Crackdown in Maldives Ahead of Planned Protest Rally

The government in the Maldives has launched a clampdown against members of the opposition and journalists in advance of next week's planned anti-government protest, it was claimed last night. The country's best-known cartoonist has been jailed and opposition activists said that their supporters had been arrested and beaten.

Opponents of President Maumoon Gayoom, who has been in power for 28 years, are planning a rally in the capital, Male, on November 10. The aim is to press for constitutional reforms in a country which, while a leading tourist destination, has been strongly criticised by Amnesty International for its suppression of human rights. Thousands of protesters are planning to travel from the atolls to Male.

Earlier this week riot police on the island of Thinadhu arrested eight members of the opposition. "They brutally beat the people arrested," said Jennifer Latheef, the Maldivian journalist who was sentenced last year to 10 years in prison for "terrorism" but released on a presidential pardon after being made an Amnesty prisoner of conscience.

"Police also enforced a curfew and stopped anyone leaving the island. The actions of the police also created so much fear that students taking their exams abandoned them to go home," she said.

Ms Latheef said the government was taking advantage of the fact that there are few international observers on the islands. "The government is intimidating the public by saying the US military ship in Maldives for a training session is there to actually help the government in handling the demonstrators ... there is no respect for rule of law by the government and they have the power to do what they please."

Ahmed Abbass, an artist and political cartoonist who designed the Maldivian banknotes, was jailed yesterday for six months over remarks he is alleged to have made two years ago to the country's independent newspaper, the Minivan Daily.

Government spokesman Mohamed Hussain Shareef told the Guardian he believed the arrests had "broken the backbone" of plans to cause violence in the capital on November 10. "Those arrested were known criminal elements with a history of violent activity," he said. He added that the "opposition militants" were planning arson attacks and violence. "There is widespread fear among the public."

The new American ambassador to the Maldives, Robert O Blake, said he believed the demonstration should be allowed to go ahead. "I believe it is very important for all governments to allow freedom of assembly. But the opposition also has a role to play. They have to behave responsibly, in a non-violent, peaceful manner."