Scale of the SAARC Summit

When Minivan News first visited yesterday, a large crowd of local residents stood by the road leading to the giant building, staring at it dumbfounded as if waiting for extraterrestrials to emerge.

Past the polished lobby, the cavernous chamber inside is warmly lined with wood and resembles a modern concert hall. Opposition media outlets have ungenerously suggested the structure is sinking into the swamp, while assorted government officials were quick to attribute this to political jealousy.

Addu is a fiercely independent atoll, neglected by successive governments following an abortive attempt to secede from the Maldives alongside Huvadhu Atoll and Fuvahmulah as the United Suvadive Republic in 1959. This was brutally crushed in 1962 by then-President Ibrahim Nasir using a gunboat borrowed from Sri Lanka, and the entire island of Havaru Thinadhoo was depopulated and its inhabitants dispersed, killed or imprisoned.