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| Sunday, 22 August 2004 |
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Maldives invites EU fact-finding mission MALE, Saturday (AFP) The Maldivian government has invited the European Union to send a "fact finding mission" to the Indian Ocean archipelago following last week's unrest in which a state of emergency was declared. Male has asked the EU to dispatch the mission to Asia's most expensive resort spot after pro-democracy protests prompted President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom to announce the state of emergency, the president's office said Thursday. The government has said it arrested 185 people, including seven legislators, over Friday's unrest and has accused the country's pro-democracy movement of seeking to stage a coup against Gayoom, Asia's longest serving leader. "The government's decision to invite an EU mission was to boost its efforts... implementing the agenda for democratic reform in the country," Gayoom's office said in its latest statement. The announcement came three days after a British member of the European Parliament, Nirj Deva, supported an appeal by Maldivian dissidents for tourists to boycott the nation of 1,192 coral islands. |
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