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Thaa Atoll, Tsunami Disaster Diary
DO Correspondent in Thaa Atoll, 02nd January 2004
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On the 26th of December, Tsunamis struck the
Maldives and Thaa atoll was one of the worst hit areas. Here are some
unimaginable sad and greedy events that occurred after the Tsunamis
26th December:
**all Villifushi residents were moved to Guraidhoo , the home island of Abdullah
Hameed's lover Hussein Manik Dhon Manik, MP of Thaa Atoll.
**Thaa Atoll had no communication at all, there was only one satellite phone in
the whole atoll which was in Fonaddoo, the third zone fisheries island. When
fonaddoo manager went with the satellite phone to Guraidhoo at the request of
the taskforce in the afternoon, the Atoll Chief, the very own BROTHER of Hussein
Manik Dhon Manik, not only took the satellite phone, but he also turned it off
making even Fonaddoo, the only island with any communication at all,
unreachable! The Atoll chief said this was to save battery in case something
else happened. Thaa Atoll had no communication at all for 16 hours because of
this stupid action by the Atoll Chief.
**Ellaidhoo Manik sends Ocean 10 to rescue Abdullah Jameel's family and any sick
people who needed urgent medical attention. Ocean 10 picked up 93 Thaa Atoll
people from various islands and took off to Male'. On TV later on, Hussein Manik
Dhon Manik boasted that he sent many sick people from Thaa Atoll to Male' on his
own boat! Also at the same time Sanco Shareef, another candidate for the Thaa
Atoll Majlis seat in the upcoming elections was boasting within the atoll that
he had arranged Ocean 10 to be sent to pick up sick people from Thaa atoll!
**When Villifushi was completely flooded, the son of Mohamed Zahir who is the
kuda katheeb of Villifushi started looting houses there and even took 400,000
MRF from one fisherman's house. An eyewitness said that he even saw "badi" (the
nickname of Mohamed Zahir's son) grabbing a bag that was floating in the floods
and opened it with a razor blade and took the cash and jewellery in the bag. The
people of Villifushi are quite well off compared to other islands in the
Maldives as there are a lot of fishermen in the island. However, sadly they do
not deposit money at the bank and keep it in their houses such as under the
mattress or in the cupboard or even in a travel bag. Sadly, when the islanders
ran after "Badi", Mohamed Zahir said he will be handed over to the police but
transported him to Veymandoo and
gave him asylum! All the Villufushi residents were in Guraidhoo and couldn't
even touch him. The case was called off and buried in Veymandoo by the Atoll
Chief, brother in law of Abdulla Hameed.
**At 6pm the Coast Guard arrived at Veymandoo, it later went to check Guraidhoo
to check the health of Hussein Manik Dhon Manik on the orders of Abdulla Hameed.
It later came back to Veymandoo where they were moored between Veymandoo and
Kanimeedhoo and stayed there for 16 hrs and left to Male', they didn't check the
status of any other island at all! Many islanders believed that it only came to
make sure that Hussain Manik Dhon Manik was ok.
27th December:
** Hussein Manik Dhon Manik's Sister who has a Cafeteria (Sai Hotaa) in
Guraidhoo, tripled the prices of food there (normal black tea was for 2 MRF
which was available for 50 laaris before and an apple was sold for 15 MRF) and
made the cafeteria open 24 hrs! Business was booming!!!! After all, the
population of the island had more than doubled since over 1800 people came from
Villifushi and there were only about 1700 in Guraidhoo before the crisis.
28th December
**04:30am –. A Villifushi resident was severely sick and needed urgent medical
attention. However, none of the dhonis had enough oil but it was available at
the island shop of Guraidhoo. The island katheeb could have easily arranged the
transportation to Veymandoo where the medical centre is located by opening the
oil shop. However, the island katheeb refused to give the oil saying that only
the Atoll Chief could arrange it. There was no time to and no communication and
the islanders turned towards Hussein Manik Dhon Manik for oil, his response was
that he cannot over ride the island katheeb! Insane! Hussein Manik Dhon Manik is
one of the most powerful men in Maldives loves him to death and will make sure
that he gets everything he needs. If Hussain Manik Dhon Manik can't authorise
something neither can Maumoon.
**6 am: Over 2,500 toothbrush and 650 toothpastes were donated to the islanders
of Guraidhoo and Villifushi by kind traders from Male. However, islanders could
only get them if and only if their ID cards were shown which were unfortunately
washed away with the Tsunamis!
** 7am: Villifushi residents were denied permission to go back to Villifushi by
Saimbe, the bodu katheeb of Villifushi and his family members backed him which
included a Mr Habeeb. All Villifushi islanders were cramped into small rooms in
Guraidhoo though there were many empty houses in Veymandoo. In one house, 30
people were in one room. The ground floor of Hussein Manik Dhon Manik's house
was given to Villifushi Katheeb who was also a relative of his. Hussein Manik
Dhon Manik stayed on the 1st floor and the 2nd floor was reserved exclusively
and no one was allowed up there, perhaps for Abdullah Hameed. No one from
Villifushi was allowed to go to Veymandoo because "badi" was there, the
Villifushi island chief's son.
** 10:30am: Villifushi residents given permission since of riots
**12:30 arrived in Villifushi
**15:00 ordered to evacuate Villifhis once again to the order Hussein Manik dhon
Manik
29th December
**6am: Fonnaddoo gave around 150 tonnes of fish to all of the population of Thaa
Atoll during the past 24 hours and Hussein Manik Dhon Manik boasted that he
bought with his own money which is not true at all!
**Eyewitness also heard that Hussein manik dhon manik said that there was no
more use of keeping Villifushi people in Guraidhoo as the elections has been
delayed. Apparently he said it for a joke, but how funny it was to the people at
this time of devastation and grief.
**Report on TVM said that Guraidhoo had 50 houses destroyed BUT NONE WERE
destroyed, Hussein Manik Dhon Manik planned to get aid for the island to further
decorate one of the most heavily decorated islands in the Maldives. He even
ordered to bring a fallen piece of wall from Villifushi to Guraidhoo so that he
could take pictures and send it to Male.
**In Veymandoo, one doctor and 4 nurses came from the Health Ministry in Male.
Madifushi had many sick people but they only went to take pictures of Vilifushi
and came back, no one was treated!
30th December
**Many islands had reported lootings but sadly none of these cases could be
checked because the NSS official there, Mr Shameem is having an affair with a
Guraidhoo girl and is not leaving Guraidhoo at all.
**In Guraidhoo again, the taskforce in Male had sent 350 cases of Mineral water,
of which 150 were distributed. The island chief ordered everyone to return empty
bottles and filled it with desalination plant water from Fonaddoo and
distributed water again. However, the new unopened 200 cases of mineral water
was never distributed and was locked in a private warehouse and is now sold in
Hussain Manik Dhon Manik's sisters cafeteria.
Dear President, we salute you for your leadership! The people of Thaa Atoll.
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