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Maldives president: I was forced to resign at gunpoint

09 Feb 2012 - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Fighting broke out between police and protesters in the Maldives after ousted president Mohamed Nasheed claimed he had been forced to give up his office at gunpoint.

His supporters clashed with officers in the capital, Male, after a protest against his removal on Tuesday, which he suggested was a coup by military and police. A mass meeting of members of his Maldivian Democratic party marched as a group to the capital's Republican Square where violence began.

There were conflicting accounts of the confrontation. Some reports suggested that protesters threw petrol bombs at police, and attacked a private television station that had been critical of the deposed government. But earlier, Nasheed's party said he had been attacked and beaten when riot police fired teargas and made baton charges against hundreds of his supporters.

Acting police commissioner Abdulla Fairooz said "around 40" people had been arrested, including the party's former chairwoman Mariya Ahmed Didi.

Nasheed told reporters that he had been forced out of office: "There were guns all around me, and they told me they wouldn't hesitate to use them if I didn't resign." But his replacement, Mohamed Waheed Hassan Manik, the former vice-president, said the transfer of power had been peaceful and constitutional.

"Do I look like someone who will bring about a coup d'etat?" Waheed asked reporters. "There was no plan. I was not prepared at all." He called for a government of national unity.
Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary general, said he hoped the "handover of power, which has been announced as a constitutional step to avoid further violence and instability, will lead to the peaceful resolution of the political crisis that has polarised the country".

The confrontation was the culmination of weeks of protests following Nasheed's order to the military to arrest a judge, whom he accused of blocking multimillion-dollar corruption cases against members of the former government.

Hours before his resignation, there had been a mutiny in police ranks which saw a few dozen officers side with protesters and then clash with soldiers in the streets. The officers took control of the state broadcaster in Male and began playing messages in support of former president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, who ruled for more than 30 years.

According to the Minivian News, the Maldives high commissioner in the UK, Farahanaz Faizal, has resigned in protest at the new government: "My conscience wouldn't allow me to serve a government which had overthrown a democratically elected government in a coup d'etat."

British, US and Australian diplomats have flown in from neighbouring Sri Lanka to provide consular assistance, if needed, to tourists holidaying in the Maldives. (Source: The Guardian)

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Maldives president: I was forced to resign at gunpoint

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