Torture by Maldivian police on detainees has come under spotlight once again with the discovery of a badly beaten body from water in the morning of April 15 in the capital Male’. The young man Hussain Solah was under police custody a few days before his death. Even though the police claim that he was released on April 13, there are no reliable witnesses who had seen him after that. He made no contact with family and friends after his supposed release from police custody.
Thousands of people gathered to protest against what they believed was another murder by police but the protestors themselves became the target of police brutality as they were beaten by an elite police squad, which has been criticized recently by a former British police superintendent.
Mohamed Nasheed, the Chairperson of Maldivian Democratic Party, was also severely beaten by the police and arrested. He was later released and is seeking medical treatment abroad.
The family of the deceased wanted to carry out an autopsy to determine the reasons for the death but the police tried to bury the body. The police then offered to do an autopsy in Maldives by a Sri Lankan pathologist. There are no facilities in the Maldives for making an autopsy. The family refused to have the autopsy done in the Maldives under arrangements made by police. In the end the government has agreed to the family’s request to take the body abroad to make the autopsy.
The police initially said there were no visible injuries on the body, which hundreds of people who saw the body would deny. A concerned doctor posts in MaldivesHealth blog that the doctor who examined the body first refused to sign the papers to bury the body and insisted that the body be taken to hospital for further studies.
The fact of the matter is, the doctor who 1st examined the body, refused to sign the papers insisting that the body would need to be taken to IGMH for further studies as to understand the full extent of the injuries sustained. This was indeed , a highly praise worthy decision in such a pressure situation; none-the-less the right one too.
Our doctors didn’t do a postmortem because it is not permitted for one thing. The other more valid point is that we do not have a person with enough credentials for that procedure. (You wouldn’t have your appendix removed by a dentist, would you?)
Maldives Today laments about the mild reaction from the public to the murder of Solah compared to the wild riots that took place in September 2003 when an inmate was killed in jail by the security forces.
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Aishath Sudha died at the young age of 17 on 26 August 1994 in Gaamaadhoo jail. She was serving a 12 years and 6 months sentence for using and possessing narcotics . It is alleged that she was raped and left to die by the prison guards. Dictator Gayoom formed a Committee to investigate her death, but to this date its findings have been unknown. Sudha was not the only young person whose death in jail was silenced.
http://www.dhivehiobserver.com/Resist/posters/campaign0106-4.pdf
In January 2006 we started a campaign against police brutality, state-sponsored terrorism and tyranny of the Gayoom regime.
http://www.dhivehiobserver.com/Maverick_Resist.htm
http://www.dhivehiobserver.com/Resist/pressrelease-0106.pdf
In the first issue of our newsletter RESIST we outlined how torture has been used as a means of consolidating power and eleminating any form of opposition to the ruling elite.
http://www.dhivehiobserver.com/Resist/resist1.pdf
Hussain Salah is not the only one who died of police brutality. The murder of Ali Shahir and Muawiyath Mahmood has been silenced with a cloak of secrecy. Eavan Naseem’s case has been nicely covered-up. As Manic Street Preachers have said in one of their songs “If we tolerate this our children will be next.”
How long can our people remain silent? In this state of hopelessness only radicalism and extremism is breeding.
It was shameful that to hear such a stories like the on going death investigation of Husain’s murder in a nation known to be 100% Muslims. What I would say to this fact?
Of cause! I have a bundles of questions. Taking into consideration Husein was captured on drug charges in his home island of Hittadu on the 9th of April 07 and he was under police custody till the 13th of April 07 according to various issues of Maldivian police; He was brought to Male’ by motorized vessel on 12th April 07 and released him on the 13th April 07 after completing his investigation by police. Why the respective police failed to show his video of exiting the police as there are cameras fit on either side? Why the police failed to show a proper chit signed by Husein upon releasing? If the police revealed anything on his charges why they failed to show the statement signed by the convicted Husein? This is not the first time the police found died bodies float on the see and carry the bodies to cemetery and they have never been blamed and why only at this time? Why they been hurrying to bury him? The police reaction showed lack of unusual pictures on the contravenes. According to family of Husein Police concealed Husein’s clothes was worn when the police took him out from the harbor. It is my understanding that if the police had not been beaten him up to unconscious in the police custody and thrown him into the harbor they wouldn’t have been hurried to bury him.
Yes, this news is shameful although more shameful by far is the lack of international outcry. As someone unfamiliar to Maldivian politics and pro-democracy movement, would someone tell me if and how tourists enter the picture? Do they actively or passively participate in protests? More to the point, are tourists even aware of these brutal tactics employed by the government on its own people?