Murderous NSS rampage at Maafushi jail, prisoner tells
from
a Maafushi prisoner
2 Oct 2003
translated by Maldives Culture
Photos
of injuries to the body of Hassan Evan Naseem, and casualties after the shootings
the following day (below)
This
Maafushi prisoner's account of the death of Hassan Evan Naseem on the night
before the mass shooting of prisoners that followed on Saturday 20 September,
contradicts the version of events being given by Maumoon Gayyoom, the President
of Maldives and Commander of the National Security Service.
If this
prisoner's account is true, the President lied in his speech to the nation on
the night of the rioting in Male', when he said the two incidents at the
prison were separate. These incidents were very closely related, according to
the prisoner.
The President accused the prisoners of attacking the
armoury and forcing the NSS to resort to gunfire. But the prisoner says the order
to arm the NSS guards must have been given before the disturbance began, and the
prisoner believes his fellow inmates could have been controlled if the NSS had
not opened fire.
Later sections from the prisoner's account, not translated
here, reveal details of the beatings and torture of prisoners that followed the
gunfire, even as the dead and wounded were lying on the sand. After shooting many
rounds directly into prisoners, NSS officers handcuffed, beat and tortured any
prisoner they could find. Faseeh, the inmate leader, had his fingers chopped off
by the NSS. According to the prisoner,
torture and beatings continued long after the initial shootings.
The
claim made in earlier reports published by this website about the shootings and
the riots, claiming the riot in Male' inspired the prisoners at Maafushi
to attack their guards, appears to be incorrect. Based on the revelations of this
prisoner, it is highly likely news of the shootings at Maafushi just after midday,
and the beatings and torture of prisoners during the following hours, was filtering
back to Male' before the riots began and helped provoke the disturbances
that swept the capital.
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Maafushi prisoner's
account of events surrounding Evan Naseem's death
I
was in jail that day during the incidents at the prison in September and I watched
everything that happened with my own eyes.
In the beginning (Friday),
some prisoners left their cell block and went to another block, to settle a dispute
with someone. They beat up another young prisoner, and then came back to their
registered block. At this time, Dhawlah Fafa (a NSS officer) and a force of NSS
arrived at the scene, and they called the prisoners out of the block just as they
were climbing back in (over a low wall). The prisoners ignored the NSS officers,
and Dhawlah Fafa and his men tried to open the cell block door. From inside, Hassan
Evan Naseem yelled out to them that the door was locked and couldn't be opened.
According to the rules, the cell block can be only opened by a Corrections warden.
After hearing this, Dhawlah Fafa and the NSS force went away quietly. Maybe they
obtained a Corrections department permit, but they returned with a Corrections
warden at night. After opening the cell block, they began to read out a list of
names, and called about 15 people outside. Hassan Evan's name was last on the
list, and when he heard his name, he asked why he was being taken outside.
'What is my offence?' he wanted to know. Their reply was that his name was on
the list and they said when he left the cell block he would find out what he had
done.
Repeatedly, Evan said that he wouldn't go outside and he told the
NSS they couldn't take him.
Two NSS officers moved into the block
and Evan told them not to touch him. He said he would hit back if they tried.
One of the officers grabbed Evan, and Evan hit him three times.
When they saw this, the NSS force of about 70 officers suddenly poured into the
cell block, seized Evan and took him outside. The police used a video camera
for a short time to record this.
There is a check-point a short distance
away from the cell block. It is where prisoners arriving from Male' are processed.
Right in front of us, the NSS force took Evan in there and they must have shackled
him. We heard the sound of metal restrainers being put on. Then they began to
beat him. Evan was just the first prisoner they beat that night.
We heard Evan crying out with pain, 'Mother! Father!' he kept on calling out
loudly. Then there was no sound. The NSS took Evan out and brought other prisoners
in, and chained them together in a line.
Evan wasn't tied into this
line. The NSS officers took Evan to a coconut palm near the new workshop being
built by the Corrections department. Part of the workshop is a big sheltered hall.
Next to the hall there is a structure made of iron bars.
The NSS officers
handcuffed Evan's hands together above his head and wrapped a tarpaulin around
his body. They lifted him up with a pulley so his feet just touched the ground.
He was beaten and when he stopped making any sound, they threw water over him
and resumed beating him again. They kept beating him with a measuring rod and
police batons for a long time after he stopped making any sound.
The
Corrections warden said Evan was faking and being tricky, so they put fire on
various parts of Evan's exposed arms as they continued beating him. They also
broke a chair against his head. Evan was probably already dead by this time.
While the NSS were killing Evan, the other prisoners whose names had been called
were being tortured and beaten. The NSS took Evan's body away and I don't know
who took him to Male', but there would have been people from the Corrections department
and some NSS officers aboard the boat.
Next morning (Saturday), a
secret phone call informed us that Evan had died. Prisoners in the Warehouse
cell block were sad and subdued when they heard the news, but at first they remained
silent. Slowly, prisoners' emotions began to boil and they wanted to find out
what had happened to the others taken out of the cell block with Evan. They
wanted to know where they were, if they were ok, and whether they were still alive.
The prisoners remained calm and there was no discussion or planning among them.
They stayed quietly in their cells.
At noon, the prisoners refused
to leave their cell blocks for lunch, but they were ready for the midday prayer.
With loud voices they said the funeral prayer for Evan, so the duty officers
would hear their words and understand who they were praying for. The NSS officers
realised the prisoners knew of Evan's death.
After the funeral prayer,
the prisoners left the praying area and pushed over a small shed made of corrugated
iron near the duty officers' tent. Prisoners from all the other cell blocks, including
those kept in small single cells, came outside as the news spread and the crowd
of prisoners grew.
The police were waiting for them, equipped with
new plastic riot shields and batons. There were buildings nearby that the police
use for eating and sleeping, and the police began retreating slowly towards that
area. Some of the prisoners broke the glass windows of these NSS buildings, and
the windows of a van and pickup truck.
An old experienced NSS officer
was there with Fusfaru, the Officer Commanding (OC) the prison. The old officer
was standing just in front of Fusfaru and he turned to the prisoners, put his
hands in the air and told them all to calm down.
He told the prisoners
to wait and talk, he said things can only be settled by talking. Some prisoners
did stop and calm down, but there were too many prisoners and it was difficult
to stop this mob that quickly. The NSS became frightened. Then the prisoners noticed
two NSS officers, Appa and Aalim, standing behind Fusfaru.
Appa fired
the first shot, a single round up into the air. The second shot was fired directly
at the prisoners. I don't know whether it was Aalim or Appa who fired directly
at prisoner Faseeh. Two prisoners fell down, Faseeh and Clinton, and they both
fell right in front of the NSS building on either side of the entrance door.
All the other prisoners turned back and began to run and the NSS began to fire
into their backs, and kept on firing. There was at least one spray of automatic
fire. At that stage, prisoners were running for their lives. I did not look back.
When the first shot went off, the prisoners thought it was only rubber bullets,
but when they saw Faseeh hit in the leg and Clinton hit in the head and they saw
blood, they realised the NSS was using real bullets. There was no plan by the
prisoners to attack NSS officers and Corrections wardens. It wasn't a dispute
with the Corrections people, it was a problem between the NSS and the prisoners,
caused by the killing of Evan.
Regarding the claims that prisoners
attacked the armoury, the prisoners were not even aware the armoury existed! Anyone
examining the scene of these events will agree, after seeing where the bodies
fell, and where the prisoners had been, that the armoury was not the reason why
prisoners were shot at by the NSS. The NSS armed themselves with guns, long before
the prisoners began protesting.
Between them, Fusfaru the prison chief,
and Faseeh the inmates' leader, could have controlled the prisoners. Faseeh wanted
to talk to the NSS but before that could happen, Appa fired the gun into the air.
In the shooting, some people were hit and they fell. Prisoners face down on the
ground, calling out their surrender, were shot where they lay. Some prisoners
were shot again by the NSS, even after they were already wounded...
Photos of the tortured body of Hassan Evan Naseem,
September 2003
Taken in Male' after his family and their
supporters prevented his secret burial, the injuries on the body are consistent
with the prisoner's account of Evan's torture by NSS officers at Maafushi prison.
NSS treats wounded after the
Maafushi shootings, September 2003
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Torture in Maldives 
