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| Saturday, 21 August 2004 |
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MALE, Friday (AFP) - European nations have requested the Maldives authorities to give them access to activists detained after last week's pro-democracy demonstrations, diplomatic sources said Friday. EU diplomats based in Sri Lanka are expected to arrive in Male Sunday on a "fact-finding mission" they had asked to make after President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom declared a state of emergency, the sources said. Gayoom's office had said Thursday the Male authorities had initiated the contact, asking the European Union to send a mission to Asia's most expensive tourist resort after the unrest. Another source said the diplomats had requested access to a detention centre where seven parliamentarians and a member of the Maldivian Human Rights Commission are being held. The government said it had arrested 185 people over last week's unrest and has accused the pro-democracy movement of seeking to stage a coup against Gayoom, Asia's longest serving leader. Gayoom's office said he had thanked the security forces and the police "for the sincerity with which they had performed their national duty during Friday's mob violence." The unrest in Male has not disrupted tourism, the archipelago's main foreign exchange earner, residents said. |
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