MALDIVES 13 Aug 2009 Indian Ocean nation marks Black Friday with likely change of plans

By the fifth anniversary of Black Friday, the 1192-island nation of the Maldives will have a new president, Mohamed Nasheed of the Maldivian Democratic Party. On 29 Oct 2008, in the first democratic presidential polls in the nation's history, he defeated President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom. Asia's longest-serving ruler, Gayoom had ruled for 30 consecutive years.

Nasheed's victory marks a watershed in the history of Maldives, where a ban on opposition parties was in effect until 2004. Gayoom had won the six previous presidential elections but had never faced an opponent. Surprising his critics, he walked away gracefully when he lost a runoff vote to a man he had jailed often.

The vote is the culmination of years of agitation for democratic reforms on the string of mostly uninhabited coral atolls 500 miles off the tip of India. The Maldives is peopled by 300,000 Sunni Muslims.

Black Friday describes the crackdown in Aug 2004 by the National Security Service on a peaceful pro-democracy demonstration in Malé. It has been described as the largest demonstration in the history of the nation. An underlying grievance was the death of Evan Naseem in a Maldives prison in 2003. He was beaten to death by security personnel. His death gave rise to Nasheed's MDP, which initially operated in exile from Sri Lanka.

As the 2004 protest grew, the demonstrators demanded the resignation of Gayoom. Several people were severely injured as NSS personnel used riot batons and teargas on unarmed civilians. Gayoom declared a State of Emergency in Malé and the nearby islands a few minutes after the crackdown. He pardoned individuals arrested in the crackdown following the tsunami on 26 Dec 2004.

Nasheed was educated in England. He has promised much needed reforms in the Islamic state, where opposition parties were oppressed for decades.

The islands of the Maldives stretch in a 500-mile long chain in the Indian Ocean. The country's white sand beaches, with turquoise waters bordered by coral reefs, made it a major tourist draw until the tsunami. The disaster hit Maldives hard, setting back the country's goal of effectively eliminating poverty. Many tourist facilities were destroyed or crippled, and vital infrastructure was devastated. Recovery has been steady, and tourists are beginning to return.

If the United Nations climate change panel's predictions are right, rising sea levels could see much of the Maldives land mass underwater by 2100.

NEWSAHEAD CORRESPONDENT C.BALAJI CONTRIBUTED TO THIS ARTICLE. HE IS AVAILABLE FOR FREELANCE ASSIGNMENTS IN INDIA AND THE REGION. email: mohanbalaji20032004@yahoo.co.in

RELATED READING:

Tussle in Maldives over move to question former leader (Reuters 21 Jul 2009)
http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSCOL481004

Maldives ruler falls to opposition (Daily News/Reuters 29 Oct 2008)
http://www.newsdaily.com/stories/tre49s0wm-us-maldives-election/

Crowd gathering at Republican Square after Prayer to mark Black Friday (Dhivehi Observer) 12 Aug 2005
http://www.dhivehiobserver.com/localnews/demo-begins1208055.htm