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Newly appointed Maldives President Mohamed Waheed Hassan denied being part of any plan to remove President Mohamed Nasheed. "Do I look like someone who will bring about a coup d'etat?" he asked journalists on Wednesday.
Updated 12:05 p.m. ET: Supporters of the Maldives former president rioted through the streets and seized some police stations Wednesday to demand his reinstatement as the country's new leader appealed for an end to the political turmoil roiling this Indian Ocean nation.
Allies said former leader Mohamed Nasheed and other top party officials were beaten by police in the street chaos. The nation's first democratically elected president, Nasheed resigned Tuesday after police joined months of street protests against his rule and soldiers defected.
Late Wednesday evening, Nasheed supporters seized some small police stations but larger ones stayed under official control, police spokesman Amhed Shyam said. Residents told local reporters that as many as 10 police stations on small islands may have been seized. The Maldives is made up of nearly 1,200 scattered islands, some of which have just a few hundred residents.
Nasheed said Wednesday he was forced to resign at gunpoint and he promised to fight to return to office.
"We will come to power again," Nasheed said. "We will never step back. I will not accept this coup and will bring justice to the Maldivians."
New President Mohammed Waheed Hassan denied claims there was a coup or a plot to oust Nasheed. The former vice president, he said he had not prepared to take over the country and called for a unity coalition to be formed to help it recover.
"Together, I am confident, we'll be able to build a stable and democratic country," he said, adding that his government intended to respect the rule of law.
Later in the day, he appeared to be consolidating his power by appointing a new military chief and police commissioner.
A U.N. team is expected in the country later this week.
Original post: MALE -- The ex-president of the Maldives said on Wednesday that he was forced to resign at gunpoint, despite earlier claims by the Indian Ocean resort islands' new leader that there had been no coup.
"Yes, I was forced to resign at gunpoint," Mohamed Nasheed told reporters after his party meeting a day after his resignation. "There were guns all around me and they told me they wouldn't hesitate to use them if I didn't resign.
The Maldives, one of the world's most high-profile luxury tourist destinations, installed Mohamed Waheed Hassan as president on Tuesday after the man credited with bringing democracy to the islands resigned, apparently under military pressure following a police mutiny. It was not immediately clear who was holding the guns.
"I call on the chief justice to look into the matter of who was behind this coup. We will try our best to bring back the lawful government," said Nasheed, a former pro-democracy political prisoner who campaigned successfully for democratic reforms and was elected to office in 2008.
Just 24 hours after police joined opposition protesters in attacking the military headquarters and seizing the state TV station, the streets of the capital island, Male, were calm as people went to work and children to school.
Trouble in paradise: Maldives president quits after cops mutiny
Former Vice-President Waheed, at his first news conference as president, said he was holding discussions with all Maldivian parties and expected to have nominations for his cabinet ready in a few days.
He denied being part of any plan to remove President Mohamed Nasheed, whose party described his ouster as a coup.
"Do I look like someone who will bring about a coup d'etat?" Waheed asked. "There was no plan. I was not prepared at all."
The political tumult, like most of everyday Maldivian life, was far from the tourists who stream to the chain of desert islands, seeking sun-and-sand paradise at luxury resorts that can command $1,000 a night. Tourism is estimated to account for two-thirds of the Maldives' gross domestic product of about $1 billion.
Sinan Hussain / AP
A Maldives police officer, in blue, charges soldiers during a clash in Male, Maldives, Tuesday.
Nasheed resigned and was later freed from military custody. Waheed was sworn in by the speaker of the People's Majlis, or parliament.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a statement 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 polarized the country."
Nasheed's order to the military to arrest a judge, whom he accused of blocking multimillion dollar corruption cases against members of former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom's government, set off three weeks of opposition protests that peaked with Tuesday's police revolt.
'Forced to resign'
In the end, elements of the same military marched him into his own office to order his own resignation, a close aide told Reuters in the first witness account of Nasheed's exit.
"The gates of the president's office swung open and in came these unmarked vehicles we've never seen before and Nasheed came out with around 50 soldiers around him, and senior military men we'd never seen before," said Paul Roberts, Nasheed's communications adviser.
Photos: Soldiers clash with police as Nasheed resigns
Nasheed was brought to his office, met his cabinet, and then went on television to announce his resignation, Roberts said from an undisclosed location.
"He was forced to resign by the military," said Roberts, a 32-year old British citizen. "He could have gone down shooting, but he didn't want blood on his hands. The security forces moved against him."
Amnesty International urged the new government to avoid persecuting people based on political affiliation, amid opposition calls for Nasheed's prosecution and rumors his senior allies would not be allowed to leave the islands.
Although there were some advisories, including from Britain, against travel to Male, most of the Maldives' nearly 1 million annual visitors never reach the capital.
Instead, they are taken straight from the airport island by speedboat or seaplane to their resorts. Flights on Wednesday were arriving as usual.
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Reuters and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
Leave a Comment:
Uh oh. Another chance for Obama to intervene in the domestic affairs of a soverign nation. Better look out.
Nah, that's what Bush did. President Obama has gotten us out of these situations that W caused.
@ Vince-545056 - I want whatever you're smoking. Libya's mess was NOT created by Bush. You seem to like to rewrite history with blanket comments. I totally agree with @joe1022joe. Bush wanted get access to 'all the worlds wealth' and was nothing more than a puppet for some big boy corps. Obama is certainly no different - you are niave if you think Libya was not about money. Needless to say Obama needs to save face and give the illusion he is trying to save the world (on China's dime) for more than just corporate financial interests. It being an election year - I would not be surprised in the least if Maldives has soldiers on the ground in no time.
@Chris-345602: Obama didn't invade Libya and only got involved militarily, on a *limited* basis, AFTER the civil war had begun, so whether or not that had to do with oil (though it probably did), it's not the same as two invasions that put more than a quarter million boots on the ground in the middle east and saw billions of dollars grow legs and literally disappear.
That would be the Bush that you are talking about. Bush and the Dick were the ones who went about invading countries and getting us into messes that they had no idea of how to get us out of. Lieing about history will never make it true. We were not born yesterday.
muslims... what great people.
These bigoted remarks have no place here. Hopefully the moderators will remove this post and ban you.
i live in the middle east. i know what i'm talking about.
See what happens when you are too stupid or too stubborn to pay off the right people?
At least this coup was bloodless, unlike what has been going on throughout the Middle East. The only question is whether this change in leadership is supported by the majority of the people in the country or if this is a minority using force to seize power. For this government to have any legitimacy they should immediately hold a special election to select a new leader, with the leader recently ousted by the coup allowed to be on the ballot. Until a new election is held, no country should recognize the current leadership since they are not the legitimate, democratically elected government of the country.
Mohamed Nasheed was a progressive thinker who wanted to bring the Maldives into the 20th century. His coerced departure from elected office is a statement by Islamicists that coercion is acceptable if your values are to liberal. The irony of the liberal is that they are reluctant to use force to defend or advance a cause, and yet the most successful political systems and economies in the world are based on liberalism. It takes moral restraint of a military to obey the laws of a democracy, clearly these goons in the Maldives have none. They have their religious sensitivities instead.
My answer to Waheed, others like him and the world at large.....if the first comment out of your mouth is anything like this: "Do I look like someone who would......(you fill in the gap)" then I DO NOT TRUST YOU and life's lesson has taught me that the prettier the snake in color, the deadlier the venom.
Whatever happens we need to stay out of this. We need to protect our borders and our allies. That is where our responsibilities should end.
That's what we need in the U.S. Clear house of all of congress. Make the snakes leave.
Who cares they are sinking! Besides it is just a play ground for the rich so why should we care?
If the people of the Maldives really thought that their islands were doomed by man made CO2 when why are the Maldives working on building new airports to bring more tourists to the Maldives?
http://maldives.net.mv/1784/maldives-prepares-to-build-two-new-airports/
http://www.maldivestourismupdate.com/2009/07/11-new-airports-to-be-constructed-in.html
Does the entire nation have a suicide pact or did the Maldives jump on the global warming doom and gloom band wagon just to scam some money from it?
Power to the people.... Let Anarchy reign! After that rebuild a government that serves the people!
Did I miss something in this article? What are they rioting for? All I see is the want the the one in charge gone.
Its been just a day since President Nasheed resigned. Whatever they say abt him we never saw suck brutality under his presidency.
Ah, and the chaos begins :(
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It is a very beautiful nation with thousand islands. The captial looks like a child playing the legos on the lego board. It is so cool and so cute. The island stands out from nowhere. They have beautiful beaches and have beautiful views.
Please do not fight for each other. And they just have 300000 people. They are not like China which has about billion people.
Save themselves. Please do not fight against each other. They do not have many people.
Global warming cant come soon enough here....