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| Police Chief Adam Zahir threatens MDP leader Mohamed Nasheed first published in Minivan News 29 April 2005
Maldives NSS police chief Adam Zahir has threatened the returning
Maldives Democratic Party leader Mohamed Nasheed (known as Anni) in a
communication to the Attorney General's office, according to a
statement this month published by a Gayyoom propaganda website.
Zahir apparently admitted the Attorney General Hassan Saeed had not responded to his complaints about Nasheed's actions overseas, but the police chief vowed he would prove to Anni that 'he cannot live anywhere in this world.' The hate-site article did not mention that the Attorney General has recommended the removal of Adam Zahir by Maumoon Gayyoom because the police chief, who acts solely on Gayyoom's orders, is the main obstacle to legal reform in Maldives. Gayyoom has also been pressured by foreign governments to remove Adam Zahir and Abdullah Hameed (Gayyoom's brother and Minister of Atolls) from their positions.
The lengthy Dhivehi article lists numerous allegations against Mohamed Nasheed and claims he paid $12,000 each month to a law firm called 'Bindmans' to kidnap Police Commissioner Adam Zahir and harass other Maldivians living in the UK. (Adam Zahir's wife lives in UK and the family owns property there. Mohamed Nasheed has said that Adam Zahir could be charged in British courts for his treatment of prisoners in Maldives jails.) The NSS police chief has informed the Maldives Attorney General's office of his feelings towards Anni, according to the article, and he claims that Nasheed defamed him in a document prepared for the UK House of Commons on 24 October. Police Chief and NSS Brigadier General Adam Zahir has been a close associate of President Maumoon Gayyoom throughout the dictator's 27 year rule, and a trusted controller of disinformation and the reign of torture and criminality which Gayyoom uses to maintain and finance his power in the capital and throughout the atolls. Mohamed Naheed's imminent return heralds the end of Gayyoom's claim to be the popular leader of Maldives and is a direct threat to the criminal activities of Adam Zahir and the president. Nasheed intends to establish Maldivian Democratic Party branches throughout the atolls in preparation for the next elections. Gayyoom has refused to register the party and pretends constitutional change is necessary before multi-party democracy can be considered. In fact, there are no Maldive laws or constitutional barriers to the MDP's existence, only Gayyoom's stubborn and self-serving intransigence. Mohamed Nasheed has challenged Maumoon Gayyoom many times in the past and refused lucrative offers to join Gayyoom's clique. As a result, for 15 years the MDP leader suffered constant imprisonment and harassment by the National Security Services (NSS). Nasheed has been charged over his writings, his published books have been seized and in 2002 he was stripped of his Majlis seat after ludicrous allegations of theft, during an auction at ex-president Ibrahim Nasir's demolished house, were upheld by the same person who has instigated the charges - Maumoon Gayyoom. In the Majlis, Mohamed Nasheed was one of the vocal supporters of multi-party systems and procedures ensuring ministers (all chosen personally by Gayyoom from among his family and trusted associates) be made accountable to the Majlis for their actions. If successful, these reforms would have resulted in the president's ministers being condemned in the Majlis for incompetence and corruption, and Gayyoom's illegal dictatorship would be officially exposed. After imprisonment, torture and exile from his family, Mohamed Nasheed was released in late August 2002. Within twelve months, despite unceasing NSS intimidation, the core of the future Maldivian Democratic Party had prepared a major statement of the party's objectives. In September 2003, Gayyoom ordered his NSS officers to fire automatic weapons at unarmed demonstrating prisoners on Maafushi island, killing some prisoners and wounding many others. The prisoners' demonstration was prompted by events the previous night at the jail when Evaan Naseem, a 19 year old prisoner was beaten to death and burned by a NSS squad under the direct command of the current Maldives Ambassador to India, Anbaree Abdul Sattar and Maumoon Gayyoom. Naseem's mother was ordered to ring the Department of Corrections and told to go to the hospital where NSS officers and nursing staff initially refused to allow her to see her son. After the doctor had completed his official examination he only showed the mother her son's face, and it was not until she forcefully pulled back the sheet that she discovered the injuries on Naseem's beaten and burned body. Soon afterwards, outrage and anger swept the Male' population when they learned of the shootings at Maafushi prison. Mobs burned and vandalised government buildings while the NSS were swept aside and beaten. Mohamed Nasheed took no part in this spontaneous riot. He was a surprised observer, like many others. Gayyoom's reaction to the September 2003 riot was threatening and ominous. While he promised NSS reforms, he also threatened the Maldive population and made it clear he exonerated himself from any responsibility for the NSS actions he had ordered at Maafushi, and that he would seek to scapegoat the democrats gathered around Mohamed Nasheed. Facing certain arrest, Nasheed moved to Sri Lanka with Mohamed Latheef and other dedicated reformists, establishing the Maldivian Democratic Party as a formal opposition party to the Gayyoom regime. The new party now has close ties with British and other European administrations and the Indian and Sri Lankan governments. Meanwhile back in Maldives, Gayyoom suppressed and censored commissioned reports into the September 2003 events and promoted his chief torturer, Adam Zahir, from the rank of Brigadier to Brigadier-General and re-instated him as head of the Maldives police. (Zahir had been transferred from NSS police chief to the ministry of information for several months in the aftermath of the September riot.) Currently, Gayyoom is resisting all attempts to remove Adam Zahir from his posts, despite copious evidence that Zahir is a sadistic torturer using the NSS as Gayyoom's private militia to protect the rackets linked to Zahir and Gayyoom and his family. In fact, this is exactly why Gayyoom wants Zahir to remain. Both Gayyoom and Zahir are making millions out of the current arrangement and they are also psychopaths who enjoy making people suffer. Zahir's threats to Nasheed are an example of the intimidation tactics Gayyoom commonly uses against anyone who challenges his rule. With Mohamed Nasheed back in the country, Gayyoom will have the double pleasure of the ability to harass and punish a critic and his mass of supporters with a single command to Adam Zahir. |
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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