Maldives

2001

President Maumoon Gayyoom
Minister of Defence and National Security
Minister of Finance and Treasury
Governor of Maldives Monetary Authority

President's Office Staff (official link)

President's National Security Service

Abdulla Yameen, Maumoon's brother  Abdulla Hameed, Maumoon's brother  Zahir Hussain, Maumoon's long-term friend  Fatullah Jameel, Maumoon's long-term friend

' Since being appointed to the office he has been sucking the fresh blood of the public. Disrupting the fragile relationship between government and traders. He is the most corrupted person Maldives has ever witnessed. '

'Incentives for investors in Maldives: No personal or corporate income tax
No tax on profit, value added tax, property tax or capital gains tax
No exchange restrictions
100 percent foreign ownership or joint ventures
No restrictions on repatriation of capital or profits
Streamlined foreign investment procedures
Long term leasing of land
Freedom to use expatriate labor (managerial, technical or unskilled)
Low duties on exports; waivers for approved projects'

'During his regime as a minister he has bought land in Malé worth more than a million dollars! How did he get his money and his wealth? We are not envious of him. But there must be a way for him to get this money. Is it his salary?...
Why hasn't he revealed the annual Audit Report of the State Trading Organisation?...
Why did STO form a company with a private party to deal oil in the country? Is it more profitable to Him or the public?... Did anyone know the dirty history of Vara Maldives Pvt. Ltd?'

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Abdullah Hameed
President's brother

Speaker of the People's Majlis
Minister of Atolls Administration
Chairman, Bank of Maldives

' The President briefed the People's Majlis on the performance of the government in the year 2000. The Presidential Address was followed by a seven-gun salute and the national anthem.
The Speaker of the People's Majlis, Abdullah Hameed said that the Presidential Address has greatly heartened the Maldivian people and that the Address echoed the President's love and care for the people. He also said that the Presidential Address made apparent the judicious and pragmatic policies followed by the government.'

' It is not fair that the fate of our country is decided by the speaker alone as he wish in any circumstances...
People's representatives - please be responsible and be effective and work hard day and night to improve Maldives. You were elected because you said you will do it.
You are paid by the people to do a job. You are not doing it free. So don't be casual...
Simply hoping for a change is not enough and it has no meaning. '

'Lot of young Maldivians are not interested in seeing the dances and hearing the music of their elected representatives at the Majlis.... Gayyoom's own brother is the appointed Speaker. He cannot tolerate any new ideas and public demands. As a result, the Monday night meeting was banned for the public.'

'Was Monday the day they were supposed to talk about the 'powers of arrest' bill brought up by Mohamed Nasheed? Was that the reason there was a ban for the public?'

Yes, it [the 'powers of arrest' bill] was discussed on the night of the 13th [Dec] and then the followup was to be on the 18th to which the public was not allowed. The 13th night debate on that bill was very hot where the Speaker personally by words attacked Mohamed Nasheed and his few supporting members.'

'In the closed door sessions only My Afeef from Thaa atoll supported. Sheikh Ibrahim Zakariyyaa's personal attack on Mohamed Nasheed was so great that in fact he said the bill will support terrorism in the Maldives and it is unIslamic. What Zakariyya is doing, is it Islamic?..... When and if Zakariyya is taken under police custody he will realise the importance of the bill....

Even the victimised Ilyas Ibrahim said nothing in favour of the bill but he claims that he was a victim of the unlawfulness of Gayyoom which denied his legal team the rights to defend him in the most known corruption trial of the century in the Maldives [Ilyas corruption trial - early 1990s]. This of course shows how dim is the light towards feedom and equal rights in Maldives. Let's work together for peace and a change of system in our beloved nation.'

' If Gayyoom so wish he may elect to send him to Australia to join a Gay society, he has brought shame to the administration of Gayyoom. '

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Mohamed Zahir Hussain
long-term friend of President

Minister of Youth and Sports
Owner - Haveeru newspaper

Amnesty International report extract, 1998
Several prisoners of conscience and possible prisoners of conscience were held in detention. Among them were intellectuals, who were subjected to severe retaliatory measures for criticizing the government.

Mohamed Shaheeb, a journalist writing for the newspaper Haveeru, was arrested in January, reportedly in connection with a fictional short story he had written about the treatment of a young woman detained in solitary confinement in police custody. He was held as a prisoner of conscience until his release in March.

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Fatullah Jameel
long-term friend of President

Minister of Foreign Affairs

Although he is only 52 years of age, Fathulla Jameel is the senior cabinet member of the Maldives.

He has served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs for his country for the past 21 years, and also held various other foreign affairs-related positions since 1973 - such as that of Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York.

When asked the secret of the success of the Maldives, he tells people that 'we have less politics here than anywhere else - so we can work as a team.'....

'First of all, we realize that we are a small country. So the parameters of our foreign policy have to be based on that reality.

One thing that we make sure of is the preservation of our independence and sovereignty. It is something that we have to work for always. And we do that by maintaining an objective approach. We cannot be biased, take sides or be in alliance with any one power--especially the larger powers.

Our policies and attitudes must be based on principles, whether it is involving peace, disarmament, nuclear testing, rights of people for self-determination, or human rights issues.

On all these issues, we take the principle stand without any regard to who is involved.'

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Reforms and the Binbi Force
[Malé early 1990s]
The newly elected members of the Citizens Majlis started their work in reformation.The ideas and help given by some of the senior members helped them along the line.

Within a short period amendment to the feared Article 38 was presented and passed by the Majlis. At the same time, a bill presented by the President could not get enough votes for passing, a scene which was never experienced before.

Each member went along doing his duty to the best of his capacity. Debates started on issues where the Government was at fault.

Among these a debate started in a corruption issue of FPID [Fisheries Projects Implementation Division of Ministry of Fisheries ].

A Bill for the rights of Prisoners was presented by Dr.Mohamed Waheed. However this bill was sent to a Committee where it disappeared. A number of Bills of this type were presented to the Majlis without ever coming to debate. It was clear that the reforms, which had been initiated, had not pleased Senior Government figures.

Then started a campaign against the members of Citizens Majlis who expressed their views freely, hampering members who were working for reforms. Discussions for reform and freedom began to be discussed openly in Majlis and outside. The whole nation began to support these new ideas. Newspapers began to carry articles of reform frequently.

Then started a force against the reform movement, which were aided and helped by two of the President's brothers-in-law: Mr.Abbas Ibrahim and Mr.Ilyas Ibrahim, being both also Ministers of the Cabinet.

The Force against the reforms consisted of middle-aged people who were mainly ex-convicts freed after having served their sentences. Most of these people were looking for a way to preserve their self respect and earn easy money being under the protection of two Ministers. The group became known in Malé as Binbi Force which got the name from one of the members nickname.

Activities of BINBI FORCE
The target of Binbi Force with the blessing of two Ministers became to dispose of all Majlis Members who were working for reforms, and to dispose of any public members who were supporting them by whatever means necessary.

They started sending anonymous letters giving Death warnings to members. They began spying on public who supported the reforms. They also started to spread baseless rumours within Malé.

They began to photograph any two persons who were seen talking together, and started giving threatening telephone calls. It went to the extent of paying girls to call members and other public to get any information out of them.A lot of leaflets were thrown around Malé. The purpose of all these actions were to put the blame on the people working for reforms...

As incidents proved, it was evident that a force in the Government backed the Binbi Force.

For example, cases against members of the Binbi Force were ignored by the Police even with eye-witnesses. The painting of Dr.Waheed's symbol in Majeedhee Magu, Sosun Magu, were often in the presence of the Police personnel which was ignored.

It is specially noted that a boy who had been delivering a Death Warning when caught and handed over to the police, with a note to the President was just ignored.

The results of the Election was an overwhelming victory for Dr.Waheed.

The trust given to Dr.Waheed became very costly for some of his leading supporters. Eight of his campaign organisers were arrested on charges of distributing Anti-Government leaflets, and sentenced by the Police Court from 4 to 7 years.

It is now clear exactly how they were framed, from the person who was used as a tool.

Of the people who were initially arrested, one person, Mr.Hamid Fahmy was released without a sentence. On release he was presented with the sight of a single cell with toilet for him by Mr. Ilyas Ibrahim.

Mr.Hamid Fahmy said that he was taken to the State Trading Organisation office [Another office of Ilyas Ibrahim ] and requested by Mr.Illyas to contact Mr. Majeed and dump some leaflets on the road.

Hence he had met Mr. Majeed and discussed this, wrote the leaflets in his own writing and dumped on the streets. He had been wired when he had talked to Majeed. The tape was given to the person who arranged to drama. This proves that the eight people were framed by Mr. Ilyas.

This is how Mr. Hamid Fahmy narrated the incident to a friend when Mr.Ilyas Ibrahim went on his first 'exile' to United Kingdom supposedly without the knowledge of the President.

At the time of writing some of the people who were framed are still under arrest.However the election was a success to the reform movement.About 15 young members were elected to the Citizens Majlis.The first round of arrests with the conspiracy of Binbi Force was after the election.Some of the arrested and sentenced are :Mr. Abdul Majeed Saleem Mr. Ibrahim Rasheed [Thalvaaruge ] Zakariyya Jameel Ibrahim Waheed Velanbuli Ali Fulhu Ahmed Khaleel Adam Ali [Lilac ].

The offenses of the above were said to be distributing /dumping anti-government letters. Not long after they were sentenced by the Police Court, the Government was forced to abolish the Police Court due to pressure from the new Majlis.

Amnesty International report, 1997
Another prisoner of conscience held under house arrest was Ilyas Ibrahim, President Gayoom's brother-in-law, who had sought to run as a presidential candidate in August 1993 and was subsequently charged with unconstitutional behaviour.

He fled the country, but was sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment in absentia. Amid reports of assurances from the authorities that he would not be detained, he returned in March and was placed under house arrest.

1993 Haveeru report:
Ilyas Ibrahim and Fanditha charges

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Abbas Ibrahim
Nasreena's brother

Director of National Centre of Linguistics and Historical Research
Owner - Aafathis newspaper

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Ibrahim Manik
Nasreena's brother-in-law

Minister of Information, Arts and Culture

'Only few guys outside Maldives can enjoy this forum time to come, Gayyoom will use his cultural minister [Ibrahim Manik] Samarey-in-law to censor or block this site thru Dhiraagu who is minting money from the public by holding onto monoply of telcommunication.

There won't be any free news media in the Maldives as long as Maumoon Abdul Gayyoom remains in power.

Did you hear the latest on Adduvas news? It's nearly banned if not for the kindness of Samarey against the law and constitution of Maldives.

The latest hot news on the cover pages was banned last month because Ali Hussain Novelty refused to print.

Adduvas says Ali Hussain said that, DO GUYS KNOW THAT I AM THE ONLY A NORMAL GUY WHO HOLD PRINTING PERMITS OTHER THAN MINISTERS. Therefore if I print that "Interview" I will face heavy panalty but if you get Samareys OK, than I can print.

Adduvas secretly revealed that they met Samarey ( Gayyom's in Law), the by Law appointed Cultural Minister, and shown to him the interview.

His reply was, according to the norms and constitution of the Maldives there is no problem, "BUT" don't print this article, you have many other stories to print, he is also known to me too. Just forget it!!!!!

Can we imagine what kind of reply is this. The law of the country allow it to be printed BUT......

So are we to believe there will be News freedom, human rights freedom in Maldives. The tight control set up will exist as long as Gayyoom remains in power. Let any of us try and get this interview so that we may print on this free electronic media which Gayyoom can not censor...

Dhivehi Forum posting, 8 Sep 2000

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