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Diplomats, Banks, Terrorism and Gayyoom's National Security Service by Michael O'Shea 21 October 2005 Leunig The Age The arrests and imprisonment of Mohamed Nasheed and Jennifer Latheef, two active members of the Maldivian Democratic party, have caused anger and sadness among the South Asian diplomatic community which has the unenviable task of dealing with the dictator Maumoon Gayyoom. The Maldives ruler's promises to them are being exposed as empty lies, and no doubt there will be the usual condemnations and displays of ambassadorial angst. Anger and frustration is rising among democrats in Maldives too, because the role of the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank in financing the oppression and terrorisation of the Maldives population remains a taboo topic, despite strong evidence that large parts of the loans from these banks are used to support Gayyoom's personal militia and political police, known collectively as the National Security Service (NSS). On Monday 17 October 2005 in the Maldives parliament (majlis), the elected member for Fua Mulak, Mohamed Ibrahim Didi, questioned the huge expenditure of government funds on the NSS. He said its role was 'defending just one person and his family'. At this point he was interrupted by one of Gayyoom's appointees to the parliament and the discussion swiftly moved to other matters. Understandably the NSS is a sensitive issue for Gayyoom, since his control of Maldives and ability to continue as President is reliant solely on NSS violence and intimidation, or more exactly, on NSS terrorisation of Maldives. The NSS has no legal or constitutional basis under Maldives law. It swears allegiance not to Maldives or the people of the country, but only to its commander-in-chief, the Maldives dictator Maumoon Gayyoom. The virtual silence about the NSS in the reports from international investigations of the Maldives regime cannot be justified. Take for example the reports available on the homepage of the Minivan News Internet edition. Only the 2005 Amnesty International document is honest about the militia's activities, and it makes shocking reading as it details arbitrary arrests and NSS torture and sexual assaults. The report by the US National Democratic Institute for International Affairs published by the UNDP in 2004 makes a very limited attempt to raise questions about the official separation of the militia and the police. The NSS is only mentioned in two paragraphs of this 63 page document. Other reports seem to deliberately avoid these important issues. Professor Paul Robinson's July 2004 analysis of the Maldives criminal justice system does not mention the NSS by name, preferring to use the term 'police'. At the time the report was written, there were no official police in Maldives, only NSS officers acting in a police role. Robinson's failure to address this fact is a serious flaw in his analysis of the reality of crime and justice in Maldives. The January 2005 report of 'Commonwealth Expert Team' into the Maldives parliamentary elections makes the misleading assertion that 'in September (2004) the police was designated as a civilian force that functioned separately from the National Security Service.' In fact, at the ceremony to mark the change of uniforms and attended by Gayyoom, the head of the NSS police section Major General Adam Zahir made it clear in his speech to the officers that no real change had occurred. There were now separate uniforms, but both police and army remain the NSS with the same command structure and Gayyoom at their head. The changes were only cosmetic, designed to fool gullible foreigners like the 'Commonwealth Expert Team'. Major generals Mohamed Zahir (head of military, brown uniform) and Adam Zahir (head of police, blue uniform) are both members of the National Security Service, President Maumoon Gayyoom's private militia It is clear that an illegal organisation, namely the NSS owned and commanded by Maumoon Gayyoom, is terrorising Maldivians to maintain a corrupt and intensely unpopular regime. If banks such as the World Bank and Asian Development Bank lend money to Gayyoom then they are arguably financing a terrorist organisation. This may not only be in contravention of the UN International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism, but also may be in breach US and UK anti-terrorism laws which deal specifically with such funding. top

Maldives - Police State A Report from Friends of Maldives Minivan News 21 October 2005 The culture of torture in the Maldives NSS: Victims tell their stories

Maldives Culture is an independent internet magazine of Maldive cultural issues.
Editors and translators: Michael O'Shea and Fareesha Abdulla, Australia
We invite contributions from Maldivians and others interested in Maldives.
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