Reports from the Maldives in recent weeks indicate increasingly disturbing use of authoritarian powers by its government intended to suppress popular calls for democratic reform. After protests on August 13, President Gayoom declared a state of emergency, and mass arrests by the security forces followed, including of members of the National Human Rights Commission, former senior government members and other people now labelled “fundamentalists” by the president. Reports indicate that National Security Services personnel have tortured many of those detained, most severely, opposition party activists Mohamed Ziyad and Muad Zaki, the former of whom is understood to have been in intensive care since August 13, and to have been transferred to Singapore after his condition deteriorated.
President Gayoom has presided over a one-party state since 1978. Despite fundamental rights being guaranteed in the national constitution, the government has so far resisted popular aspirations for genuine expression of these rights, making mere pretences to the contrary after widespread public expressions for democratic reforms in 2003. Meanwhile, under the state of emergency, the president is empowered to suspend fundamental rights and laws “which in the opinion of the President impede the maintenance of national security and public order”.
It is evident that these latest steps by the government of the Maldives are intended to obstruct developments in favour of greater independence to the judiciary, separate powers of the head of state and government, and limit terms for the presidency. Indeed, the government of the Maldives has for years used methods typical of authoritarian states throughout Asia intent upon stifling public efforts for change. Civil offences have been utilised to arrest and intimidate persons seeking to promote legitimate democratic change, such as Mr. Abdullah Shakir, a member of parliament arrested in July 2001 for signing a petition to the Minister of Home Affairs requesting permission to set up an opposition party. Similarly, in 2003, Mohamed Zaki, Ibrahim Luthfee and Ahmed Didi were given life sentences, while one Fathumath Nisreen was given 10 years for producing an email newsletter: they were charged with inciting violence and defamation. Earlier, Naushad Waheed, an artist, was sentenced to 15 years for informing Amnesty International about government abuses.
This intolerable state of affairs must be brought to an end. The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) calls upon the government of the Maldives to take immediate steps to correct the damage caused in recent weeks. It can begin by providing medical assistance and compensation to victims of violence and torture by the security forces, and by ordering thorough independent investigations into all cases of attacks on protestors and torture of detainees, with a view to prosecuting the perpetrators. Above all else, it must without delay lift all restrictive regulations and allow for an unrestrained public debate on constitutional and political reform, and unconditionally release those persons detained for voicing popular aspirations for democratic change. Finally, the AHRC notes with alarm that the government of the Maldives has declined to become a party to most international human rights treaties, and urges it to do so without further delay, in particular, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention against Torture. In fact, a demonstrated commitment to the material contents of these treaties by the government would be a first step towards the institutional reforms necessary for effective institutional protection of those rights at present guaranteed–but not respected–under the constitution.
