Relevant authorities are investigating the incident at Thaa atoll Thimarafushi last Friday where some residents blocked access through the reef channel to the island, the Home Minister has said.
The residents had done so in order to keep the Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) candidate Mohamed Ghassan Maumoon’s campaign team from arriving at the island.
Speaking at a news conference held at Dharubaaruge, Home Minister Mohamed Shihab said that what had transpired at Thimarafushi that day was against the law.
“We believe that the island should have not been made inaccessible to anyone,” he said. “So the relevant authorities are now investigating the incident. We will reveal our findings to you very soon.”
The Home Minister said that the Police had handled the incident in Thimarafushi in a very professional manner, and added that the Police had been asked to hold a news conference to divulge information about the incident.
Rumours that the real intent of Ghassan’s visit to Thimarafushi had been to create discord within the island had been spreading long before Ghassan’s speedboat arrived at the island. When asked why the Police had not checked the Ghassan’s speedboat given the rumours, the Home Minister said that the Police would not conduct searches based on hearsay. He said that the Police would gather information from various sources before making a decision.
The Home Minister said that the news that Ghassan and his campaign team were going to Thimarafushi had been received around 2:30pm on Friday and that as soon as he had received word from Meemu atoll Mulaku MP Abdulla Yamin, who had accompanied Ghassan on the trip, that the channel entrance to the island’s lagoon had been blocked off by three boats, he had begun to trying to find a solution to the problem.
“We are trying to ensure that this won’t happen again,” Shihab said. “Law and order will prevail, God willing. However, our situation isn’t such that we can respond immediately to such incidents.”
When asked whether Ghassan would be able to visit Thimarafushi now, the Minister said that he wasn’t going to guarantee it but that the Police were active in the island.
The name of Ibrahim Rasheed Abu Bakar of Rangiriteege / Alifu Dhaalu atoll Maamigili, proposed by President Mohamed Nasheed for the Anti-Corruption Board was rejected by the People’s Majlis on Monday. President Nasheed had initially submitted the name of Hassan Luthufee of Ranfas / Seenu atoll Hithadhoo but had withdrawn it before submitting Ibrahim Rasheed’s name.
Ibrahim Rasheed, who had won a Majlis seat on an MDP ticket, was rejected with 40 of the 57 MPs voting against him. Five MPs voted in favour, while four abstained.
Some MPs said that the committee had already interviewed Luthufee by the time the President had withdrawn his name and proposed a new one.
Indhira Gandhi Memorial Hospital (IGMH) has resumed its X-ray services after temporarily halting the service due to a shortage of the chemical used to develop the film. The hospital resumed the service on Monday night.
The CEO of the biggest Government-funded hospital in Maldives, Zubair Mohamed, said that after stopping the service temporarily due to shortage of developer fluid, they had resumed the service around 7:00pm. He also said that they had two X-ray machines but that only one was operational.
“Our supplies were exhausted so we had to stop the service,” he said. “However, we were able to procure some emergency supplies from STO.”
He also said that the hospital had received numerous complaints from the public due to the interruption of its X-ray services.
“This kind of thing shouldn’t have happened,” he said. “But unfortunately it did, and at a time when the other X-ray machine was out of order too.”
In an interview with Haveeru last Thursday, he had said that the biggest obstacle currently faced by the Hospital was the difficulties in getting their supplies delivered on time.
“We are discussing the matter with the Ministry of Health to find a solution,” he said. “We are hoping to make all the procurements directly from IGMH.”
He said that they had managed to get 16 items from STO after discussing the problem with them.
“The testing services that have been halted will commence next week,” Zubair said.
The audit report of the hospital for the year 2007, released by the Auditor General Ibrahim Naeem last Thursday, says that half of the 14 machines used by the hospital were old and broken down.
A man who had committed suicide by hanging himself was discovered in a deserted woodland area of Laamu atoll Maabaidhoo.
The Island Chief of Maabaidhoo, Ali Firaq, said that the man had hung himself by the neck from a tree near the beach in the area called Kerandoo. He identified the man as 40-year-old Ismail Hussain.
Firaq said that Ismail was known to have experienced fits of insanity every now and then, and that it was possible that he had committed suicide during one of those episodes.
“Despite those temporary fits, he wasn’t really mentally disabled,” the Island Chief said. “When he has one of those episodes he would become paranoid and say that things like that there are people coming to beat him up and that he wanted to die before they could get their hands on him.”
Officials from the Maabaidhoo Office said that Ismail Hussain had previously attempted to commit suicide by ingesting plant pesticide and had barely survived the attempt. Ismail had been married thrice and has three children. At the time of his death his youngest child was only 15 days old.
There is clear evidence of communication and existing links between prominent businessmen in Maldives and street gangs, the Attorney General has said.
Attorney General Husnu Suood said that the evidence clearly shows that some gangs were sponsored by the businessmen and that they seek their aid. He said that since gang-related street violence had increased substantially during the last two or three years and because evidence existed that the gangs had links to some politicians and businessmen he was working to introduce laws that would put a stop to it.
“Many gangs and groups are involved in these organized crime sprees,” he said. “They are linked to some high profile businessmen. We now have evidence that they sponsor these gangs and employ gangsters as bodyguards. They use these gangsters as a means to get what they want, especially in financial dealings.”
Suood said that since the gangs were armed with swords, knives, box-cutters and other bladed weapons, and because a law banning people from carrying such weapons didn’t exist yet, he was drafting a bill to outlaw such weapons and would submit it to the People’s Majlis very soon. He said that as things stood now, even the judges faced many obstacles in keeping such criminals behind bars.
President Mohamed Nasheed has met with the Indian National Security Advisor M. K. Narayanan.
At the meeting, discussions were focused on strengthening the close bilateral ties that existed between Maldives and India, especially enhancing defence and military cooperation between the two countries.
President Nasheed also held a dinner at Aarah on Monday night in honour of Narayanan and his delegation. The dinner was attended by Ministers, senior government officials and the Indian High Commissioner to the Maldives.
Vice President Dr Mohamed Waheed arrived in Male’ Tuesday morning after concluding his visit to the United States.
During his visit, Dr Waheed met with US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, where he briefed the Secretary on issues of concern to the Maldives such as consolidation of democracy, the effects of climate change in the Maldives.
The Vice President also visited the United Nations Headquarters and met with United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon. At the meeting Dr Waheed briefed the Secretary-General on the Maldives’ efforts to lessen the impact of LDC graduation to ensure a smooth transition phase.
At the UN headquarters, Vice President also delivered a keynote speech for an interactive thematic dialogue entitled, “Energy Efficiency Energy Conservation and New Renewable Sources of Energy”.
As part of his tour to the US, Dr Waheed also met with Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger and discussed establishing a partnership between California and the Maldives in the run-up to the Copenhagen summit.
A teacher from the Haa Alifu atoll Hoarafushi School was arrested on charges of having a homosexual relationship with a male 14-year-old student.
Officials from the Hoarafushi Island Office said that the Police had arrested the Mathematics teacher after the victim’s family had reported him to the Police. A reliable source from the island, who was in a position to know, told Haveeru that the underage boy had said the teacher molested him on four different occasions after bringing him to the teacher’s tuition centre. He further said that the boy had said that the teacher had shown him pornographic videos before molesting him.
Officials from the Island Office said that the boy had spoken out about the events after a protest march against child abuse had been organized in the island by the residents a few days back.
Police said that they were investigating the case.
The Hulhumalé Development Corporation (HDC) has disqualified 117 of the 488 lucky draw winners who won flats from the newly built apartments in Hulhumalé. The apartment flats were built under the Social Housing Project.
The Deputy Managing Director of HDC, Suhail Ahmed, said that they had disqualified some of the lucky draw winners because the information they had submitted had been found to be invalid during the second round of checking. He however said that those who refused to accept the decision could submit their reasons before the 25th of this month.
He said that the agreement form stated that they had authority to cancel any of the winners if they found the information they had submitted to be invalid even after the lucky draw was over. He added that they had begun notifying those who had been disqualified on the 14 of this month.
“We still have a list of people who could potentially be disqualified,” he said. “Still, those who have been disqualified still have a chance to win it back if they complete the information in the application. But we have yet to come across such an instance.”
The HDC had taken steps for just a scenario and selected an additional 150 lucky draw winners to take the place of those who get disqualified.
One of those who had been disqualified after having won the lucky draw said that he was very saddened by the news.
“We managed to reach the lucky draw after going through four evaluations,” he said. “It’s only when we have won the draw and getting ready to sign the agreement that we are notified that we’ve been disqualified. I was under the impression that we had reached the lucky draw stage because the information in our application was acceptable.”
A rally was held in Malé on Saturday to protest against the increasing number of child abuse cases in the country and to demand stricter penalties for child abusers. A petition was signed by the participants and President Mohamed Nasheed also participated in the march.
During the rally, organized by several NGOs, the participants called on the People’s Majlis to establish a legal system in which child abusers would be given harsher penalties.
Around 500 people participated in the march which began near the Social Centre and ended at the Artificial Beach area. Protesters carried placards and posters with slogans calling for an end to child abuse.
Several prominent figures such as Dr Aminath Jameel of the Health and Family Mininstry, some MPs, and President of the Human Rights Commission Ahmed Saleem also participated in the march. The participants marched through Majeedhee Magu and ended it at the Artificial Beach, where a gathering was held.
Speaking at the gathering, President Mohamed Nasheed said that child abuse was on the rise not only because of lack of laws and regulations but also due to lack of qualified judges who could more adequately interpret the existing laws. He also said that the increase in reported cases of child abuse recently was due to public awareness and readiness to discuss the issue.
