Sometimes dhimmi money ain’t green. “Government Orders Dismantling of Tsunami Project,” from Minivan News, with thanks to MH:
The government ordered an indoor marketplace in Haa Dhaal, Kulhudhuffushi to be dismantled last week because the building was donated by “people in opposition to the government” and “Christians.”
The $70,000 marketplace was built by Tracy Structures, a UK construction company, and facilitated by Maldives Aid, a UK-based tsunami charity.
The building, part of Maldives Aid’s tsunami relief work, is designed to allow locals to buy and sell fish and other produce. It was finished in March and was due to be handed over to the island community in an opening ceremony this month.
The largest post-tsunami construction project in the atoll looks in jeopardy, though, after the Minister for Fisheries, Abdullah Kamaluddeen, ordered the Kulhudhuffushi Island Chief to destroy the building for political reasons.
“AK visited the island a few weeks ago. He told the Island Chief “˜this building has to come down.” When the Island Chief asked why, AK said “˜this was built by people opposed to the government”¦ they cause trouble”¦ and the building is not good for this purpose,– Maldives Aid coordinator Mariyam Seena told Minivan News.
The Kulhudhuffushi Island Chief, Moosa Ali, added that central government sees the steel building as a ploy to “spread evil principles in Maldives.”
Maldives Aid is the sister organization of UK-based Friends of Maldives (FOM), a pressure group that campaigns against human rights abuses in Maldives.
Although the two organizations are officially separate, the government has bent over backwards to make Maldives Aid’s work difficult – impounding tsunami aid, obstructing projects and refusing the NGO registration.
They continually accuse the trustee of the charity, David Hardingham, of “˜Christian Missionary” work but blacklisted him from the country last year on suspicion of “˜Islamic terrorism.”
Speaking from the island, locals accused the government of playing petty politics with their lives.
“If the government can’t stand Christian money, they should give back all the aid the European Union gives them,” a local man told Minivan Radio.