Human right abuses in maldives: opinion

Olivia Lang in Male

In 2003, the death of Evan Naseem exposed the public to abuses faced by prisoners at the hands of security forces in the Maldives. Public outrage was reflected by street riots as ordinary people declared they would not tolerate such violence.

Yet four and a half years later, as evidence surfaces once again of torture and beatings in prisons and detention centres, President Gayoom and his government should be concerned about history repeating itself.

Over the years, the Maldives has borne witness to a stream of human rights abuses, including several high-profile incidents, which have pushed the government to pledge a number of changes.

Action was perhaps most notable in 2006 when the country officially became party to a number of international rights conventions, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR).

And in December, the Human Rights Commission (HRCM) officially became the country’s National Prevention Mechanism for the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture, giving it full access to the country’s prisons and custodial centres.

But despite these overarching moves as the country moves gradually along its roadmap for reform, accounts of persistent human rights violations suggest such changes are not reflected on the ground.

As the country heads towards its first multi-party elections, recent months have seen abject failures of the authorities to protect not only ordinary citizens from gang-related violence, but also to those in custody from maltreatment.

While reports of violence in the police-run Dhoonidhoo detention centre appeared to lessen last year, this pattern has seemingly reversed since the beginning of this year, judging from recent information collected by Minivan News.

Last month a number of young people in custody over street violence made allegations of being beaten. Some described in detail how they were handcuffed, hooded, and made to stand at the top of concrete stairs before officers kicked the centre of their backs, causing them to fall down the steps.

Allegations of further abuse have emerged from Dhoonidhoo this week, some from those previously beaten despite reassurances action would be taken.

The testimonials also match others received by Minivan News from other sources this year, which indicate Dhoonidhoo prisoners are regularly dragged out to the football fields, blindfolded and beaten.

And recent accounts suggest prisoners at Maafushi are suffering similar abuse, which appears to reflect a continual pattern at the jail and which has resulted in riots in the past.

Last June, 500 hunger striking prisoners called on the authorities for much-needed reforms, including rehabilitation for drug addicts. Government agreed at the time to a 7-point plan of action.

But the pledges have not been fulfilled – and rehabilitation treatment has still not materialised in any form in the prison, though an estimated 80 per cent of Maafushi inmates are serving sentences for drug offences.

And whilst drugs have become a key issue, socially and politically, there are still no checks on guards in Maafushi, despite reports of them bringing narcotics into the prison.

Perhaps it is not surprising, given the lack of changes, that two petitions have emerged from Maafushi this year protesting against alleged maltreatment and poor conditions. One, addressed to the president, was signed by 300 inmates.

A fortnight ago frustrations boiled over, culminating in a hunger strike by more than 200 prisoners in the high security Unit 2 – roughly a third of the entire prison – after alleged ill-treatment and torture.

Accounts refer to beatings by the Emergency Support Group (ESG) who are called in for extra security, which testimonials indicate use far more than the “minimal necessary” force the Home Ministry say they are trained to use.

One prisoner said he had been “tortured with an electric shock baton”, as well as undergoing simulated drowning with his “head in a water bucket”.

And while the number of cases reaching public attention indicates a rise in mistreatment, for every one of these, many more are likely to be successfully swept under the carpet.

The situation should worry the government, not least because the Maldives receives significant aid from foreign donor governments, some of which may be concerned at a fundamental lack of humane treatment in prisons.

The Maldivian government’s apathy, however, is disquieting. The minister responsible for police and prisons is home minister Abdullah Kamaldeen, who has not stepped down despite chaos in his areas of responsibility and a no confidence motion submitted last month.

It is perhaps ironic that he is encountering a similar pattern to the last home minister, Ahmed Thasmeen Ali, who survived a no confidence vote and was in place during last year’s hunger strike. Thasmeen was later transferred out of the home ministry, becoming minister of atolls instead.

Unsurprisingly, when Kalmadeen’s vote reached parliament, the DRP did not let it pass, and state minister Ibrahim Shafiu said the motion was a tactical move by opposition members designed only to “disgrace” the government.

But surely Kalmadeen does not need opposition members to disgrace him, when the state of the institutions under his control is a clear reflection of his inability to manage his own duties.

Still, others argue he is powerless in a system which has been in place for years. Opposition member Ibrahim Ismail (Ibra) argues Kalmadeen’s position is untenable because the main decisions concerning his remit are actually made between President Gayoom and Adam Zahir, the police commissioner.

Despite several deaths having taken place in police custody under Zahir’s leadership of the force (he was also head of the National Security Services (NSS) at the time of Evan Naseem’s death), he remains in the same position.

If Kalmadeen’s position is superficial, he should not remain sitting in a vacuous role. And if it is not, and he has the power to make decisions, he should address the central failures within the prison system and police.

Even those within the system admit it suffers from inherent flaws. Deputy Home Minister Abdullah Waheed admitted in March that late last year drugs had entered Maafushi because the prison had been controlled by a “gang” of inmates.

Surely it is the Home Minister’s responsibility to ensure that the country’s largest prison is secure and safe, for both detainees and the wider public?

But Kalmadeen’s record does not appear to reflect any sense of accountability. In December, he refused to condemn the alleged violence of Star Force officers in Thaa atoll Kibidhoo last March, instead denying the allegations completely.

Despite photographs of injuries, verbal accounts, and a human rights commission report indicating otherwise, the Home Minister refused to take responsibility, instead saying they those injured were merely “caught up in the crowd”.

It is disheartening that, despite the human rights abuses which consistently tarnish the country’s image internationally, the government is still neglecting to take the issue seriously. Such allegations again show these issues are still not a government priority, despite human rights conventions.

And while there is no doubt that there are encouraging developments, including the work of local NGOs, UN agencies and the human rights commission, the absence of any serious internal, institutional reform or government accountability is likely to mean the police and prison system will continue to fail its people time and again.

[Minivan News]