MALDIVES: To many in the west, the Maldives are paradise. To many residents, the islands are a place of bloody repression where today, the President will be re-elected yet again unopposed. David Orr reports from Male.
To the outside world, the Maldives are a tropical paradise of palm-fringed islands, turquoise lagoons and magical coral reefs. And that is just the way that President Mammon Abdul Gayoom wishes his country to be seen. Last year, some 400,000 foreigners flocked to the Indian Ocean archipelago, boosting a multi-million dollar tourism industry and ensuring that the inhabitants enjoy one of the highest per capita incomes in the region.
Today, the President goes to his people, seeking a sixth five- year term. There is little doubt that he will get it. President Gayoom - one of the world's longest serving leaders - has been unanimously nominated by parliament to stand as the only candidate in a Yes/No referendum. Last time round, he won more than 90 per cent approval.
But, despite all the evidence - the crystal clear waters, the delicate ocean breezes, the booming economy - not all is well in paradise. The Maldives are one of the human rights blackspots of Asia. Among the charges levelled against the islands' government in a recent Amnesty International report are torture, incommunicado detention and imprisonment on grounds of political belief.
Last month, four prisoners died from gunshot wounds and riots erupted in the capital, Male. Inhabitants of the normally sleepy islands still express shock at what happened.
The prison disturbances - not the first in Maldivean history - were sparked by the death of drugs offender Mohammed Evan who was beaten to death by security guards after he got into a fight with another inmate.
No one knows quite how events spiralled so quickly out of control. The next day, protesting inmates were fired upon by prison guards at point-blank range. Another drugs offender, nicknamed Clinton, was shot in the back of the head and killed. Two other inmates died within days, after been flown to hospital in Sri Lanka. Another 15 were wounded in the shooting. A presidential commission of inquiry has been set up to investigate the incident at Maafushi jail. Eleven prison security guards have been suspended.
Tourists spend most of their time, diving, snorkelling and relaxing at the 74 self-contained islands' resorts where little other than an occasional monsoon downpour disturbs the calm.
On September 20th, however, an ugly mood gripped mourners at Male cemetery as they gazed at the brutalised corpses of two of Maafushi's inmates. The crowd next converged on Indira Gandhi hospital in an attempt to visit some of the wounded prisoners who had been taken there. Fazey, a convicted heroin addict who had lost two fingers in the shooting, was being carried in on a stretcher.
"The bastards, they shot right into us, we didn't have a chance," he told a friend. These were the only words Fazey had time to say before he disappeared behind the ranks of armed policemen guarding the hospital.
Refused permission to visit the wounded, some of the crowd pelted the police with stones. Tear gas rounds were fired to disperse the mob. In the rampage that followed, nearly a dozen government buildings were torched and damaged, among them the high court, parliament and a number of police stations.
More than 100 arrests were made during and after the riots. A number of people are still being held although no charges have been made.
Details of last month's unrest and of human rights abuses in this former British protectorate are only now coming to light.
No footage of the riots in Male was broadcast on Maldivean television. None of the country's three main newspapers (two owned by government ministers, the other by a brother-in-law of the president) sent reporters out to cover events. They carried no photographs of the disturbances. And this was the biggest news story in the country in more than a decade.
"We're in a difficult position," conceded one local newspaper editor, who like all others interviewed, preferred to remain anonymous. Echoing the official position, he insisted that those leading last month's riots in Male were "former convicts and criminal elements". The prisoners, he said, had been shot for attempting to take control of the prison armoury (again, the official and as yet unverified line). His newspaper has not requested permission to visit the jail.
"No one can speak openly here," says a former MP and Amnesty-listed prisoner of conscience who has served several jail terms. "This is a society ruled by fear and intimidation."
Web sites carrying reports and photographs of the mayhem have been blocked by the Maldivean authorities. But, despite their attempts to stifle the truth, some locals are prepared to speak out.
A former tour guide recently released from Maafushi has given an horrific picture of prison conditions.
"Some cells are just small rooms with more than 100 inmates crowded into them," said the convicted drugs offender. "We would be handcuffed to palm trees for long periods with our arms behind our backs. The prison security guards would beat us, then pour sugar over us so the ants would go to work on us. They would also pour excrement over us or make us stand in the sea for long periods until we were freezing. This would be repeated again and again."
A presidential official admits that something needs to be done about the treatment of prisoners. But the official, a British university graduate, insists the charges of torture in prison and of imprisonment for political beliefs are "110 per cent utter bollocks".
President Gayoom might have few worries concerning his hold on power. "At the referendum before last, I was sitting with the katheeb (head man) of one of the islands while the votes were being counted ", says a government critic. "To his consternation, two of the 600 inhabitants of his island had voted against the President. The katheeb lost his job".
The President, however, has other concerns, foremost among them rising sea levels that threaten to inundate his homeland. According to some predictions, the low-lying Maldives could be swamped and disappear within 100 years as global warming continues to cause the polar ice caps to melt.
President Gayoom's opponents say the environmental threat is real but that the pressing issue of human rights must also be addressed.