US embassy cable - 05COLOMBO837

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 04 COLOMBO 000837 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR SA/INS 
USPACOM FOR FPA 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/02/2015 
TAGS: PTER, PGOV, CASC, MV, Maldives 
SUBJECT: MALDIVES BLACKLISTS FOREIGN NATIONALS FOR 
SUSPECTED TERRORIST LINKS 
 
REF: USDAO COLOMBO IIR 6 816 0132 05 (NOTAL) 
 
Classified By: CDA JAMES F. ENTWISTLE.  REASON:  1.4 (B,D). 
 
------ 
SUMMARY 
------- 
 
1.  (C) On May 2 Maldivian Foreign Secretary Abdul Hameed 
Zakariyya met with CDA in Colombo to advise him that the 
Government of the Republic of Maldives (GORM) had blacklisted 
eight foreigners, including an apparent American citizen, 
from entering Maldives because of suspected links to a 
Maldivian Muslim fundamentalist recently deported from India 
for attempting to purchase arms (Reftel).  When asked for 
evidence of such links, Zakariyya was unable to provide any, 
other than (sometimes tenuous) ties to the Maldivian 
Democratic Party (MDP), a pro-reform organization opposed to 
the GORM.  Representatives of the MDP and a blacklisted 
British national who was denied entry to Maldives on April 28 
told us that the GORM's current campaign is timed to coincide 
with the return to Maldives of an MDP activist who had spent 
several years abroad in self-imposed exile.  The GORM has 
asserted to us before--most recently in the aftermath of 
civil unrest in August 2004--an MDP connection to Muslim 
fundamentalists/extremists/terrorists, but thus far remains 
unable to provide credible evidence to support that claim. 
We will continue to urge the GORM not to lump advocates of 
peaceful reform in with those who apparently seek to topple 
President Gayoom through violent means.  End summary. 
 
----------------------------------- 
GORM WATCHLISTS SUSPECT FOREIGNERS 
----------------------------------- 
 
2.  (C)  In a May 2 meeting with CDA in Colombo, Maldivian 
Foreign Secretary Abdul Hameed Zakariyya provided additional 
information on Ibrahim Asif, the Maldivian citizen arrested 
and deported by Indian authorities in April for allegedly 
attempting to purchase weapons and explosives in Kerala 
(Reftel).  Zakariyya attempted to link Asif (now in custody 
in Maldives) and his purported ties with Muslim 
fundamentalists to exiled members of the Maldivian Democratic 
Party (MDP), an opposition group not officially recognized in 
Maldives, and Friends of Maldives (FOM), a UK-based 
organization that supports democratic reforms in the island 
state.  When asked by CDA if the Government of Republic of 
Maldives (GORM) had concrete evidence linking these three 
entities, Zakariyya replied in the negative.  The FOM and the 
MDP are certainly linked, however, he asserted, because a 
Maldivian national living in UK is the treasurer for both 
groups.  According to Zakariyya, one of these accounts was 
closed by a UK bank "due to suspicious dealings."  (Note:  We 
have known for some time that the MDP and FOM have ties; 
neither organization makes any attempt to hide the 
relationship.  FOM head David Hardingham and MDP Chairman 
Mohamed Nasheed were college roommates, and some of the 
funding sources, especially in FOM's formative stages, are 
probably the same.  Hardingham told us that most of FOM's 
funds now come from private British citizens.  We have no 
reason to suspect either group of terrorist ties.  End note.) 
 
3.  (C)  Operating on the assumption that all three entities 
were linked, the GORM has placed eight foreign nationals, 
including one individual it believes is a U.S. citizen, on a 
watchlist with the intent of denying them entry to Maldives, 
Zakariyya reported.  Zakariyya identified the U.S. citizen as 
Nick Grace, the head of a website called 
ClandestineRadio.com, whom the Foreign Secretary described as 
a "psychological warfare expert."  (In a December 
conversation with CDA, Chief Government Spokesman Dr. Ahmed 
Shaheed had also mentioned Grace--although not in the context 
of blacklisting him--expressing concern that Grace may have 
helped opposition activists to set up a clandestine radio 
station.)  In addition to Grace, the list includes two 
Jordanians, two Pakistanis and three British citizens, all of 
whom are believed to have some connection to either Asif, the 
MDP or FOM.  As a result, Zakariyya added, British citizen 
and FOM head David Hardingham had already been barred from 
entering the country on April 28 (see para 5 below). 
 
4.  (C) Zakariyya offered several reasons for the GORM's 
decision to deny Hardingham entry.  First, he said, 
Hardingham was coming to Maldives to distribute tsunami aid 
collected in the UK through FOM's own network, bypassing the 
GORM's tsunami fund.  The Foreign Secretary said he thought 
that initiative was inappropriate, as the GORM wants to track 
all aid distributed to ensure it reaches those most in need. 
Zakariyya also claimed that Hardingham knew the editor of a 
UK-based web magazine, the Dhivehi Observer, which had put 
out an editorial last December implying that President Gayoom 
should be killed.  (Note:  The Dhivehi Observer is an 
anti-government website that often publishes extreme views. 
Its editor, a UK citizen of Maldivian extraction, is a 
council member of the MDP but has no connection to FOM.  End 
note.)  He also provided the text of an e-mail purportedly 
sent by Hardingham to several Maldivian associates in 
September opining that the British government was unlikely to 
be interested in events in Maldives unless there were "a lack 
of stability affecting the financial equilibrium or 
international security--like fundamentalist terrorism." The 
message went on speculate that "the threat of (President) 
Gayoom providing fertile ground for fundamentalism" might 
"stir" the UK's interest. 
 
5.  (C) Charge told Zakariyya that the U.S. takes terrorism 
issues seriously and is following up on the information the 
GORM has provided on Asif.  At the same time, the U.S. is 
skeptical about assertions that the MDP and groups like FOM 
were linked to violence and terrorism.  Charge cautioned 
Zakariyya to be very careful about making such assertions 
without adequate basis. 
 
----------------------- 
MDP, FOM SEE GORM PLOT 
----------------------- 
 
6.  (C) On May 3 poloff met with Mohamad Latheef, the head of 
the MDP who lives in self-imposed exile in Sri Lanka, his 
daughter Jennifer Latheef and FOM head David Hardingham, a 
British national.  Hardingham confirmed that he had been 
barred from entering Maldives April 28 (when transiting 
Colombo en route from London to Male, he was informed by Sri 
Lankan Airlines that the GORM had requested he not be 
permitted to board the onward flight).  He expressed concern 
that the GORM might also have listed him on an Interpol or 
other international watchlist, citing a May 1 statement from 
a Government Spokesman that Hardingham was under 
investigation for involvement with "a fundamentalist Islamic 
group." 
 
7  (C) Strenuously denying any link to Muslim 
fundamentalists, terrorists or arms smugglers, the Briton 
said that he suspects that the real reasons for his 
blacklisting are his support for democratic reform in 
Maldives, his human rights activities and his reluctance to 
use GORM channels for tsunami aid distribution.  (Hardingham 
said he had registered a charity, Maldives Aid, in the UK 
after the tsunami.  The charity has provided 100 tons of 
food, medicine, clothing, kitchen utensils and school 
supplies directly to tsunami victims.)  In fact, he asserted, 
his primary reason for traveling to Maldives was to work out 
with GORM authorities the distribution of the last remaining 
container of relief items.  The previous shipment, which 
contained buckets of school supplies, toys and books 
hand-packed by British children, was held up by Maldivian 
customs officials because one bucket contained a book with 
Christmas pictures in it; the delay cost the charity a 
significant sum, Hardingham said.  He remarked ruefully on 
the irony of the GORM alleging his connection to Islamic 
fundamentalists, noting that in the past he has had to fight 
GORM accusations of being a Christian missionary.  He 
speculated that his recent efforts to draw international 
attention to the March 9 death in police custody of Muaviyath 
Mahmooodh, a young Maldivian detained on Dhoonidhoo Island on 
drug offenses, and the alleged torture by police of another 
detainee, had also provoked GORM ire. 
 
8.  (C)  Latheef and Hardingham speculated that the April 24 
arrest of Ibrahim Asif in India and the subsequent and highly 
publicized blacklisting of Hardingham were timed to coincide 
with--and thus overshadow--the April 30 return to Maldives of 
MDP chairperson Mohamed Nasheed after several years of 
self-imposed exile in the UK (where he obtained asylum) and 
Sri Lanka.  The publicity surrounding Nasheed's plans to 
return--including his own press releases announcing those 
plans--gave the GORM ample opportunity to set up the whole 
"arrest" of Asif in advance--perhaps even with the complicity 
of the Indian government, Latheef suggested--and then 
fabricate links between the MDP and the arms smuggler to 
discredit the pro-democracy group.  Publicizing a purported 
terrorist plot against the government could be "a 
diversionary tactic" to deflect international attention from 
GORM human rights abuses and the growing clamor for 
democratic reforms, Latheef and Hardingham charged. 
 
9.  (C)  The GORM clearly feels threatened by Nasheed's 
popularity, Latheef asserted, and fears his attempts to 
organize the MDP at home will be successful.  (Note:  Nasheed 
was expected to open an MDP office in Maldives this week. 
End note.)  Thousands of people greeted Nasheed on his 
return, Latheef claimed, alleging that GORM "thugs," armed 
with iron bars, had attempted unsuccessfully to provoke a 
violent incident.  Echoing some of Hardingham's comments, 
Latheef noted that the GORM tries to discredit the MDP to 
Maldivian audiences by depicting the group as Christians 
(indeed, an anti-MDP website run by President Gayoom's son 
depicts Nasheed wearing a papal mitre) and to western 
audiences as Islamic fundamentalists.   Although the GORM has 
not harassed Nasheed so far, Latheef acknowledged, he is 
nonetheless sure the GORM is "gearing up" again to repress 
and arrest pro-reform activists as it did in August--and will 
use evidence of an anti-Gayoom-cum-fundamentalist plot as 
justification. 
 
10.  (C)  Both Latheef and Hardingham denied knowing Asif, 
who had reportedly been living in Sri Lanka in the 
northwestern district of Puttalam.  Latheef acknowledged that 
Asif had worked three years ago in a clothing shop Latheef 
owns in a northern atoll but said Asif was fired by the 
manager for incompetence after just a few weeks.  Asif had 
also worked for a while as a manager at an agricultural 
company owned by Nasheed's father, he admitted, but was fired 
from there as well.  Maldivian society is so small that it is 
easy to find some kind of connection between individuals, 
Latheef concluded. 
 
-------- 
COMMENT 
-------- 
 
11.  (C) The Embassy has had no contact with Nick Grace and 
has no information on his citizenship.  We will attempt to 
contact him and tell him we understand he is on a GORM 
wathchlist.  In late summer/early autumn of 2004 Latheef and 
Nasheed had told us that MDP wanted to set up an opposition 
radio broadcast but did not identify Nick Grace or any other 
American as offering or providing assistance.  A quick check 
of www.clandestineradio.com suggests that the site tracks 
opposition radio broadcasts from all over the world but does 
not suggest that the group assists in setting up these 
broadcasts.  Nick Grace is listed on the homepage as 
"Washington Managing Editor."  The site's section for 
Maldives lists Minivan Radio, its short-wave frequencies, 
time of broadcast, and listener critiques of the quality of 
transmission.  The sole "newsclip" for Minivan Radio posted 
on the site is a report on tsunami relief originally posted 
on BBC's website.  Although the site's "intel" section names 
Friends of Maldives as the broadcast's sponsor, Hardingham 
denied any ownership, telling us that MDP operates Minivan 
Radio. 
 
12.  (C)  Comment (cont.):  The combined total land mass of 
Maldives seems hardly large enough to accommodate the 
elaborate conspiracy theories and counter-theories depicted 
by the GORM and its opponents.  If true, Asif's reported 
attempts to smuggle arms and explosives into Maldives are an 
obvious cause for concern, and the GORM has a responsibility 
to investigate.  We remain unconvinced, however, that there 
is any link between possible Islamic 
fundamentalists/terrorists on the one hand and MDP and FOM on 
the other.  Nothing Zakariyya was able to tell us suggests 
the GORM has any such evidence either.  We hope Latheef's 
accusation that the government is "gearing up" to suppress 
reform is unfounded.  GORM decisions to hold the People's 
Majlis elections so soon after the tsunami and to allow 
Nasheed to return unharassed to Maldives would seem to 
suggest the contrary.  That said, the GORM's attempts to 
demonize its critics is a discouraging reversion to tired old 
tactics we had hoped the government had abandoned.  We will 
continue to press the GORM to move ahead on the road to 
reform.  (An update on political reform efforts follows 
septel.)  We will also continue to tell the GORM that the 
U.S. is eager to cooperate on cases of suspected terrorism 
(as that of Mr. Asif would appear to be) but not interested 
in unsubstantiated assertions that the MDP and similar groups 
support terrorism and violence. 
ENTWISTLE