Fishermen’s protest enters second day

A protest organized by the Islamic Democratic Party (IDP) to demand the rights of the country’s fishermen has entered its second day despite a sharp decline in the amount of people taking part in the protest.

21 hours after the protest began, the number of fishing vessels that had been moved into the harbor area in front of the President’s Office had gone down to five.

In comparison, on Friday night there had been eight fishing boats in the area and few more were being prepared to take part in the protest near the No. 1 jetty.The first of the fishing vessels had docked in the harbor near the President’s Office at around 2:30pm on Friday.

On the boat were IDP President Umar Naseer and some other party members. They had remained on the boat until sunset yesterday.

dhimaku media cordinator at the scene this morning said that there were no sign of Umar Naseer or any IDP party members around 11:00am.

The demonstration had been organized by the IDP to demand the lowest selling price for yellow-fin tuna to be increased to Rf45, to stop MIFCO’s fishing vessels from going fishing and to establish services to provide clean water and boat refueling from the Malé Fish Market area. Further the protesters have demanded for dry ice to be easily available to fishermen.

The fishermen who had taken part in the protests had stood on the boats and shouted that they would not stop the protest until their demands were met.Due to the demonstration in progress the area has been cordoned off, blocking off access to the public.

DHIYAMIGILY MASVERINGE KURIMAGU (DHIMAKU)

DHIMAKU is a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) registered under the Registrar of Societies, Ministry of Home Affairs, Maldives, to work in the area in dhiyamigili fishermans rights . Registered in 5th july 2007, the organization has been actively working in the housing & shelter related issues.Objectives

1- Campaign for fisherman & fishermens rights

2- Educate the public on the rights

3- Inform public on fisherman related laws and regulations

4- Review fisherman related policies, and recommend the relevant parties on the desired reforms

5- Monitor fisherman related programs to ensure that they are being carried out appropriately

6- Assist people facing fisherman difficulties

Dhimaku condemns IDP led demonstrations

Thaa Dhiyamigily Masveringe Kurimagu (DHIMAKU) has strongly condemned that Islamic Democratic Party (IDP) organized fishermen demonstrations planned for Friday saying that the demonstrations is not representative of fishermen.

President of dhimaku Ahmed Rasheed Mohamed said that the dhimaku strongly condemned the IDP organized fishermen’s demonstrations planned for Friday. He said the demonstrations will have far reaching consequences and may even adversely affect the economy. He further stated that the Fishermen Union, registered nearly 8 months ago, was working for the protection of fishermen’s rights as well as to find solutions to all their problems.

“IDP is planning demonstrations for next Friday for better protection of fishermen’s rights, this might place us in a very difficult situation; we too want better prices for fish catch and it is our objective as well but this demonstrations is directly politically motivated” Ahmed Rasheed said.

Ahmed Rasheed further said it was the objective of the dhimaku to solve the difficulties faced by fisher folks and that the Fisheries Minister Dr. Didi was working hard to solve all the problems of the fisher folks.

President of dhimaku further informed that Fishermen Union will not take part in the demonstrations.

According to IDP the fishermen demonstrations will be at harbor area in front of the President’s Office at 1400 hours on Friday and that the party had identified 12 demands of fisher folks. Included among them are banning MIFCO from actively engaging in fishing and making Rf. 45 per kilo as minimum price for yellow fin tuna. IDP has also stated that demonstrations will continue non stop until government yields to their demands.