Maldives detains hundreds of pro-democracy activists
Hundreds of people were rounded up in the Maldives, South Asia's most expensive resort paradise, after President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom imposed a state of emergency following protests against his rule, dissidents said yesterday.
State radio said the National Security Service (NSS) and police had arrested 185 people after protests Friday against Gayoom, Asia's longest-serving leader.
But the Moldavian Democratic Party (MDP), which is campaigning for a multi-party democracy in the tiny, one-party Indian Ocean atoll nation, said hundreds more were detained Sunday.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. "Our activists are in hiding," MDP spokesman in Colombo, Mohamed Latheef, told AFP. "Security personnel are going from house to house and pulling out suspected dissidents and beating them up in public."
The MDP called on the international community to take action to prevent the country of 270,000 Sunni Muslims from slipping into chaos after a state of emergency was imposed Saturday.
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