By Irving Feng
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia
MALE, Rep. of Maldives – Amnesty International, the London based human rights watchdog, released a report on Wednesday, September 5, exposing potential human rights violations in the Maldives.
The report included interviews from survivors of the alleged human rights violations and their families. Those interviewed include lawyers, activists, medical professionals, security officials and senior politicians. The interviewees stated that military troops and police arbitrarily detained innocent citizens with unnecessary force and tortured them.
One incidence of a human rights violation involves a premarital sex affair between a 16 year old girl and a 29 year old man. The Maldives has a history of handing down corporal punishment to women for having extramarital or premarital affairs. The 16 year old was found engaging in sexual activity with the 29 year old man when the girl’s family went out searching for her when she was missing. Soon after the 16 year old girl’s family filed a complaint with the local police department regarding her indiscretions.
Under Islamic religious law, girls between the ages of 13 to 18 are forbidden from having premarital sex. The 16 year old girl was sentenced to a public flogging with a cane when she turned 18. The public floggings were reportedly handed down by local village chiefs who act as judges. Courts in the Maldives may not be independent of the Islamic government so the influence of the religious government could be unavoidable. The 29 year old man was sentenced to 10 years in prison for his crime.
The rising violence by military troops and police may be in response to peaceful public protests regarding past human rights violations. Protestors were reportedly beaten, pepper sprayed, and some women were perhaps sexually harassed during the military and police crackdown on the peaceful demonstrations. The public protests lead to the country’s first democratically elected president, Mohamed Nasheed, to step down from office. Nasheed has alleged that a police mutiny and a military coup backed by Islamic extremists forced him to step down.
Nasheed’s replacement, Mohammed Waheed Hassan Manik, is in support of the military and police actions. Specifically, it was alleged by Asian Centre for Human Rights that Manik’s support of the military and police actions was part of a broader plan to unite Islamic fundamentalists in the upcoming 2013 election. Despite widespread criticism by international human rights advocates, the case of the 16 year old girl’s sentence to a public flogging with a cane may not be suspended due to the new direction of the Maldives government under Manik.
For further information, please see:
New Age Bangladesh – Abuses rise in Maldives under new regime: Amnesty – 6 September 2012
BBC – Amnesty accuses Maldives government of beatings and torture – 5 September 2012
International Business Times – Maldives: 16-Year-Old Sentenced to 100 lashes for Pre-Marital Sex – 4 September 2012
Japan Today – 16-year-old Maldives girl faces public flogging for pre-marital sex – 4 September 2012
