:: Dhivehi Observer :: Peoples Press ::

Terrorising the People: The Secret to Gayyoom's Staying Power

By "Donim" - Saturday, 18th September 2004

Gayyoom is again denying that police brutality took place.

This is an outrageous lie, given that hundreds of people saw police chasing after unarmed civilians, many of them children, punching, kicking and hitting them with their truncheons.

During the mass arrests, police blindfolded and handcuffed men, women and children, took them to their headquarters, and dumped them on the floor, trampling on them as they went about their business.

For three nights, police switched off lights after midnight and kicked and beat the detainees for hours. Reports from inside NSS headquarters say that:

- police plucked Sheikh Fareed’s beard in handfuls and he was beaten until he passed out.

- they pulled off the headscarf of Mariyam Manike, the mother of Hassan Eevan Naseem who Gayyoom's police tortured to death an year ago to the day, fondled and hit her in the breast and crotch.

- Mohoj of the most prestigious Maldivian music band, Zero Degree Atoll, was tortured.

- Jennifer Latheef and others were fondled and beaten.

There are reports of similar treatment of other detainees, some of whom were so severely beaten that they are likely to end up permanently handicapped.

Most of the people detained are people who are fed up of Gayyoom's nepotism, injustice, and blatant human rights abuse, and wanted to peacefully demonstrate against the dictator.

Many of them, especially the children, just happened to be in the vicinity when Gayyoom unleashed his brute force.

Children were physically and sexually abused.

There are several ways these reports can be independently verified: doctor’s reports, interviewing the detainees and their families, and eyewitness accounts, among others.

But Gayyoom does not need verification, as he is fully aware of the torture that happened for three days following the arrests.

His ministerial team, for instance, visited, spoke with, and saw the tortured victims, and reported back to Gayyoom.

The national human rights commission, which Gayyoom set up to appease the international community, is aware of the torture and has made this known to the dictator.

By denying the atrocities, Gayyoom is demonstrating that he is part of it, as well as lying to the people, flouting international treaties, and exposing himself to the whole world as a desperate dictator trying to cling on to power by terrorising his own people.

The international community must not give this man any more time; instead they must continue to mount the pressure.

It was thanks to the EU concerns that Gayyoom ordered his police to stop the torture after the first three days.

The best foreign aid that Maldivians can have now is assistance in obtaining legal experts to fight for the detainees, and to initiate legal proceedings against Gayyoom in an international court of justice.