Maldives Maldives   

In November 2003, Nirj Deva supported a campaign by the Ministry for Health to raise awareness of autism across the islands.

In 1997, he met with representatives from the Maldives at the World Travel Fair where he supported the Maldives for a farsighted policy in tourism which he said had been “carried out with panache and style for 25 years”.

In 2004 Nirj Deva led the efforts of the European Parliament to secure the release of the former Maldivian Minister Mohammed Ibrahim Zaki and other senior politicians who had been arrested and condemned to death. Deva called an urgent Press Conference in Colombo drawing worldwide attention to the human rights situation and plight of political prisoners in the Maldives. Following a near-unanimous resolution of the Parliament they were released, and Nirj Deva has since worked to develop good relations between the European Union and the Government of the Maldives and the Special Majlis.
 

Questions to the European Commission

Tsunami aid shortfall for the Republic of the Maldives - "Although it is impossible to put a precise monetary value on the damage caused in any of the countries hit by the Tsunami; the World Bank, Asian Development Bank and the UN (in a joint needs assessment published in February 2005) put the figure required to reconstruct public assets and restore lost government revenue in the Maldives at USD 364 million. The Government of the Maldives later estimated its total needs at USD 374.9 million. So far the Government of the Maldives has received pledges totalling approximately USD 262 million, meaning there is a Tsunami funding shortfall in the country of USD 113 million. This is a shortfall that the Maldives can ill-afford given the pressing recovery needs of its population, economic problems (e.g. related to reduced tourist numbers) stemming from the Tsunami and the country’s growing budget deficit. Is the Commission aware of the magnitude of this shortfall and of the impact that it is likely to have on the Maldives? What can the EU do to help bridge the shortfall? What role can the EU play in encouraging others in the international community to help reduce the shortfall?"

Political Parties in the Maldives - "At the beginning of June 2005, the Maldives legislature, the People’s Majlis, voted unanimously to endorse a government proposal to introduce a multi-party system in the Maldives. The decision, which forms part of the government’s constitutional reform agenda, is a historic one for the Maldives and will, for the first time, allow for the creation of a fully democratic multiparty system in the country. Is the Commission aware of these developments and would it comment on their significance? What is the process for implementing the decision to the People’s Majlis and what progress has been made so far? What can the EU do to assist in advancing the democratic reform process in the Maldives? Is the EU Commission planning to open any office or mission in Male which will enable the Commission to follow this process more closely?"
 

Deva Cautiously Welcomes "Significant" Development in Maldives
22nd October 2005

Nirj Deva, Member of the European Parliament for South East England and Conservative Spokesman for International Development has today (Thursday) welcomed the transfer of the former Maldivian Government Minister Mohammed Ibrahim Zaki from a six foot by nine foot prison cell to house arrest.

Deva, having launched, for the first time item in living memory, a campaign to bring about multi party democracy in the Maldives has now cautiously welcomed developments in the past week where President Gayoom and his regime have released several political prisoners, notably the former Government Minister Mohammed Ibrahim Zaki and confirmed their intentions to reconvened the Special Majlis (Parliament) designed to amend the Constitution.

Zaki, who was arrested for speaking out against the twenty-five yearlong dictatorship of President Abdul Maumoon Gayoom, had been held in prison since August 13th.

Following his arrest, Deva called an urgent Press Conference in Colombo drawing worldwide attention to the human rights situation and plight of political prisoners such as Zaki in the Maldives.

In October, the moderate Muslim was nominated for the coveted Sakharov Prize.

Speaking from the European Parliament in Brussels where the Parliament recently passed a resolution calling for a travel ban to be placed on the archipelago and demanding the withdrawal of European Union funding for Government projects, Deva said:

“I cautiously welcome the fact that President Gayoom has taken this significant step in the right direction.

“Despite the fact Zaki has now been transferred from a prison cell to house arrest, where he will be able to receive the medical treatment he so urgently needs, hundreds of other Maldivians still languish in a perpetual state of incarceration and multi party democracy is denied to the 330,000 residents of the country.

“If President Gayoom wishes to have the assistance of the European Union in setting up computer systems and voter registration programmes to prepare for elections, the European Parliament would be more than happy to help”.

Notes to Editors

The Commonwealth Secretary General, Don McKinnion is due to visit the Maldives on October 26th to discuss the reform process in the archipelago.

Moderate Muslim Nominated for Sakharov Prize
23rd September 2005

Ibrahim Hussain Zaki, a former Government Minister and Chairman of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation has been nominated by Members of the European Parliament for the coveted Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought.

The $15,000 prize, which was launched in 1988 and named after the Russian Soviet dissenter Andrei Sakharov, is designed to reward those who have made landmark contributions towards the struggle for human rights and democracy.

The nomination of Ibrahim Hussain Zaki for this prestigious award follows on the back of the near-unanimous* passing of a Resolution by the European Parliament condemning the actions of the Gayoom regime which has denied Maldivians basic human rights for the past twenty five years.

Past winners of the coveted prize include United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, former South African President Nelson Mandela and Burmese democracy campaigner Aung San Suu Kyi.

Commenting upon the fact that in excess of twenty-five Members of the European Parliament have nominated Zaki for the honour, the spokesman for the MEPs said:

“I am delighted that Ibrahim Hussain Zaki, a moderate Muslim and leading proponent of democracy has won the nomination of so many Members of the European Parliament.

“His life philosophy is diplomacy, non-violence and progressive democratic reform with an emphasis upon basic human rights, good governance and the rule of law.

“His values are, at this moment, utterly incompatible with the vicious regime in power in the Maldives who have forced him into a 5 x 9 foot cell without any access to legal or medical advice and minimal contact with his close family members.

“Each of the fifty-two years of Zaki’s life have been dedicated to public service and the fight for democratic reform, entering the Foreign Ministry at the lowest possible level only to rise to the position of Foreign Secretary.”

Zaki’s close involvement with the Democratic Movement came following the President’s commitment to democratic reform and following riots and reports of the beating of prisoners on purely political grounds.  Following his election to the ‘Special Majlis’ (Parliament), designed to amend the President’s outwardly pro-democracy Constitution, Zaki associated himself with the opposition and joined many members in a mass walkout of the Parliament in July in protest at the failure of the Government to incorporate pro-democracy amendments.

Three weeks alter the leaders of the pro-democracy party were all arrested.

Notes to Editors

o       *The vote passed with 170 in favour, 0 against and 7 abstentions.

o       In 1992, Zaki became the Secretary General of SAARC (the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation), serving the full 2 year term with distinction and gaining a wide international reputation for honesty, tolerance, regional co-operation and civil rights support.

o       Zaki served as Minister for Tourism between 1995 and 1998, when he put in place the foundations of the successful Maldives tourist expansion.

o       1998 to 2003, he was Minister for Planning, from which position he launched the first Maldives human development plan with the UNDP, and the first Maldives strategic economic plan aimed at diversification of the tourism and tuna dependant trade and economic investment base.

o       In 2003, he refused new posts within the Government both on personal grounds and in the belief that he could make a more effective contribution to democratic reforms as a moderate former Minister than as a member of the Government of the day.

Fair Travel: EU To Block Aid To Paradise Island Dictatorship
 14th September 2004

Calling for the immediate release of political prisoners in the Maldive Islands, the most powerful Members of the European Parliament, representing all political groups, and 455 million people from 25 Member States, made clear that it is "totally unacceptable" for the EU to continue aid of millions of Euros which in practice ensures the survival of a 25-year-long dictatorship.

 

An "urgency" motion, tabled for this week's European Parliament plenary by key European Parliament figures (listed below) and passed unanimously, demands the immediate release of moderate pro-democracy opposition members, arrested in mid-August by Maldives President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom. Currently, some 80 people remain imprisoned without trial or legal representation, amidst credible reports that they are being tortured.

 

"It is essential that maximum international pressure is applied to ensure these innocent people’s release," said the MEPs." They are in grave danger, and represent the islands' democratic future." "After a month of terror on the Maldives, the EU should not hesitate in blocking any further payment of non-essential elements of the 2m Euro aid budget to these islands, nor in banning Maldivian Members of Government and officials from entering into the Member States of the European Union in the current situation," they said.

 

The poverty of the 339,330 islanders in the archipelago is appalling.  Hotel rooms in the Maldives typically cost a multiple of a hundred or even 200 times what most of the people had to live on each day and this money remains in the hands of Gayoom's supporters.

 

“It is our responsibility to help the developing world expand its tourist industry. We cannot, however, continue to support a dictatorship which creams off the profits from tourism and hides them abroad. Like fair trade, we need fair travel," MEPs declared.

 

Gayoom has signed all sorts of international agreements, including one banning torture, and has flouted every one of them.

 

“Guidelines about tourism to exotic places like this, or Burma, or Cuba, are long overdue. Mass tourism often brings nothing to the local people. It is simply not good enough for travel companies to make deals with dictators of paradise island hell-holes and then shrug off criticism as if the conditions of the local people is none of their business.  It is. Like fair trade we need fair travel now."


The senior MEPs involved in the campaign include: Geoffrey Van Orden (Conservative- UK, Vice-President of the Foreign Affairs Committee), Antonio Tajiani (Forza Italia- EPP-ED Leader of the Italian Delegation), Camiel Eurings (Christen Democratisch Appčl- EPP-ED Leader of the Dutch Delegation), Nirj Deva (Conservative- UK, EPP-ED, Coordinator of the Overseas Development Committee), Anders Wijkman (Kristdemokraterna- EPP-ED, Leader of the Swedish Delegation), Jose Ribeiro e Castro (EPP-ED, Portugal, Member of the Development Committee), Emma Bonino (ALDE- Italy, former European Commissioner) and Michael Gahler (EPP-ED, Germany, Co-vice President of the Development Committee) and Max Van den Berg (PES, Netherlands, Co-vice President of the Development Committee). 

 

The Maldives – Murder in Paradise
 MEP Calls For Urgent Release of Former Government Minister
 14th August 2004

Nirj Deva, Member of the European Parliament for South East England and a member of the influential Foreign Affairs Committee in the Parliament has today lifted the lid on the true horror of the dictatorship in the Maldives, a nation commonly associated with peace, serenity and relaxation.

 

Yesterday, former Government Minister Mohammed Ibrahim Zaki who is known to suffer from an extremely serious heart condition was thrown into prison by the regime and may be being brutally beaten - yet another nail in the coffin of freedom.

 

Speaking from Sri Lanka, the MEP said:

 

“The truth is, far from being the majestic paradise promoted by scores of glossy brochures in Travel Agents up and down High Streets across the United Kingdom, the Maldives is a land of torture, oppression and murder with the tourism industry underpinning the lavish lifestyle of the dictator Gayoom and his cruel lieutenants whilst the vast majority of the population survive on less than a dollar a day.

 

“During his twenty-five year hold on power, President Gayoom and his regime have flouted international human rights agreements, laughed in the face of democracy and brought about unknown terror to hundreds of thousands of innocent people.”

 

·         Gayoom was a close ally of Saddam Hussein and was said to model many of his torture techniques upon those employed in Iraq.

·         Women are unable to stand in elections for President and Gayoom’s party, which has a monopoly on all levels of Government, is the only Party allowed to canvass for support during elections.

·         Gayoom, as the self-appointed Head of State and Chief of State fills key Government posts, such as Speaker of the Parliament and Minister of Trade and Industry to close family members rather than individuals genuinely qualified for the posts.

·         Gayoom is the ultimate Judicial Authority and appoints and sacks Judges on a whim depending upon their loyalty to his regime.

·         The Maldivian Democratic Party, an independent movement with a peaceful political programme, has been denied the opportunity to establish as a political party with those who have offered their names as signatories requesting its establishment being subjected to arrest and harassment.

·         Prisoners in the Maldives are frequently denied basic facilities such as a pen and paper to mount a defence to their often-false convictions.

·         Freedom of speech is curtailed with Ibrahim Fareed, a moderate Muslim who made reference to Government corruption in a sermon he gave in a Mosque being thrown in jail without a formal trial.  There are countless similar examples of this form of senseless incarceration.

·         The scale of injustice is so severe that, when measured against population, 1 Maldivian prisoner is equivalent to that of 881 American citizens.

 

“The 77,400 British, 106,451 Italian and 77,642 German tourists who visited the country in the past year alone, paying an average of $200 a night in plush hotels, are supporting a tyrannical regime where 329,000 people are scrounging out an existence on less than sixty pence a day.

 

“Whilst many have a vision of the Maldives as a land of relaxation and peace, few are aware of the true state of the nation.

 

“The only way to guarantee the fall of this evil regime is for the tourist trade, which funds the gold-plated taps in Gayoom’s many mansions whilst the citizens of the country starve, to cease immediately.

 

“I urge all British citizens who have holidays booked to the country to cancel them immediately as a show of solidarity against this evil dictatorship and in favour of every human being who has suffered from Gayoom’s oppression.

 

“Unless the Maldivian Government begin a process of vast political and social reform in the country, including freeing innocent men like Ibrahim Zaki, European Union trade sanctions as well as a Travel Ban will be immediately imposed upon the nation.  Now is the time to act”.