9-Feb-2012 - Maldives tense after day of street violence

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(CNN) -- A tense calm reigned Thursday morning in the streets of Male, the capital of the Maldives, a day after the country's former president and his supporters clashed with the police. The unrest in the Indian Ocean nation, which has reportedly spread beyond Male to outlying islands, is the result of the ouster Tuesday of Mohamed Nasheed -- the country's first democratically elected president in three decades -- after opposition demonstrations and a police revolt. Nasheed, who says he was forced to resign at gunpoint in a coup, has called for his successor -- his former vice president, Mohammed Waheed Hassan -- to leave office. His account is contested by political opponents who say Nasheed is destabilizing the country. On Wednesday, Nasheed found himself back in the familiar role of street protester. His party, the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), said the former president and several lawmakers had been beaten by police during what it described as "a peaceful protest." Video footage posted online by RaajeTV, a user-submitted video sharing site, showed a group of police officers entering a store and escorting Nasheed out into the street. It did not show him being beaten. A spokesman for the Progressive Party, which participated in the demonstrations that led to Nasheed's ouster, said that Nasheed's supporters had provoked the police, who responded angrily. "We are asking all sides for restraint and calm," said Mohamed Hussain Shareef, the spokesman for the Progressive Party, which is loyal to Nasheed's predecessor, Maumoon Abdul Gayoom. The custom nfl jerseys police could not be immediately reached for comment. Political tensions in the Maldives had been simmering for weeks. Last month, the arrest of Judge Abdulla Mohamed, the chief judge of the Maldives Criminal Court, set off a constitutional crisis. Nasheed's administration alleged that the judge had been controlling the judiciary of the nation and not investigating corruption charges against members of Gayoom's government. But opposition groups claimed the arrest was unconstitutional, and their protests culminated in the police revolt that drove Nasheed out of power. Shareef of the Progressive Party said Thursday that a degree of normalcy had returned to Male's streets. "People are sending their children to school," he said, noting that unrest in the Maldives has cheap nba jerseys tended to take place in the afternoon and evening. But Eva Abdulla, a lawmaker for the MDP, suggested that more confrontations could take place Thursday after the violence of the day before. "Given the kind of brutality we saw on TV last night, I don't know how calm people will be," Abdulla said. Several lawmakers who had been detained by the police during the protest Wednesday had been returned to their homes early Thursday, she said, adding that all of them had been beaten. Moosa Manik, the acting chairman of the MDP, who was hospitalized during the violence, has been flown to Sri Lanka for treatment, Abdulla said. She rejected the idea that the MDP would participate in negotiations to form a new government with other parties and the new president, who she described as a "puppet leader" for the police. "This is not a legitimate government," she said. "We will not negotiate with an unconstitutional government." The United States has called for cooperation among the different parties. "We're urging the government and the political parties to work together to resolve the situation peacefully and we're continuing to monitor the situation," U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Wednesday. Nuland said U.S. envoy Robert Blake would make a stop in Male on Saturday as part of previously scheduled trip to the region. Shareef of the Progressive Party said the lack of a multiparty government was contributing to the instability in the country. The current situation is a dramatic upset for Nasheed, who was elected in 2008 in the country's first fully democratic elections in 30 years. He defeated Gayoom, who is still considered a hero by many in the Maldives who credit him with transforming a fishing culture into a tourist nation. During Gayoom's long rule, Nasheed was among his fiercest critics, alleging that he ruled with an iron fist, crushing dissent, amassing wealth and stacking his administration with friends and relatives. Nasheed was arrested as a journalist several times and held as a political prisoner. Until his defeat by Nasheed, Gayoom won six previous elections as the only candidate on the ballot. He had sought a seventh five-year term, saying that he would need a few more years to see through the reforms he has put in place. Maldives is also grappling with a very likely possibility that it will go under water if the current pace of climate change keeps raising sea levels. Most of it lies just 4.9 feet (1.5 meters) above sea The United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change has forecast a rise in sea levels of at least 7.1 inches (18 cm) by the end of the century. Nasheed once nfl headset held a Cabinet meeting underwater, with ministers wearing scuba gear, to highlight the problem.

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