Charity leader banned from Maldives

By David Browne

LONDON (eTurboNews) -- The founder and chairman of the charity, Friends of Maldives (FOM), has been barred from entering the country, where he was due to attend talks on the distribution of tsunami aid. David Hardingham arrived in Sri Lanka and was told that he would not be allowed to take the onward flight from Colombo to the Maldives capital, Malé, because he was “blacklisted” by the government and not welcome in the Maldives.

FOM is a charity based in Salisbury in southern England and has provided more than 100 tons of aid since the December 26 tsunami disaster. The organization was one of the first to ship emergency supplies out to the Maldives after the disaster occurred. Work to restore housing and livelihoods is continuing in the Maldives, a nation of small islands in the Indian Ocean. Many families who lost their homes are still surviving in temporary tent accommodation on the remote islands hundreds of miles away from the up-market holiday resorts clustered around the capital, Malé.

The government of the Maldives has announced that it is taking over all aspects of aid distribution, and the Friends of Maldives team was seeking clarification about how and when their contributions would be handled and put to use.

“David Hardingham was going to the Maldives to speak to the organizers of the government Tsunami aid operation, following an announcement that all Aid was forthwith to be distributed by the Maldivian government,” said a statement from the Friends of Maldives head quarters in England.  “FOM are reluctant to hand over their aid without assurances on agreed protocols on how and when the Government of Maldives is going to distribute the FOM aid.”

FOM were about to allocate a further shipment of aid valued at US$ 200,000 for long-term relief projects for remote Maldives islanders who do not gain any direct benefit from the tourism industry.

The organization described the ban on Mr. Hardingham as “an extraordinary show of ingratitude” given that FOM had been working in close partnership with Maldives Aid in recovery work since the tsunami.

No explanation has been given for the travel ban on Mr. Hardingham. Friends of Maldives are perceived as being aligned with opponents of the government led by President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, and have been openly critical of human rights abuses in the Maldives.

“We believe the government of Maldives has been determined to close us down following concerns voiced by Friends of Maldives regarding recent allegations of a suspicious death in custody and recent cases of alleged torture in Maldives prisons,” said Mr. Hardingham from his hotel in Colombo.

“This is potential negative publicity for the government of Maldives at a time when they are asking for more aid and encouraging tourists to return to the Maldives,” he said.

A Maldivian government spokesman, quoted by the Associated Press news agency, said Mr. Hardingham had been blacklisted because Friends of Maldives was allegedly associated with Muslim extremists trying to gain a foothold in the Maldives, a moderate Islamic nation. Mr. Hardingham strongly denies any such link. “This is a total fabrication. I have no links whatsoever with any fundamentalists, Islamic, Christian or any other type," he said.