Politicians and businessmen funding gangs to attack opponents: Asia Foundation
07 Oct 2012, 6:05 PM
Daniel Bosley
Politicians and businessmen are paying gangs in the Maldives tens of thousands of rufiya to assault rivals, damage property, and in some cases have them killed, according to a report into the country’s gang culture by the Asia Foundation.
“Political and business elites exploit gangs to carry out a range of illegal activities that serve their political or business interests in exchange for financing the gangs,” stated the report, which collected data through 20 focus groups and 24 in-depth interviews with gang members.
“This has worrying implications for support for democracy among the young generation as they witness first hand corruption on the part of their political representatives,” the report states.
The research was conducted primarily in the capital Male’, which it describes as having 20-30 gangs, ranging in size from 50-400 members.
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