Nasheed slams China, says India liberator, not occupier

A day after Maldives President Abdulla Yameen forced Supreme Court judges to annul the order of the “detained” Chief Justice to release heavyweight political prisoners, the plea from Opposition parties for India’s help grew louder on Wednesday. However, India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) continues to watch silently from the sidelines.

Reacting to China’s warning against any military intervention in the Maldives calling it equal to invasion, former Maldives President Mohammad Nasheed, who has already pleaded for Indian’s military intervention, on Wednesday junked suggestions that India’s involvement would be equal to invasion. “Saying ‘resolve things internally’ is akin to asking us to escalate the revolt, which can lead to chaos. Maldivians see India’s role positively: in ‘88 they came, resolved the crisis, and left. They were not occupiers but liberators. This is why Maldivians look to India now,” Nasheed said.

Meanwhile, facing flak from international community, the Yameen Government invited representatives from international organisations to visit the country to see for themselves that despite Emergency, no curfew has been imposed and general movement of people, services and businesses are not affected.

Despite demand for India’s intervention by the Opposition leaders, Dunya Maumoon, daughter of arrested former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom who is half brother of Yameen, said the country has to find solutions to its problems all by itself instead of looking outside for help. Her indications were obviously against Indian intervention.

Dunya is a Minister in Yameen’s Cabinet and is facing criticism for continuing as a Minister despite Yameen arresting her father.

“Enough war has been made, we need to build a lasting peace with credible institutions! We Maldivians have to find solutions through dialogue. We can look to get advice from outside, though the decisions have to be ours & we have to own them! #MakePeacenotWar,” Dunya said.

The Maldives Opposition leaders had on Tuesday asked India to send special envoy and military aid to resolve the crisis. Without committing anything, India has issued two statements saying it is monitoring the situation very “closely”, and that it was “disturbed” on the declaration of Emergency while describing arrests of the Chief Justice and political figures as a matter of “concern.” Indian ambassador in Male Akhilesh Mishra remained in constant touch with the senior officials in the MEA headquarters.   Siding with Yameen, China has indirectly warned India against any military intervention saying such a move would further complicate the situation. When asked to comment on Opposition’s call to India, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said in Beijing: “The international community should play a constructive role on the basis of respecting the Maldives sovereignty instead of taking measures that could complicate the current situation.”

Asked how the situation could resolved internally when Yameen has arrested the Supreme Court judges as well as Gayoom, Geng said, “We hope relevant parties in the Maldives can properly resolve the issue through consultation and restore national stability and social order as soon as possible. We believe they (have) wisdom and capability to address the situation independently.”

Opposition party leaders in the Maldives allege that China is tacitly backing Yameen, which emboldened him to resort to unconstitutional actions like arresting Supreme Court judges.

Geng skirted a question whether China is also asking Yameen to hold talks with political parties to resolve the crisis. He also sought to refute allegations by the Maldives Opposition parties that China is backing Yameen because he has approved several Chinese projects and signed the controversial Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with during his visit to Beijing in December. “The current situation in Maldives is its internal affairs. China follows the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of others,” Geng said.