Truck and Barter

In September 2003, a young Maldivian was brutally tortured to death in the government prison island. The head of this government recently visited the United States; the photo with former President Clinton at the Clinton Global Initiative was on the president’s office website for over a week.

“ ….the NSS force took Evan in there and they must have shackled him. We heard the sound of metal restrainers being put on. Then they began to beat him. Evan was just the first prisoner they beat that night.

We heard Evan crying out with pain, 'Mother! Father!' he kept on calling out loudly. Then there was no sound. The NSS took Evan out and brought other prisoners in, and chained them together in a line…

The NSS officers handcuffed Evan's hands together above his head and wrapped a tarpaulin around his body. They lifted him up with a pulley so his feet just touched the ground. He was beaten and when he stopped making any sound, they threw water over him and resumed beating him again. They kept beating him with a measuring rod and police batons for a long time after he stopped making any sound.

The Corrections warden said Evan was faking and being tricky, so they put fire on various parts of Evan's exposed arms as they continued beating him. They also broke a chair against his head. Evan was probably already dead by this time.

While the NSS were killing Evan, the other prisoners whose names had been called were being tortured and beaten. The NSS took Evan's body away…”

Should people who order, tolerate, and perform such acts of barbarism be welcome in the great nation of United States of America? More pictures of this tyranny in paradise (warning; pictures are very disturbing) and a recent article in the Guardian
looks at the Maldives situation.