Home Minister Umar Naseer’s ban on street protests has sparked an outcry
with human rights advocates saying the restriction is unconstitutional.
“The streets should be safe and peaceful. It is public property, not
grounds for political activities and disorder,” Naseer told local media
today. The government will end the prevailing culture of street protests
as a means of political action, he went on.
Riot police fired tear gas to disperse unarmed protesters on Saturday.
The MDP protest was peaceful, but police have indiscriminately used
pepper-spray, arrested 13 individuals and beat several protesters,
including an opposition MP over the past two days.
MDP spokesman Hamid Abdul Ghafoor said: “The deterioration of democratic
rights is increasingly evident as the Government uses a Police service
the president himself claimed to be compromised to arbitrarily restrict
the right to assembly.”
source-http://maldivesindependent.com
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