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| Friends of Maldives
victims of Gayyoom plot first published in Minivan News 30 April 2005 Updated 6 May 2005
'Asif looked like a well-trained operative,' said an Indian intelligence officer quoted by newindiapress. 'Police never bothered to think twice that he probably would've been lying.' Interestingly, Asif's full identity is not being reported by Gayyoom's media. This usually occurs when the person is employed by the Maldives National Security Service, though evidence is emerging that Asif, like David Hardingham, may be the innocent victim of a Gayyoom conspiracy. A sudden flurry of 'intelligence inputs', with wild unconfirmed plots, is a vintage Gayyoom game, used whenever he is facing serious political problems in Male'. Similar plots emerged regularly in the 1980s, and bogus Maldives intelligence reports were used to justify the detention of Sandhaanu writer Mohamed Zaki and his son Mazeen in Malaysia in early 2002. Gayyoom constantly puts out intelligence and interpol warnings about his political enemies and overseas critics, and bribes foreign police if necessary. India is likely to experience more of these staged 'intelligence' dramas now the former Maldives head of intelligence, NSS general (rtd) Anbaree Abdul Sattar, is Gayyoom's ambassador to India. David Hardingham was first warned six weeks ago that Gayyoom was plotting in Trivandrum against the Maldivian Democratic party leader Mohamed Nasheed, and trying to link him and his foreign associates like David Hardingham to extremists. Friends of Maldives (FOM) was formed in 2003 by Hardingham after the brutal killings of several inmates in Maldive jails and because many of his friends had been subjected to torture and ill-treatment by the current regime. FOM was officially recognised by the Mayor of Salisbury UK in November 2004. Despite his attacks on Hardingham, the Maldives dictator is so impressed with the reputation of the FOM, he has attempted the steal the brandname. The dictator has authorised the registration in UK of his own Friends of the Maldives organisation to syphon off aid from unsuspecting foreign donors. More accurately described as Friends of the Dictatorship, this bogus aid organisation is headed by Toni de Laroque, a former guardian to the Gayyoom and Koli families' children when they were studying at great expense in UK. After false claims made in New Zealand following the tsunami disaster by Maldivians soliciting aid on behalf of the Maldive government, potential donors will be wary of any organisation connected to Gayyoom. Throughout 2004, Hardingham's FOM organised small peaceful demonstrations with placards and leaflets at tourism exhibitions and Maldivian government offices in London. After the December tsunami, the organisation worked in close co-operation with the Maldivians from the MDP, expanding into serious aid work that became an impressive example of the democratic party's administrative and personal skills, creating trusting relationships with foreigners and providing resources to Maldives despite Gayyoom's constant hostility. 'The vast majority of the people who work for FOM are Maldivians working in the Maldives distributing, sorting and checking the aid,' wrote Fathimath Shimla on 20 April in Minivan News. 'All FOM aid is also thoroughly checked in the UK before shipping to the Maldives and made sure it contains nothing that could offend Muslim sensibilities. Moreover, NSS officers also accompany every aid shipment to the atolls and have been helping to unload and distribute the aid.' The foreigners working with FOM, including their founder David Hardingham (a longterm friend of Mohamed Nasheed from the MDP), have made no secret of FOM's political sympathies, but they have been careful to keep their dealings with Gayyoom's regime as formal and correct as possible. Especially after the tsunami, according to Shimla, the FOM 'reoriented their activities away from political demonstrations and human rights work and focused purely on humanitarian assistance. What they have been able to achieve is considerable. FOM sent more aid to the Maldives than any other agency. Some 100 tons of aid including medical supplies, food, clothing, water and tools has already been sent.' Gayyoom has repaid their good services and polite respect with churlish hostility and lies. Miadhu newspaper based in Male' and edited by Gayyoom, his wife Nasreena and her close friend Ahmed Abdullah, accused FOM of being a secret Christian missionary organisation, prompting David Hardingham to threaten legal proceedings for deliberate misrepresentation. In a Minivan News report on 3 March 2005, David Hardinghan said: 'I have great respect for Islam. I�ve heard some very silly stories being spread by certain members of the government about FOM volunteers in Maldives handing out crosses and trying to bring pork and alcohol into the country - utter rubbish.' In April 2005, with Gayyoom facing the imminent return of popular opposition leader Mohamed Nasheed to Male', accusations came from the dictator's compliant chief justice Mohamed Rasheed Ibrahim (popularly known as Silly Rasheed) about aid agencies being secret Christian missionaries seeking to convert Maldivians with bribes. 'A Dhivehi translation of the bible, printed on good quality paper, has been brought into Maldives and distributed to a limited extent,' Rasheed informed his audience during his opening address at the national Koran reciting competition in Male' on 6 April. 'Because of this, we must be alert,' he warned. 'We should not be mesmerised by the aid they give.' Four days later on April 10, Gayyoom warned at his poorly attended annual National Day speech of a sinister plot from foreign Christians: 'Every Maldivian who loves the country must be extremely alert to the cunning conspiracies carried out in various guises to spread other than Islamic religion in Maldives. We are aware of this from the activities carried on inside and outside Maldives,' said the dictator. 'During my recent tour to Uthuru Kara (India), we learned from the newspapers of that country about a group of people who came out with placards and demanded a particular religion be permitted to establish in Maldives.' (Gayyoom is referring to a Trivandrum-based Christian group, with no link to the MDP, who protested peacefully in that city for religious tolerance in Maldives). 'This news was also published in Maldives newspapers,' said the dictator. 'Those who held those placards were not Maldivians. However, we understand something very serious from this. We understand clearly the intention of various people who oppose the government. In my view, this is something about which the people of this hundred percent Islamic country must be alert.' A few days later, the NSS proved how alert it was by seizing two container loads of aid from the FOM after discovering a Christmas story book sent by a British school girl. Complaints to Gayyoom from the British High Commission had the containers promptly released. At Colombo airport this Friday, Hardingham was prevented from continuing a booked flight to Male', when Gayyoom banned him on suspicion of his alleged links to the mysterious Ibrahim Asif. However, Hardingham was not arrested in Sri Lanka which shows the Sri Lankan authorities, like everyone else, do not believe Gayyoom's contradictory allegations. Gayyoom's attacks on David Hardingham and the FOM are part of the dictator's attempts to undermine the ever-growing support in Maldives for Mohamed Nasheed, the leader of the Maldivian Democratic party who returned yesterday to Male' after nearly two years overseas amid scenes of joy from thousands of well-wishers. |
Maldives Culture is an independent internet magazine of Maldive cultural issues.
Editors and translators: Michael O'Shea and Fareesha Abdulla, Australia
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