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| Tuesday, 12 October 2004 |
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Maldives lifts state of emergency after two months MALE, Monday (AFP) Maldivian President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom lifted a state of emergency he clamped on the Indian Ocean atoll nation two months ago to crush pro-democracy protests. Government spokesman Ahmed Shaheed said in a statement here that Gayoom, Asia's longest serving leader, lifted the emergency and that an unspecified number of people still in detention should soon be charged or released. The emergency giving wide powers to Gayoom was declared on August 13 after thousands of residents staged a demonstration in the capital island Male seeking democratic reforms the president himself had promised. "In line with the normal provisions contained within the criminal justice system, all those people currently in detention will either face charges or will be released shortly," the statement said. "It is expected that charges against some of them will range from the attempted murder of two police constables to serious 'offences against the State'." Gayoom's action came amid intense international condemnation of his tough action against pro-democracy activists and a European Union resolution seeking an aid embargo on Asia's most expensive tourist destination. Two days ago, Gayoom eased some of the provisions of the state of emergency allowing legal counsel for detainees. With the repealing of the emergency, the Maldivian authorities cannot hold suspects in custody for longer than a week without approval from a judge, the government statement said. The Maldivian government initially said it detained 185 people after the August protests but last month said only 78 people remained in custody, including seven parliamentarians. The International Committee of the Red Cross was last week allowed access to people detained under emergency rule in the atoll nation of 320,000 Sunni Muslims. The Maldivian government has maintained that it was committed to democratic reforms in the tiny archipelago and that those agitating against the president's rule were fundamentalists. Gayoom's spokesman Shaheed said the Government was determined to push forward the President's reform agenda, with the first sitting of a people's council on Tuesday to draw up a new constitution. |
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