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Maldives election a farce while Gayyoom and his ministers use NSS against opposition leaders

by DO International Editor Michael O'Shea - 19 November 2004

The People's Majlis elections due on December 31 are being vigorously fought by Gayyoom's unofficial Male' Baathist party. Government coffers and the stores of the State Trading Organisation controlled by Gayyoom's brother the Minister of Trade Yameen Gayyoom, are open to the dictator's favoured candidates and they are using these goods, and other bribes and promises of investment, to convince island voters to elect them to the Majlis.

Gayyoom's party is acting as if the election is free and fair, and the Commonwealth observer team due in Maldives to oversee the election may also pretend that democracy is improving in Maldives.

In fact, there can be no free elections in Maldives while Gayyoom has the opposition leaders in prison or under strict house arrest after two or three months of torture and solitary confinement in jails in Male' and Dhoonidhoo.

This election activity is a facade designed to legitimise the Maldives dictatorship and the millions of dollars that have been invested and granted by aid agencies and foreign bankers, such as the World Bank and Asian Development Bank, to Maumoon Gayyoom during his long and brutal rule.

The election is also designed to justify the close links that the Indian and US military establishments have with Gayyoom and his National Security Service (NSS). Many Maldivians are unaware of the secret pact Gayyoom made with the Indians after the attack by Sri Lankan Tamil mercenaries in 1988. This pact effectively placed the NSS under the control of India. Both India and USA have been closely involved in the training of the NSS, and Gayyoom's torture techniques often use elements of this training to abuse and kill prisoners.

US bombers at Diego Garcia base

US military aircraft also fly through Maldives-controlled air space on bombing missions to the Middle East from the huge US base 400 km south of Maldives at Diego Garcia in the British Indian Ocean Territories (BIOT).

Gayyoom has timed the People's Majlis election for 31 December to ensure minimal foreign interest and reaction. Most western diplomats and journalists will be on holiday leave at this time, and alcohol users will be drunk or suffering from hangovers.

Many of Gayyoom's ministers have been appointed, not elected, and have automatic seats in the Majlis. They are now seeking election in the atolls to counter international criticism that they are Gayyoom puppets. The dictator has made the ministers' task easier for them by illegally supplying government funds and allowing them to campaign before the permitted time.

Most importantly though, since August this year Gayyoom has imprisoned and tortured all the prominent potential opposition candidates, e.g. Dr Munavvar, Gasim Ibrahim and Ibrahim Ismail.

The ministers in Gayyoom's regime, including the attorney general Dr Hassan Saeed, were closely involved in the beatings and torture of these opposition members and hundreds of other reformists which began on Friday 13 August.

On that day, almost all the government ministers were at NSS headquarters in Male' when the arrests and beatings began in the afternoon. NSS commander-in-chief Maumoon Gayyoom absented himself, and Foreign Minister Fathullah Jameel who has no ranking in the NSS, assumed command. Some ministers, who did not want to witness the proceedings, were sent into an adjoining room by Fathullah Jameel. But they could still hear clearly what was happening and fully supported the NSS actions.

Fathullah Jameel and SAARC representatives
July 2004

As the arrested people were dragged in blindfolded, Jameel and the head of NSS police section Brigadier General Adam Zahir began to abuse them.
'Goru boi (suck piss), you lot!' shouted South Asia's longest serving Foreign Minister Fathullah Jameel. 'What is your Allah doing to save you now?'
Then Police Chief Adam Zahir, who is well known for his incontinence in the presence of shackled prisoners, removed his penis from his trousers and sprayed urine over the crouching detainees. Meanwhile, the blindfolded people were beaten by NSS officers holding truncheons and metal pipes. Cabinet ministers present in the room laughed and cheered as the NSS pummelled the prisoners. Fathullah Jameel continued shouting about the incompetence of Allah and how only stupid people placed their trust in God. The Foreign Minister's blasphemy disturbed a NSS corporal who gently reprimanded him. The corporal was later placed under detention. Ibrahim Ismail, crippled by polio as a youngster, was hit on the head with a truncheon and suffered a stroke after a blood clot developed.

Gayyoom had given orders to the NSS that Dr Munavvar was to be killed, along with preacher Ibrahim Fareed and reformist Abdul Rasheed from Kulhuduffushi island. Munavvar, as the ex-attorney general, has detailed knowledge of Gayyoom's crimes. Fareed had been telling the public that democracy and multi-party politics were not forbidden by Islam. At reform meetings in Male', Abdul Rasheed had held up a sign demanding Gayyoom's resignation.

International pressure saved these men from death but they were beaten and tortured anyway, along with hundreds of others. Fareed was singled out for vicious attacks. He was kicked constantly by a circle of NSS officers and later subjected to electric shock torture.

Gayyoom has planned to imprison all the important reformers for life. The new attorney general Dr Hassan Saeed has vowed publicly to ensure that Gayyoom's orders are fulfilled.

It is impossible to hold free and fair elections under these circumstances.