London based human rights group Amnesty International
has openly criticised the government of the Maldive Islands and asked
them to end what it calls systematic political repression. Amnesty says
torture, unfair trials and abusive power by the security forces are endemic
in the Maldives, contrasting somewhat from their image of romantic holidays
on beautiful coral atoll islands with white sandy beaches.
Amnesty are asking for an urgent radical reform of the
criminal justice system. One opposition website has said that the security
forces detained more than 100 people, but other sources put the number
lower.
A Sri Lankan teacher who spent three months in jail
in the Maldives last year said it was common for inmates to be tortured
– hung upside down on bars and beaten on their feet or submerged head
first in water. He said after the beatings, the guards would throw sugar
on the prisoners so they'd be bitten by ants in their cell, and he
said political prisoners were kept in the same cells as ordinary criminals,
where powerful lights would be kept on to make sleep difficult.