Maldivian opposition for Indian intervention

Maldivan National Security Service (NSS) personnel disperse demonstrators in Male in the picture taken on August 13. Normalcy is returning to the Maldivan capital after the unrest, which led to the arrest of some 300 political dissidents. PHOTO: AFP

"India cannot look the other way. It has to do something," pleaded Mohammed Latheef, founder president of the fledgling Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), speaking to IANS over the telephone from Colombo.

"It is as if the army has taken over the country and society is being brutalised," added Latheef, who lives in self-imposed exile in Sri Lanka.

His party has an office in Colombo because no political group is allowed to function in the Maldives, an Indian atoll nation that President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom has ruled since 1978.

He said all his three children had been assaulted and taken into custody because of his opposition to the government.

Latheef said that Ibrahim Hussian Zaki, a former tourism minister and former secretary general of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc), and former attorney general Muhammad Munavar were among some 300 people jailed in a crackdown.

President Gayoom imposed emergency on Friday "to prevent deterioration of law and order" following two days of street protests in the capital Male.

The protestors, numbering hundreds, demanded constitutional reforms and release of political prisoners.