COLOMBO, 22 September 2003 — The leader of the Maldives yesterday appealed for calm, after two days of unprecedented rioting left three people dead and sent shock waves through the tiny Indian Ocean island nation.
President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom also said in a nationally televised broadcast that he has ordered an investigation into the violence that wracked the Muslim nation, which is a popular tourist destination because of its pristine beaches.
Gayoom said a riot at a prison, located on an island close to the capital, Male, on Friday sparked the violence.
Friday was also the deadline for submitting applications for the country’s upcoming presidential elections, but it wasn’t immediately clear if there was a link between the deadline and the riot.
The people killed were prison inmates who died when police cracked down on the riot, according to relatives of the slain men. No other details were immediately available. No tourists, who generally do not visit the capital, were believed to have been affected by the violence.
Violence continued Saturday, when one of the bodies of the victims was brought to Male for burial.
Some residents then marched to protest the police crackdown and rioters burned the Election Commission’s office and the High Court building, prompting the government to impose an all-night curfew that was lifted yesterday morning.
For the first time, Maldivian police used tear gas as mobs rampaged through the night. Computers from government offices and the high court were dragged out of buildings and smashed on the narrow paved roads of Male, a 1.6-km (one mile) long island home to 80,000 people, residents said.
“Most of the people in the mob were people with serious police records,” he said. “I appeal to the people to remain calm and let me, the elected leader, restore law and order.”
By yesterday evening, normalcy was returning to the Maldives, which is made up of 1,192 coral atolls scattered across the equator and home to 278,000 people, mostly Muslims.
Police relaxed some of the tough security measures in Male by lifting the night curfew, removing most road blocks and allowing residents into the business district.
An Indian Embassy official in the Maldives yesterday confirmed the protests and the security measures, but declined to say if the incident was linked to the presidential election scheduled to be held next month.
