No response to requests for Commonwealth assistance with inquiry, alleges Foreign Ministry
23 Apr 2012, 7:30 PM
The Foreign Ministry has issued a statement in Dhivehi claiming the Commonwealth had not answered the government’s requests seeking expertise for the Commission of National Inquiry (CNI).
The CNI was set up by President Dr Mohamed Waheed Hassan to investigate the controversial change of power on February 7 which the ousted Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) maintains was a coup d’état orchestrated by remnants of the former dictatorship, funded by several resort interests and carried out by mutinous police and military units.
The Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG) on April 16 challenged the independence of the commission, urging the government “to review immediately the composition and terms of reference of the Commission to make it genuinely independent, credible and impartial. CMAG reiterated the Commonwealth’s offer to provide assistance in this regard.”
However in its statement yesterday, the Maldives Foreign Ministry claimed “when the inquiry commission was set up on February 22, this ministry requested the Commonwealth for expertise. This ministry sent the terms of reference for such an expert to the Commonwealth. However, the Commonwealth has not sent an answer to the request to this day.”
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