Human rights body blasts Gayoom
AFP, New Delhi
A Maldivian opposition party and an Asian rights organisation Wednesday lashed out at President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom who is currently visiting India, accusing him of scuttling democracy and responsibility for custodial deaths. At a news conference in New Delhi, the Maldivian Democratic Party spokesman Mohammed Lateef and Suhas Chakma of the Asian Centre for Human Rights accused Asia's longest-serving leader of using all possible means to stay in power. Lateef, who lives in exile in Sri Lanka, said the Maldives was a small country of just 300,000 people but its defence spending was very high. "Where is all this money going? It is just to keep him (Gayoom) in power," he said. Gayoom held talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday and was in the southern city of Madras on Wednesday.
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