autocratic rule in the Maldives, Gayoom had been in several roles and positions including Commander-in-Chief of Armed Forces, Minister of Defense and supreme judicial authority.
Gayoom’s security detail has been ridiculed because it was a Boy Scout who had to step in to save the dictator.
heheh what were they doing? Maybe their MI2 glasses were just too dark for them to see anything.
Seriously, how come they didn't spot anything before the Scout intervened? Anyway, its all over… (I think)
Thakurubey also shares some viewpoints about the role of the bodyguards in the incident.
One may wonder why an assassination attempt, albeit one on a country’s ruler, is taken so lightly by the people. Obviously, this incident shows the level of mistrust that Maldivian people have on their government. A large number of people believe that the incident was faked and staged by Gayoom to win sympathy votes in a forthcoming presidential election that could be the first multi-party election in the country. Political parties were allowed only in 2005.
The President’s Spokesperson was quick to blame the assassination attempt on Gayoom’s political rivals. However, in a press conference on January 13, Maldives Police Service said the incident is under investigation and that they have not found any link to a political or religious grouping so far. The government’s use of the incident to discredit opposition only adds fuel to speculation that it was a staged assassination attempt and a part of a public relations gimmick.
The incident, however, has more serious undertones. On September 29, 2007 the first ever bomb attack in the Indian Ocean archipelago occurred in a public park and injured sightseeing tourists. The attack was masterminded by an extremist religious group. Mohamed Murshid, the young man who lunged at Gayoom with a kitchen knife, is said to have extremist leanings.
The incident also shows the level of frustration in the traditionally peaceful Maldivian society. After enduring torture at the hands of a ruthless regime for almost 30 years, the people are lured into religious fanaticism and political extremism. Despite having the highest per capita income in South Asia, the gap between the rich resort owners and poor islanders is very high. Under Gayoom’s rule, Maldives has become a haven for paedophiles and hell for expatriate workers.
The blogger Iddu gives a good summary of present day Maldivian society.
1 comment · »»Well there is a Maldivian saying that “the ekel you sharpen will pierce in to your own eyes”. This is the reality of this violence. Over the past years people have been deprived of various rights and the worsening socio economic factors lead to the demise of social harmony once enjoyed by us. The terror we face now has not been created on one fine day with the fabrication of party politics in the country. It has been inflating over the past 30 years and blasted out with the inception of party politics and a new wave of freedom.
We are still in an enigma, and most of us are unaware of what freedom means and we are still not aware of our rights. While we talk about common street crimes and violence everyday, the hidden white collar crimes go on raging our economy. Corruption is at its peak and a handful of cronies of the government keep on fattening their coffers.The soccial injustice to common people are ripping them of their moral and ethical values.
September 28th, 2007
Maldives: Facebook and blogs used to organize vigil to remember torture victim
· 20:44 · South AsiaOn 19 September 2003 a conflict among some inmates of Maafushi Jail in the Maldives led to 12 of them being isolated from their cells. Among the isolated was Hassan Evan Naseem, a 19 year-old boy imprisoned because of drug-related charges. Evan insisted that he was not part of the disturbance and it is said that he resisted the security guards’ efforts to isolate him and is alleged to have hit a guard with a piece of wood. The anger of the guards fell on Evan. Beatings and torture were common at Maafushi Jail but what happened on that day changed the course of history in the Maldives.
Evan was kept standing against the eastern wall of a workshop in the jail during the night, with his hands over his head and handcuffed to steel bars on the wall. The yard of the workshop was the infamous ‘Range’ area, where prisoners are subjected to most inhumane torture in the Maldives. At least 12 security guards beat Evan with their bare hands, wooden planks, riot batons and boots. A doctor who examined Evan’s body recorded the time of death as 11.20 p.m.
When the prisoners heard about Evan’s death they started a riot in prison the following day. Security guards opened fire and killed at least one person on spot and injured several more prisoners. Two more prisoners died of injuries later while they were being treated abroad.
At the government’s hospital in Malé the authorities showed the body of Evan to the family and tried to hastily bury it. In previous cases, torture victims were quickly buried, and families were either intimidated or paid to stay silent. But Evan’s family, including his grief-stricken mother Mariyam Manike, stood their ground firmly, refusing to bury the body hastily.
People flocked to see the body after it was moved to the public cemetery. They were horrified to see the marks on Evan’s body, which were testaments of the cruelty of the regime that was ruling since 1978. Angry people carried a second body from the hospital to the cemetery; Abdulla Ameen with blood gushing from a bullet wound in his head. Angry citizens overturned several police vehicles and set them on fire. They also torched several police stations, the High Court and the Office of the Commissioner of Elections.
Concerned citizens went into exile following this incident and formed an opposition movement. To counter public outrage the government was forced to announce a ‘reform agenda’. Although the democracy movement is still at odds to face a government heavily backed by the police and military, September 19-20 is heralded as a watershed in contemporary politics of the Maldives.
This year democracy activists turned to blogs and the social networking website Facebook to organize a vigil to remember Evan. An event was created at Facebook titled “9/19: Remembering Evan Naseem.” The vigil was organized by Idhikeeli, a recently formed interest group in the Maldives.
The organizers labeled the vigil as “an open source event” and urged different groups of participants to work out ideas of their own. Bloggers were encouraged to cover the event and photographers were asked to upload photos to Flickr. Participants were asked to sit on the seawall surrounding Malé and hold the vigil.
Evan’s mother Mariyam Manike participated in the vigil to remember her son who was brutally beaten to death four years ago.
Evan's mother at vigil. Photo used with permission
The turnout for the vigil was not very high, which one Facebook user blames on lack of empathy in people. However, the organizers claimed the vigil was a success.
The event was primarily promoted through Facebook. We created an event at Facebook on September 14. Within just six days the event was one of the most popular in the Maldives network of Facebook. When the event began at 9.00 pm 87 people had confirmed to attend, and 72 people indicated that they might attend. The number of people not attending the event remained at 360 and 660 people had not replied. More than 1,100 people were invited within six days with the support of Facebook users and admins of Facebook groups. When the event was created there were close to 5,000 members in the Maldives network in Facebook. The number of people not attending and the number of people who were invited included those not in the country.
Because of the repressive nature of police, the number of people who indicated they were not attending and those who did not respond in either way do not truly reflect the support for such an event.
This event is a success and we plan to have the same event next year with more people and new activities to mark 9/19.
Facebook is the new craze among Maldivian youth. They are turning to the social networking website to keep in touch with friends and make new friends. However, the politics of the country has reached Facebook too. Several groups are mushrooming in Facebook to work for civil liberties and democracy. So far the government is tolerating this new activity on the Internet front, even though it had banned critical websites in the past. For example, a highly critical forum called Dhivehi Forum hosted in Delphi Forums led to the government banning the entire Delphi.com domain a few years back.
More bloggers are becoming bold in criticizing the government. It remains to be seen if blogs and social networking websites could bring new energy to a democracy movement that is going through inertia because of divisions among opposition leaders and lack of coherent strategies.
September 3rd, 2007
Maldives: Inhumane Treatment of Migrant Workers
· 17:12 · South AsiaThe Maldivian government was able to prevent Bangladeshi migrant workers' community in the capital Malé from holding a demonstration on Friday, by using the threat of deportation. The Bangladeshi community, consisting of mainly unskilled workers, was trying to protest against the rise of xenophobia in the Maldives, and increasing attacks targeted at Bangladeshis.
In August organized gangs in Malé repeatedly attacked some Bangladeshi workers in their living quarters while in the northern island of Kulhudhuffushi a male worker was castrated and brutally murdered. Police claim that the murder was sexually motivated and has arrested a fellow Bangladeshi worker of the victim. In two separate incidents two Bangladeshi workers were found chained in two houses in Malé. One of them was chained to a tree.
The Bangladeshi High Commissioner to Maldives was so alarmed by the developments that he cautioned that he might have to pull out Bangladeshi workers from the Maldives.
Malé, which is a small island of about two square kilometers, has a population of over 30,000 migrant workers. Most of them come from the neighbouring countries of Sri Lanka, India and Bangladesh. Majority of them are unskilled workers, who find the wage of US$100 attractive enough to work in the Maldives. In most cases families back home are dependent on the income the workers earn.
The high population of Malé and the scarcity of land have created a high demand for housing. It has also made rent in Malé comparatively one of the highest in the world. A construction boom during the last 15 years had created a high demand for migrant workers.
While there are several foreign professional workers such as doctors, accountants and teachers, the increase in xenophobia is mainly directed towards unskilled workers. Recently there was a report of attacks against foreign workers in the country’s tourist resorts, self-contained islands where Europeans spend their holidays, ignorant of what happens in this ‘paradise’.
The increase in xenophobia could also be related to the rise in organized crime and the proliferation of gangs in Malé. A large percentage of youth in the Maldives are brown sugar addicts.
Apart from the rise of xenophobia, an issue of equal concern is how the foreign workers are treated by their employees. Normally migrant workers work long hours while they are offered a very low wage. In most cases, their accommodation is pathetic as well. It is hardly surprising as the Maldives does not have a labour law and even the Maldivian workers are not enjoying workers’ rights. There is no minimum wage.
The inhumane treatment of the foreign workers in Maldives had been documented in the past. However, the problems persist. The cruel treatment of South Asian migrant workers in the Persian Gulf region has been publicised by international human rights organisations. However, few people outside Maldives are aware that South Asian migrant workers are subjected to inhumane treatment in another South Asian country.
Blogger Jaa criticizes the Maldivian society for the increase in xenophobia and details the extent of the inhumane treatment of expatriate workers.
We (supposedly) once were a tolerant country, welcoming all sorts of people and treated them with due respect. But things have changed and for the worse. Notions of equality and humanity has been devalued to such an extent that xenophobia seems almost universal in the country and racism is building up like never before. As such, mistreatment of and disrespect for expats is a truth many are well aware of. People often treat the many unskilled/semi-skilled workers as “subhuman”. I might be tempted to go as far as summarising the prevalent attitude as being a combination of viewing workers as non-tiring machines, incapable and devoid of emotion and feelings and their lives worth no more than a pet cat! They are given accommodation in tiny enclosures made of tin roofing and little ventilation with more workers packed into such places than sardines in a box. They are harassed on the streets and harassed at work. Too many a time do you see workers beg and cry themselves wet over salaries unpaid. Sometimes months would go by without the employer paying the workers their full wage (if at all!) - which the workers often send to their starving families back in their home country. Few regulations keep employers in check - facilitating them to overwork their employers through day and night and give little consideration to the health and safety of the employees. What more, when their “official” work ends, the workers are often made run personal errands and chores for their employer - they really are slaves to the whims and desires of their “master”. I was shocked to find the word “owner” used in the popular local newspaper Haveeru, in reference to the employer of the recently murdered Bangladesh worker in Kulhudhuffushi! (Owner? Isn't that slave mentality??)
Threat of deportation was enough to coerce the Bangladeshi community from organizing their demonstration. It is not surprising as the government of Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, who has been the President of Maldives for over 28 years, utilizes similar tactics to silence even Maldivian demonstrators. However, beneath the silence the expatriate community, especially Bangladeshis, are still living in fear.
5 comments · »»August 6th, 2007
Maldives: Secret Haven for Pedophiles
· 16:18 · South AsiaMaldivian bloggers are expressing outrage over the prevalence of child sexual abuse in the country and the lack of firm action by the government to address the issue.
Maldives has been rocked by the news of four rapists receiving a light sentence after a judge decided that because the raped girl did not shout or scream, it meant she gave consent. Moreover the rapists were banished to another island community where they could go on preying. In another incident a girl studying at a high school alleged that her mathematics teacher sexually harassed her during a tuition session. The school administration tried to downplay the incident and the foreign teacher was allowed to leave the country before an investigation was conducted.
In a separate incident several girls from the remote island of Goidhoo alleged that their Koran teacher who is also the Imam of the island molested them. After a short investigation the Imam was allowed to return to the community.
Maldives Health blog has discussed the issue here.
This is it. Again. They have accepted it before. It has happened again. This time a twelve year old girl has been found to have “consented” for having sex with the god damn rapists. Just because she did not scream does not mean she consented. This is fu….. ridiculous. Angers me. A twelve year old girl will be so freaking terrified to utter a sound. Arrrgh…
The blog says the Maldivian government takes ‘a silent and deadly approach to child abuse in the Maldives.’
Jaa’s blog criticizes the judge’s decision that the raped girl gave consent.
I skim through Maldivian news now and then and try sink in the madness going about these days but none, absolutely none, has left me as unsettled and enraged as the news regarding the recent ruling on the case of a 12 year old girl being sexually assaulted by a group of 4 axe-wielding men.
Maldives Today in a post titled ‘Paradise for Paedophiles’ narrates the history of child sexual abuse in the Maldives and concludes that the government has a history of not bringing the perpetrators to justice and pardoning convicted paedophiles.
The blog criticizes Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, the country’s dictator, for his lenient stance on abusers.
The Maldives, as a signatory of the Convention on the Rights of the Child CRC, has been taken to task by the body for country’s deplorable child rights record. Not only has Maumoon Abdul Gayoom openly showed his support for child abusers, but he has never, in his three decades of office, introduced a single piece of legislature to protect children from sexual abuse. As a result the Maldives has seen a proliferation of paedophilia.
A survey published this year has shed more light on the prevalence of child sexual abuse in the Maldives. According to its findings, one in three woman aged 15-49 years have experienced physical or sexual abuse while one in six women reported to having been sexually abused when they were under 15 years of age. Given that the survey focused only on females, social workers have rightly commented that the actual figure for child sexual abuse may be much higher. If figures for children of both sexes are taken into account, the Maldives may very well have the highest rates of child sexual abuse in South Asia, probably even the world.
The findings of the survey have been downplayed by the minister in charge of protecting child rights, Aishath Mohamed Didi, who worked in UNICEF before she joined the dictator’s cabinet. Didi has told Minivan News that statistics for child sexual abuse in the Maldives fell within the norm of other countries.
With a dictator and a cabinet minister defending pedophiles, the bloggers of Maldives are facing a rough battle but at least in the blogosphere the silent and well-kept secret of pedophilia in the paradise is no longer a secret.
14 comments · »»July 16th, 2007
Maldives: Jamming to save the islands from submerging
· 11:33 · South AsiaIn Greek mythology singing of the Sirens were so sweet and melodic that sailors were lured into the sea and met fateful deaths. On July 07, or the date known better as 07.07.07, music and melodies were used by Maldivians as they pondered about the fate that sea level rise and climate change would bring to them.
As a very low lying island nation the Maldives is among the most vulnerable countries if global warming causes the sea level to rise up to the levels being forecast by world scientists.
Jamming for the Islands, a music show organized as a Friends of Live Earth event, aimed to create awareness among the people on various issues related to climate change. The show also showed solidarity with other people across the globe who organized Live Earth events.
The Maldives was hit hard by the tsunami of December 2004 and there are Internally Displaced Persons still living in camps. The tsunami was an early warning of how things could turn if Maldivians have to become environmental refugees.
There were mixed reactions from bloggers on the music show held in a location less than a hundred meters from the sea, and on the Live Earth concerts held across the globe.
A blogger expressed his desire to visit all venues where Live Earth shows were held.
I wanna be at the Wembley Stadium to see RHCP, the Foo Fighters, Metallica, Damien Rice and Duran Duran.. I wanna be in New Jersey to see Roger Waters, The Smashing Pumpkins and DMB.. I wanna be in Sydney to see Wolfmother and Jack Johnson.. I wanna see Lenny Kravitz in Rio de Janeiro.. I wanna be in Hamburg to see Chris Cornell and Katie Melua.. I'll take a pass on Tokyo and Shanghai.. And Johannesburg too..
I also want a Gulfstream 400..
but…
well, hopefully they'll have a DVD out..
Maldives Today says the show was not effective in delivering ‘key environmental messages’ to the public. The blog also criticizes the government for failing to address environmental issues at home.
Almost all inhabited islands in the Maldives are facing the problem of contaminated groundwater because untreated sewage seeps into the aquifer. Only few islands such as the capital Male’ has a sewerage system in place. The population is also unable to solve the problem of garbage accumulation. Undesirable methods of garbage disposal such as burning and throwing them on beaches create further environmental problems. Increased consumerism means the people of the Maldives produce more garbage, most of which is non-biodegradable. Reefs in the country are under threat from marine pollution while certain marine species are on the verge of depletion because of overexploitation. The mangrove ecosystems in the Maldives are under threat while beaches in the Maldives are eroding due to human-made modifications to the coastline.
While the Maldives needs the support and cooperation of the international community to address the problems caused by global phenomena, several people in the country are dismayed by the lack of commitment by the government to address local environmental issues. The government is keen to highlight the vulnerable position of the Maldives in international conferences and IPCC meetings but when it comes to solving the environmental problems in its own backyard, it remains tightlipped.
The blog Idhikeeli also raises questions about the inefficiency of the government in dealing with domestic environmental issues.
0 comments · »»None of the political parties in the Maldives seems to be concerned much about the deteriorating environmental conditions in the country. Islands are being reclaimed and harbours are being dredged without proper Environmental Impact Assessments. The greed of the corporate sector takes dominance over environment as resorts expand their land to build more rooms, altering the natural island dynamics. Poor islanders are left with no choice but mine sand from beaches for construction because river sand and aggregate are too expensive for them. The lack of a good transportation network pushes up the price of any material taken to the islands. Our islands are faced with threat of tidal waves and flooding. To what extent do our parliamentarians raise these issues in the parliament? Shouldn't the government reduce import duties from river sand? Shouldn't the government set up warehouse facilities in islands for river sand? Or should the government just turn a blind eye to sand mining from beaches and blame all beach erosion on global warming and sea level rise? Why did the fine imposed for destroying Vilivaru island reduced so drastically? Who does what at the environment ministry?
It is not just enough to jam for the islands and think that the music show will solve everything.
May 12th, 2007
RSF names Maldives police unit Star Force as predator of press freedom
· 08:11 · South AsiaReporters without Borders (RSF) has listed Star Force, an elite unit of Maldives Police Service, as a predator of press freedom. The listing came weeks after a dead body fished out of water in capital Male’ made the public point their fingers at the police, whose torture techniques could be a how-to-manual for any despot. Hussain Salah has now been buried but not before the corpse caused much controversy. The basic disregard for press freedom by the police was confirmed by further arrests of journalists during protests over Salah’s death.
The government of Maldives made much hype about the World Press Freedom Day 2007, something ironic for a government with such a bad record on press freedom. The conference that the government organized to mark the day ended with more embarrassing moments such as when opposition journalists walked out when President Gayoom made his speech. A small protest by women activists outside the conference hall on the street was halted by police, who seized placards and threatened to arrest them if they did not leave the area.
Journalists in the Maldives are harassed and arrested by police during protests. In addition to the police, the judiciary works to suppress press freedom in the Maldives. The editor of most popular opposition daily faces charges which could send her to jail. Another journalist Fahala Saeed is serving a life sentence for allegedly possessing narcotics. As Saeed was summoned to the police station on a different issue, and the police made a check up of his clothes without his presence, and allegedly found the narcotics, it is easy to believe he was framed.
Cartoonist Ahmed Abbas has been recently released after serving six months in jail for comments he made to Minivan Daily. The state alleged that the comments incited violence.
An International Press Freedom Mission to the Maldives including ARTICLE 19, international Federation of journalists (IFJ), Reporters without Borders (RSF), South Asia Media Commission (SAMC) and International Media Support (IMS), which visited the country in May 2006, issued an open letter on this year’s World Press Freedom Day, expressing concerns over the state of media freedom in the Maldives.
1 comment · »»April 20th, 2007
Maldives police accused of torture and killing a young man
· 06:15 · South AsiaTorture by Maldivian police on detainees has come under spotlight once again with the discovery of a badly beaten body from water in the morning of April 15 in the capital Male’. The young man Hussain Solah was under police custody a few days before his death. Even though the police claim that he was released on April 13, there are no reliable witnesses who had seen him after that. He made no contact with family and friends after his supposed release from police custody.
Thousands of people gathered to protest against what they believed was another murder by police but the protestors themselves became the target of police brutality as they were beaten by an elite police squad, which has been criticized recently by a former British police superintendent.
Mohamed Nasheed, the Chairperson of Maldivian Democratic Party, was also severely beaten by the police and arrested. He was later released and is seeking medical treatment abroad.
The family of the deceased wanted to carry out an autopsy to determine the reasons for the death but the police tried to bury the body. The police then offered to do an autopsy in Maldives by a Sri Lankan pathologist. There are no facilities in the Maldives for making an autopsy. The family refused to have the autopsy done in the Maldives under arrangements made by police. In the end the government has agreed to the family’s request to take the body abroad to make the autopsy.
The police initially said there were no visible injuries on the body, which hundreds of people who saw the body would deny. A concerned doctor posts in MaldivesHealth blog that the doctor who examined the body first refused to sign the papers to bury the body and insisted that the body be taken to hospital for further studies.
The fact of the matter is, the doctor who 1st examined the body, refused to sign the papers insisting that the body would need to be taken to IGMH for further studies as to understand the full extent of the injuries sustained. This was indeed , a highly praise worthy decision in such a pressure situation; none-the-less the right one too.
Our doctors didn’t do a postmortem because it is not permitted for one thing. The other more valid point is that we do not have a person with enough credentials for that procedure. (You wouldn’t have your appendix removed by a dentist, would you?)
Maldives Today laments about the mild reaction from the public to the murder of Solah compared to the wild riots that took place in September 2003 when an inmate was killed in jail by the security forces.
15 comments · »»February 26th, 2007
Maldives: Torture Techniques in Paradise
· 11:38 · South AsiaThe blog Groundsix notes some of the torture techniques used on detainees and prisoners in the Maldives.
Putting in stocks: The victim is restrained with his or her ankles and wrists locked in tiny holes in a block of wood. The victim remains bent and does not have the use of his/her hands when eating. Defecation and urination is done on the spot and the victim remains with his or her own human waste for days on end. Victims of the stocks almost invariably suffer from spinal conditions for life, if they survive this ordeal.
Gang rape of women prisoners. Sometimes other women inmates are forced to watch this in order to inflict psychological torture on them. (Those who have been forced to watch this are known to have hung themselves)
“Mounting on the angle”: The victim’s arms are passed backwards through the vertical bars (about 60 cm apart) of the vent above the door in a prison cell. The wrists are then tightly handcuffed. The body is left dangling for hours at a time. The victim almost invariably has both shoulders and/or elbows dislocated during this exercise. Indiscriminate beating. Often officials wearing military-style boots stomp on the victim. (In one well-documented case, a 17 year old youth was beaten up on the spinal area, in the interrogation room. He was paralysed for life.)
Torture has been widely used in the Maldives to sustain the current regime in power. Association for the Prevention of Torture and Ill-treatment in the Maldives has documented several cases of torture.
Recent rise in police brutality has prompted Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) to hold a demonstration.
Maldives is known to the world as a great holiday destination. Tourism statistics for January show a record number of visits by tourists. UK-based organization Friends of Maldives (FOM) has (more…)
7 comments · »»February 7th, 2007
Press freedom watchdogs slam Maldives
· 14:49 · South AsiaMajor international press freedom watchdogs have recently slammed the Maldives for the Indian Ocean country’s bad record in press freedom.
Reporters without Borders (RSF) has criticized the Maldives for violations of press freedom in its 2007 annual report.
Information Minister, Mohamed Nasheed, who in May 2006 met members of an international mission of which Reporters Without Borders was a member, said the broadcast sector would shortly be liberalised and that laws to protect press freedom would be adopted before the end of the year. Unfortunately, the end of the state monopoly on radio and television has been postponed and the government had a draconian law on defamation adopted by decree. As a result, 38 requests made to the authorities to set up privately-owned radio and television stations have gone unanswered.
The government headed by the immovable Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, who has been in power since 1978, has therefore failed to honour all its promises in relation to press freedom which were set out in the “road map” for democratic reform. Moreover, police continue to harass and sometimes imprison pro-opposition journalists.
English PEN has expressed concerns about state prosecutions against journalists working for Minivan Daily and Minivan News.
Minivan Daily journalist Fahala Saeed has been sentenced to life in April 2006 for drug-trafficking charges which is believed to have been fabricated. There are pending law suits against (more…)
4 comments · »»
About Nihan Zafar
I am a dissident in Maldives where I have spent most of my life. For some this is a picture-perfect paradise; for others this is a hell-hole of human rights abuses and torture. Other GV sites
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