UK to press Maldives to improve Police Service

A UK newspaper has said that the UK will press the Maldives government to tackle human rights abuses by Maldives Police Service.

The Guardian reported yesterday that investigations by the paper have revealed close ties between the British and the Maldives Police, following which Foreign Office ministers are to raise serious concerns about human rights abuses in the Maldives.

The paper said that UK Member of Parliament and Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Alistair Burt will travel to Maldives on an official visit next month to address this matter.

During his visit, he will “pressure the Maldives government to tackle serious and persistent abuses by its police service, including attacks on opposition MPs, torture and mass detentions of democracy activists,” says The Guardian.

The paper says that British Members of Parliament and Scottish Members of Parliament have been tabling questions to the foreign secretary, William Hague, after The Guardian disclosed that 77 Maldives Police Officers including Commissioner Abdulla Riyaz were trained by the Scottish Police College.

It further said that the Scottish Police College has plans to run degree courses for a new police academy, thereby extending its role in the Maldives.

The Guardian says that Scottish Member of Parliament John Finnie said that he had written to William Hague,requesting him to reconsider the training deal until democracy is restored in the Maldives.

Finnie has also asked Kenny MacAskill, the Scottish justice secretary if he had any powers to stop the college training police in oppressive regimes.

“I have always been proud of the training provided to foreign nationals at the Scottish Police college,” Finnie told The Guardian. “However, photographs of smiling faces at graduations and smartly framed diplomas from Tulliallan count for nothing if the population is being abused by those trained at the police college or by their subordinates.”