SAARC Countries must intervene to restore democracy, peace and stability in Maldives

Events unfolding in Maldives clearly reveals that the former President Mohamed Nasheed was forced to resign at gun point and it is high time the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) and Sri Lanka as the neighboring country, have to intervene immediately and restore democracy, normalcy, peace and stability.

According to reports former President Nasheed was pushed from power by the armed forces. “I was forced to resign with guns all around me. They told me, if I don’t resign, they won’t hesitate to use arms,” he has said.

Yesterday, Sri Lanka Government described the police, protest, the resignation of the President of the Maldives Mohamed Nasheed and the swearing in of its Vice-President, Dr. Mohamed Waheed as internal matters of Maldives

In its concluding para Sri Lanka also said, “As the closest neighbor, Sri Lanka enjoys a cordial relationship with the government and people of the Maldives, and wishes to assure its fullest support and co-operation to the Government of the Maldives in its efforts to bring peace and stability to the country and prosperity to the Maldivian people.”

Now that former President of Maldives have clearly said that he was forced to resign and according to latest reports the present President , Dr. Mohamed Waheed would be just a puppet and a figure head remote controlled by the rogue elements of police and army.

Hassan, who had promised to protect Nasheed from retribution, said his predecessor was not under any restriction and was free to leave the country. However, he said he would not interfere with any police or court action against Nasheed.

Reports revealed that supporters of the Maldives former president rioted through the streets of the capital and seized some remote police stations on Wednesday to demand his reinstatement, as the country’s new leader appealed for an end to the political turmoil broiling this Indian Ocean island nation.

Reports further revealed that former leader Mohamed Nasheed and other top party officials were beaten by police in the street chaos.

Speaking to about 2,000 wildly cheering members of his Maldivian Democratic Party in the capital, Male, Nasheed called for Hassan’s immediate resignation and demanded the nation’s top judge investigate those he said were responsible for his ouster.

Nasheed then led an anti-government demonstration. Police responded by firing tear gas.

“If the police are going to confront us we are going to face them,” Nasheed told the rally. “We have to overcome our fear and we have to get strength.”

Information emerging from Male reveals that Police are all out to punish Nasheed and with the intention of implicating and coming up with the concocted story of the discovery of nearly 100 bottles of alcohol inside a truck removing garbage Tuesday from the presidential residence as Nasheed prepared to relinquish power.

Consuming alcohol outside tourist resorts is a crime. If charged and convicted of possession of alcohol, Nasheed could be sent to jail for three years, banished to a distant island, placed under house arrest or fined.

As confrontation between the democratic forces led by former President Nasheed and the rouge elements in Police and army has begun in earnest, it is time a SAARC delegation to be flown immediately to Male to explore the ground situation and bring about peace and harmony in the island nation and advance the date of the Presidential election and place the country with a democratically elected leader at the helm of the administration.

US State Department Daily Briefing 08 February 2012 – Questions raised about the situation in Maldives

Question: Maldives. Yesterday, you discussed the situation there and appeared to sort of accept the story that the president stood aside and the vice president is taking over and that they’re going to have a government involving the opposition ahead of elections. But now, the former president Nasheed is saying that he was forced out at gunpoint and that it’s making it sound as though it’s essentially a military coup there. I’m wondering if you have any further information on communications with them, what your assessment is of the situation.

Ms. Nuland: Well, we’ve obviously seen the statement from President Nasheed. As I said to you yesterday, Assistant Secretary Blake was in contact with President Waheed. His view of events obviously differs. I think the thing that is concerning today, Andy, is whereas we had calm on the streets yesterday, we have had some less than peaceful incidents in the Maldives. So that is concerning, and we are urging the government and the political parties to work together to resolve the situation peacefully, and we’re continuing to monitor the situation.

As I mentioned yesterday, some of our folks from our Embassy in Colombo are on their way down. And today, Assistant Secretary Blake has decided that he will add a stop in Male, the capital of the Maldives, to his upcoming trip to the region. He’ll be there on Saturday, February 11th, en route also to Sri Lanka and Bangladesh as planned.

Question: Are you going to withhold – I mean, are you taking any position on the suggestions that it might have been a military coup? Are you going to investigate that? Is Blake going to check that out? Or do you think that that’s not a sort of a reasonable suggestion here?

Ms. Nuland: Well, obviously we are talking to all parties. That’s why we’re sending our folks down, but that is not the information that we have at the moment. But Assistant Secretary Blake will have a chance to be there and talk to everybody on Saturday. But in the interim, we are urging calm, we are urging dialogue, we are urging the – President Waheed, as you know, has committed to forming a national unity government, and we think that will also be an important signal to political factions across the Maldives.

Question: So he’ll be speaking to Nasheed and Waheed?

Ms. Nuland: I can’t speak to exactly what meetings he’ll have. He literally has just started to put the schedule for that stop together.

Question: Well, does that mean that a determination on whether it was an unconstitutional change in power is going to wait until after Blake’s visit?

Ms. Nuland: Well, our view as of yesterday – and I don’t think that that has changed – obviously, we’ll collect more information going forward – was that this was handled constitutionally.

- Asian Tribune -

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