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Peace returns to Maldives following weekend of rioting

Government offices, businesses and schools in the Maldives reopened yesterday as calm returned to the island country off the coast of Sri Lanka following weekend violence, a government official said.

The trouble began Friday when inmates at a prison on an island near the capital, Male, protested alleged torture. Three prisoners were killed in a subsequent police crackdown, setting off unprecedented riots Saturday in which government buildings were torched.

Armored personnel carriers were posted outside President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom's house in the capital Sunday and police guarded government buildings, but officials said the situation was now calm.

"Everything is normal today," Ahmed Sareer, a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry, said by telephone from the Sri Lankan capital. "People are attending to their businesses and there is calm."

Government offices, bus-inesses and schools reopened after being shut down over the weekend due to the unrest, officials said.

Meanwhile, three people injured during Friday's prison riot were flown to Sri Lanka for treatment late Sunday, airport officials in Colombo and the Maldivian government said.

"Medical evacuation of additional persons is also being organized and all are continuing to receive full medical care," the government said on its Web site.

The violence shocked this mostly Sunni Muslim country of 278,000 people.

The Web site gave no other detail, but said the men were wounded "In the disturbances that occurred at Maafushi Prison." It was not know if they were inmates or security officials.

Gayoom said yesterday he was "greatly dismayed" by the "great deal of damage inflicted" by the rioters.

"A large number of people with extensive records of serious crimes, exploited the situation and took matters out of control," Gayoom said on the government's Web site.

Witnesses said the prisoners' deaths on Friday sparked a protest by relatives on Saturday that turned into a riot, with a mob torching the Election Commission's office and the High Court building.

The unrest coincided with Friday's deadline for submitting applications for the country's upcoming presidential elections. A Male resident reached by telephone yesterday said pro-democracy elements had fueled the street demonstrations. He spoke on condition of anonymity.

Details were sketchy because information is tightly controlled in the Maldives, which has been ruled by Gayoom with an iron fist for more than two decades.

Gayoom, 64, is seeking a sixth five-year term as president. He will be opposed by four other candidates in the election scheduled for next month.

Some critics accuse Gayoom's government of corruption and of failing to check rising unemployment, crime and drug abuse.
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