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Torture
lies at the heart
Maldives Culture
special report
3 Feb 2004
The
Gayyoom regime is planning to transfer power to a triumvirate made up of two brothers
of the president, Abdulla Hameed and Abdulla Yameen, and the president’s brother-in-law,
Ilyas Ibrahim, according to reliable sources.
President Gayyoom and
his children’s families (all resident at the Theemuge palace) are fearful of the
consequences of a fall from power, and the Endherimaage-Kaamineege clique that
has controlled Maldives for the last 26 years is desperate to retain its financial
control and continues draining the government of vast funds.
Abdulla Hameed
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Abdulla Hameed is the Minister of Atolls Administration and Speaker of the Majlis. He
has directed the placement of many members of the Majlis, Atoll chiefs and other
lower level atoll administrators in Maldives. Majlis members vote on legislation
and chose the candidate for the presidential referendum. Atoll chiefs have the
same power once held by British Resident officials in India during the time of
the British Empire in the subcontinent. Maldives has never been under direct British
rule; it was a self-governing protectorate of the Empire from 1887 until 1965.
On
24 November 2003, after Maumoon Gayyoom became president for the sixth time, Hameed
led the Majlis members at an informal gathering in a song of praise for the president,
and Maumoon Gayyoom was presented with a plaque engraved with words praising 'the tremendous
development of Maldives over the last 25 years.' Nothing was said about 42% of
the population living in poverty, nor the millions of dollars spent on the president's
family.
Hameed is also the chairman of the Bank of Maldives. Many
questions surround the diversion of bank funds to finance the living expenses
of the president and his numerous siblings in Theemuge, and the issuing of unsecured
loans to favoured Maldivians.
Abdulla Yameen
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Abdulla Yameen, Minister of Trade and
Industry and chairman of the State Trading Organisation (STO), is almost thirty
years younger than his brother Maumoon Gayyoom. He was a student in Beirut from
1979 to 1983, and later he became the first Maldivian to gain a masters degree
in business administration in the USA.
On his return to Maldives,
Yameen joined the Ministry of Trade, rising through the ranks to become Director
General. Maumoon Gayyoom’s authorised biography says Yameen gained considerable
experience running the ministry when the Minister Ilyas Ibrahim was removed for
corruption and attempting to become president. Yameen became the new trade minister
when Ahmed Mujuthaba resigned from the post.
In addition to a scandal
reported by the Maldives media in January, involving the cashing of large fraudulent
cheques by a known associate of Yameen, there have been serious allegations about
the purchase of what was officially reported to be a ‘tea plantation’ by STO in
Sri Lanka last year.
An anonymous pdf file carrying the STO letterhead
and written in Dhivehi language circulated widely in Maldives as hardcopy a few
weeks ago, without any official reaction. The document alleges there is no operating
tea plantation, and only 325 acres of unplanted land was purchased. No details
were given about the price paid for the land, and it was alleged that no land
has been registered in STO’s name in Sri Lanka. Yameen is alleged to have received
hundreds of thousands of US dollars in commission fees for this deal.
Further, the document alleges that Yameen has used large sums from STO funds to
upgrade a privately-owned resort to five star status. Other private developments
are also alleged to have received substantial help from STO funds. Two STO employees
who criticised these loans have allegedly been dismissed on direct instructions
from Yameen.
Ilyas Ibrahim
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Ilyas Ibrahim, Minister of Transport and brother of the president’s wife Nasreena
Ibrahim, has a long history of alleged and proven criminal behaviour. As Gayyoom’s
Minister of Defence until the early 1990s, reliable sources say Ilyas entered
torture orders in the ‘adhabu foiy’, official punishment books, authorising people
to be handcuffed, put in stocks, hung on bars (called 'angallah aruvun' in Dhivehi),
chained etc. These punishment books also contained the authorising signatures
of NSS Deputy Commander-in-Chief (and Minister of State for Defence and National
Security) Anbaree Abdul Sattar, Isthafa Ibrahim Maniku and Adam Zahir (who Gayyoom
appointed as Commissioner of Police).
The severity of the punishment
depended on the level of authorisation. Minor torture was authorised by Adam Zahir
and Isthafa Ibrahim Maniku. Serious torture were authorised by Anbaree and Ilyas;
and the most serious torture, such as electrocution by low voltage, was always
ordered by Ilyas.
Ilyas went into temporary exile in the early 1990s
after robbing the Maldives government of millions of dollars, and Adam Zahir ordered
V. Lhahuththu to get the punishment books, which then amounted to five 400-page
notebooks and take them to Adam Zahir's home (Vavathee house in Malé). The fate
of these documents is unknown, but reliable sources claim that V. Lhahuththu and
Adam Zahir will be able to shed considerable light on that matter.
Ilyas was proud of his status as the country’s chief director of the state torture
program. Under the command and control of Maumoon Gayyoom, the same government-ordered
torture practices continued, though Gayyoom has been clever enough to authorise
such crimes in such a way he can deny responsibility when necessary. This has
occurred with the Maafushi Commission of Inquiry reports, but only after thorough
censorship and ruthless editing kept the President’s office busy for many weeks.
The intoxicating power a torturer experiences has thoroughly infected the mind
of the Maldives president. It is not the details of the torture that excite Maumoon
Gayyoom, but rather the letters he receives from the families and relatives begging
his forgiveness, pledging their loyalty and pleading for the release of the victims.
Reliable sources say Maumoon Gayyoom delights in displaying these letters to Anbaree
and other senior NSS commanders. For the president, these letters are proof that
torture works; that torture is necessary to control recalcitrant Maldivians and
an indispensable adjunct of effective government.
So the rapes, beatings
and burnings at Maafushi in the men and women’s prisons have been allowed and
encouraged to continue by the president. Junior NSS ranks have been deliberately
trained to enjoy torture as a sport and pleasurable release for their frustrations.
Even the censored version of the Commission of Inquiry reports said the death
of Hassan Evaan Naseem on 19 September at Maafushi occurred in an atmosphere of
euphoria among participating officers.
The NSS will need to be retrained
and transformed into a service that really does provide national security. If
this happens it will slowly regain the respect and admiration of the Maldivian
people. The Maldives needs an authentic and efficient National Security Service.
If Abdullah Hameed, Abdulla Yameen and Ilyas Ibrahim are allowed to form an unholy
alliance, torture will remain as the mainstay of Maldivian rule and everyday politics.
All these men have profited from, and enjoyed the power that torture brings them.
All three have used it in various ways to intimidate and cower any opposition
to their activities. Hameed used torture to tame the Majlis members and control
the atolls, Yameen used it to keep business partners in line, and Ilyas used torture
because it felt good.
Maldivians now have an opportunity to sweep
aside the ghastly practices crippling their development as a nation. Officially
condoned torture, and the long-term trauma it causes, lies at the heart of many
of the social problems afflicting Maldivian society. Victims are too ashamed to
speak of the crimes inflicted upon them. Families and relationships are ruined
by this unspoken shame. Specially trained counselors are needed in Maldives, and
a new government must be willing to use its power to ensure torture never returns
to blight the islands.
Under the proposed rule of Hameed, Yameen and
Ilyas torture will stay as a destructive and annihilating government tool in Maldives.
In the eyes of the Maldivian people, these men can make no justifiable claim for
leadership. They belong in jail, and their crimes should be exposed in public
trials. Only then can true healing begin.
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