:: Dhivehi Observer :: Peoples Press ::

TIANANMEN MALDIVES STYLE; MORE BLOOD ON GAYYOOM'S HANDS

By Mariyam Mohamed, Wednesday, 18th August 2004

Almost a year after shocking police brutality on inmates in a Maldives prison was exposed to the whole world, Maumoon Abdul Gayyoom's security forces are at it again.

The ageing dictator ordered a special task force of about 1,000 national security servicemen to arrest scores of reformists, including members of the constitutional council, prisoners of conscience, Islamists, lawyers, and ordinary men and women who have dared to speak out against the nepotism, corruption, and human rights abuses of Gayyoom's 27 years in office.

In this picture taken, 13 August 2004, M

Gayyoom NSS descends on peaceful protesters like mad rabid dogs while the protestors ran for their lives. Photo - STR/AFP/Getty Images

When these forces descended on unarmed demonstrators protesting in a square outside the national security services headquarters on Friday, they went on a mad rampage of unprecedented brutality in full view of the ordinary people.

Armed with teargas and truncheons, their first victims were boys aged 14-18.

Eyewitnesses claim groups of security forces chased after these young people and kicked, punched, and beat them up mercilessly with truncheons, screaming abuse the whole time.

Four eyewitnesses saw at least 24 separate incidents like this.

Cops beating a protestor to into submission on a rooftop in Male'

It is not known where these children were taken, but the eyewitnesses say they saw them being dragged towards the national security headquarters.

There are fears that security officers carried out many more similar atrocities but at this point eyewitnesses are reluctant to come forward with their stories.

Meanwhile under Gayyoom's orders, police have been arresting hundreds of reformists, including prominent figures such as national human rights commission member Husnu Al Suood, prominent businessman and member of the constitutional council Gasim Ibrahim, former attorney general Mohamed Munavvar and former planning minister and SAARC secretary general Ibrahim Hussein Zaki.

Mariyam Manike, the mother of Hassan Eevan Naseem, the inmate who was beaten to death by Gayyoom's police last September, is also reported to be under custody as well as as family members of the exiled Maldives Democratic Party spokesman Mohamed Latheef.

They are reported to have been held inside the national security headquarters in Male' for two nights before being transferred to Dhoonidhoo and other detention facilities.

According to sympathetic informants inside the national security headquarters, during these two nights, lights are switched off after midnight and the most bloodthirsty security officers were let lose on the detainees.

The informers claim that all the people arrested, including members of the constitutional council have been subjected to horrendous torture by police officers, which has resulted in fractured bones, broken backs, and cuts and bruises.

The government has denied all charges of torture and two cabinet ministers, who claim to have visited the detained members of the constitutional council, have said on national TV that were being treated well.

But many Maldivians are sceptical about news coming from sources within Gayyoom's government.

The police brutality last September which resulted in the deaths of 4 inmates and the shootings of 19 inmates resulted in a presidential inquiry, but its report was never fully disclosed to the public and not a single officer has yet been charged with homicide. Gayyoom denied knowledge of human rights abuses of Maldives prisons or giving orders to the police to shoot at the inmates, even though he is chief of all the armed forces.

In a particularly ill-advised move earlier this year, Gayyoom also publicly praised and promoted scores of police officers and defense ministry officials to show his support for their services to the country.

Gayyoom and his armed forces have replied to peoples voices with unprecedented brutality and gross human rights abuses, and the international community cannot stand by and watch the hopes of a small, peaceful nation being destroyed.

I call on the world media, the UN and the International Red Cross to send a team out to the Maldives at once, set up offices here, and visit every single one of the 185 detainees and independently verify all allegations of torture.

They must also remain in the country to ensure the immediate cessation of human rights abuses and to help secure fair trials for all the detainees.