As
Police Detain
Nasheed in
Maldives, UN
Says It's a
Legal
Process, Not
Crisis
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
October 8 --
The UN often
hooks up with
celebrities in
a
desperate
seeming
attempt to
reach a wider
public with
its preaching
about
the rule of
law and, yes,
human rights.
Sadder still
is when the UN
can't even
keep up with
the world of
celebrity
concern. So it
is with
the Maldives.
Inner
City Press on
Monday asked
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
spokesman
Martin Nesirky
about the
arrest, by
riot police
using pepper
spray,
of deposed
Maldives
president
Mohamed
Nasheed. Any
comment?
Nesirky
replied
that while the
UN has seen
the reports,
"there is a
legal process
that's in
train, that
needs to be
able to run
its
course." Video
here, from
Minute 9:15.
Might
it be an
"illegal"
train? A
recent Amnesty
International
report on the
Maldives
details how "a
campaign of
violent
repression
this year has
shattered this
idyllic image,
exposing a
human rights
crisis that
has gripped
the country
since
President
Mohamed
Nasheed's
ousting in
February
2012."
Given
the prevalence
of celebrity
and affluent
honeymoons on
the Maldives,
a group letter
to this effect
went out, from
among others
the UN blue
tinted Ed
Norton, Darryl
Hannah, Minnie
Driver,
Richard
Branson and
Thom Yorke.
But
where is the
UN? They are
watching the
train of the
"legal"
processes,
letting it
runs its
course. For
how long?
Watch this
site.
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