MALDIVES: ELEMENTS OF GOVERNMENT AT ODDS OVER

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 COLOMBO 000062

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/09/2016
TAGS: PGOV PHUM PINR MV CE
SUBJECT: MALDIVES: ELEMENTS OF GOVERNMENT AT ODDS OVER
PRESS FREEDOM

REF: A. 2005 COLOMBO 1823

B. 2005 COLOMBO 2025

C. USDAO COLOMBO IIR 6 816 0033 06

Classified By: DCM JAMES ENTWISTLE FOR REASONS 1.4(b) and (d)


1. (C) Summary. On December 28, Sri Lankan police, apparently
acting on a request from Maldivian authorities via Interpol,
searched the Colombo office of the pro-opposition Minivan
News for evidence that Minivan staff were engaged in
seditious activities and/or gun-running. Although the search
yielded no evidence and Minivan staff were told the
investigation was dropped, the news agency has ceased its
internet-based radio program, and some journalists have since
moved to the UK, where they continue to maintain the website.
In separate discussions after the incident, the Maldivian
Foreign Minister and Attorney General reiterated to emboffs
their government's continued commitment to democratic reform
and criticized the raid, with the Foreign Minister suggesting
that conservative elements within the Government of the
Republic of Maldives (GORM) may be attempting to undermine
the reform agenda. End summary.

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RAID ON MINIVAN'S COLOMBO OFFICE:
SEARCH YIELDS NO DEROGATORY EVIDENCE
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2. (SBU) On December 28, police from Sri Lanka's Interpol
Liaison Unit and Criminal Investigative Division served a
search warrant on the Colombo office of Minivan News on
charges of seditious activity and gun running. (Note: The
independent Minivan News organization, formerly affiliated
with the opposition Maldives Democratic Party (MDP),runs a
website and an internet-based news radio program as well as
the only pro-opposition daily newspaper in Maldives. End
note.) Two Minivan reporters, along with Jude Laing, a
British lawyer for the opposition MDP, were at the office
during the search. In a meeting with poloff later the same
day, Laing said the police told him the warrant was based on
a request from the Maldivian authorities on suspicion of gun
running and seditious activity. Laing said the Sri Lankan
police, whom he described as courteous and professional,
examined the premises and computers and asked the reporters
about the radio news program. Laing said the police also
asked whether anyone at the office had links to airline
pilots or could be involved in illegal activities, to which
the reporters answered no. After approximately two hours at
the Minivan office, the police reportedly told Laing they had
uncovered no derogatory information, would report as much to
the Maldivian government, and the investigation was closed.


3. (C) In a December 29 meeting with poloff, an American
contractor who works with law enforcement officials in
Colombo said that his police contacts informed him the
request for the investigation had been signed by Maldivian
Chief of Police Adam Zahir and sent to the Interpol Liaison
Desk. The contractor said the Sri Lankan police suspected
the charges were politically motivated, but were compelled to
follow up because of their serious nature.

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OPPOSITION JOURNALISTS VIEW MINIVAN RAID
AS LATEST ATTACK ON PRESS FREEDOM
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4. (U) Although Sri Lankan police informed Minivan staff that
the investigation was completed, Minivan journalist Paul
Roberts, a British national, told poloff in a December 28
meeting that the Maldivian staff, who are used to a society
in which police wield great power, nonetheless no longer felt
comfortable working in the Colombo office. Roberts and
another Minivan journalist have since gone to the UK, where
they continue to maintain the website. They are also working
with Reporters Without Borders and the Commonwealth Press
Union to draw attention to press freedom concerns in
Maldives. Minivan's representatives have succeeded in
drawing broad attention to their plight, gaining coverage
from the BBC and the Guardian in addition to a report in Sri
Lanka's Sunday Times.


5. (U) According to Minivan staff, since the newspaper
registered in June, seven out of fifteen of its print
journalists have been under investigation by Maldivian
authorities, and in April Roberts was banned from traveling
to Maldives based on alleged to links to terrorism (Ref A).
Despite this, the daily newspaper continues to operate freely
in Maldives. Several Minivan employees attended a
PD-sponsored journalism workshop in Male' on January 5, at
the invitation of the Ministry of Information. The editor in
Male' told Embassy Information Officer that she had not been
asked to stop printing. Nevertheless, Minivan continues to
print in a small format, rather than as a normal newspaper,
after arson threats against its printer in August.

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REFORM-MINDED MINISTERS REITERATE COMMITMENT
TO "NEW MALDIVES" DEMOCRATIZATION
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6. (C) In a January 3 phone conversation with poloff,
Maldivian Foreign Minister Ahmed Shaheed called the Minivan
raid in Colombo "utterly shameful." He said he had been
upset by news of it and had phoned Police Chief Adam Zahir to
ask why it had occurred. Shaheed reported that Zahir posited
he had nothing to do with the raid, which he claimed was
based solely on intelligence reports. Shaheed expressed
concern that the raid undermined the "New Maldives" agenda he
and several other reform-minded Ministers are promoting.
Describing the police chief as "someone we are at war with,"
Shaheed added that he had encouraged the President to shift
Zahir from his current position. (Note: As reported Ref C,
some high-level changes in the police may indeed be impending.
End note.) Shaheed said he did not want elements within his
own government to "torpedo" the reform process from within.


7. (C) During a January 6 call on the DCM in Colombo,
Maldivian Attorney General Hassan Saeed also said that he was
"disappointed" by the investigation of Minivan's Colombo
office. He said that when the Home Minister asserted there
was credible, detailed intelligence linking Minivan's Colombo
staff to a weapons smuggling operation, Saeed had asked him
to make that information available to the public. The
Attorney General noted that faulty intelligence may have
caused the problem. He also stated his intent to engage with
pro-opposition journalists based in Colombo to reassure them
about the Government's commitment to press freedom.
Addressing the reform process at large, Saeed told the DCM,
"There is no question of (the reformists) losing. The
conservatives will lose. The President himself proposed
these reforms, and he is backing the New Maldives."

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COMMENT:
RIFT BETWEEN "OLD" AND "NEW" MALDIVES WITHIN THE GORM
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8. (C) Comment: On December 16, Foreign Minister Shaheed,
Attorney General Saeed, Justice Minister Mohamed Jameel
Ahmed, and Information Minister Mohamed Nasheed held a press
conference in Colombo to present the reform package
comprising the "New Maldives." That the Minivan raid and
pursuant publicity comes so soon after the "New Maldives"
roll-out reflects poorly on the Government of Republic of
Maldives (GORM). Foreign Minister Shaheed seems acutely
conscious of this. While the Attorney General was more
circumspect, suggesting the disconnect lay with "faulty
intelligence," the rifts between the reform-minded elements
and the "old guard" within the GORM seem to be widening. The
GORM remains sensitive to international scrutiny, and the
latest press coverage may exert some pressure on the GORM's
reform-minded elements to make sure their voices- and actions-
drown out the input from the "old Maldives." End comment.
LUNSTEAD