What About the Others?

By Ali Rasheed, Minivan News

June 18, 2005

When Fathimath Nisreen, one of the people arrested for supposedly calling for the overthrow of the Gayyoom regime, was released last June, a lot of Maldivians were hoping it would lead to the release of the others accused of the same crime.

It's been almost a month since Nisreen's release but the government has yet to indicate their willingness to bring the ordeal of Zaki, Didi and Luthfy to an end.

When the electronic news-letter Sandhaanu was published, the government spent a lot of effort and money in tracking down those responsible for the publication. Not because Sandhaanu called for the overthrow of the government but because Sandhaanu homed in on issues of corruption and injustice running rampant in our society.

From the President down, almost everyone worth a damn in the Gayyoom administration was on the take and to these senior state officials who were being exposed, Sandhaanu presented a clear and present danger.

They finally tracked Zaki, Luthfy and Nisreen. Zaki was apparently in Malaysia, where he had business interests, when the Maldivian government allegedly duped the Malaysian government into issuing a deportation order for Zaki. The Malaysian government was allegedly told that Zaki was an Al-Qaeda operative.

Today, the political and social climate has changed considerably since the Sandhaanu days. The culture of fear and repression capitalized on by President Gayyoom to keep the populace in check no longer exist; the wall of fear has begun to develop cracks and it is only a matter of time before the whole rotten edifice come crumbling down.

People are talking openly of the years of oppression and the many injustices they were put through all these years – and Gayyoom is still in power. Even some writers who were in the closet all these years are beginning to express themselves a lot more openly than before.

The vultures are circling overhead watching the death throes of a dictator, a breed on the verge of extinction, and it is only a matter of time before they home in for the kill.

Actually there is very little reason for Gayyoom to keep the Sandhaanu 3 in jail anymore. If they were jailed as a deterrent for others who may be interested in following their footsteps, then the reason does not exist anymore. If they are kept in jail to give others that metallic taste of fear, then Gayyoom is definitely out of touch with the ground reality of the present circumstances.

There is only reason for keeping these people under arrest and that is nothing else but pure spite.

For someone who's the President it is not becoming of him to stoop to a personal level but Gayyoom, as his critics had insinuated, is a small man with a mind equally small and petty into the bargain. Or else why doesn't he simply release them and let them to get on with the business of living?

No one should be arrested or tortured for exercising their freedom of thought, expression and self determination. Everyone should be subjected to law and fair procedure. We need justice!.

Please free political prisioners who are held without fair trial and due process of law!
Ahmed Didi
Mohamed Zahid
Sheik Fareed
Mohamed Zaki
Naushad Waheed
 
     

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