The Maldives has announced it will leave the Commonwealth after mounting pressure from the 53-nation group over corruption and deteriorating human rights in the Indian Ocean state.
The country’s government, which has been fending off rumours of an impending coup and allegations of money laundering, said the decision on Thursday to cancel its membership was “difficult but inevitable”.
Its foreign ministry said in a statement it had been treated “unjustly and unfairly” by the organisation’s Commonwealth ministerial action group (CMAG), which has been scrutinising the government since the former president, Mohamed Nasheed, was ousted in 2012 in what his supporters say was a coup.
“The CMAG and the Commonwealth secretariat seem to be convinced that the Maldives, because of the high and favourable reputation that the country enjoys internationally, and also perhaps because it is a small state that lacks material power, would be an easy object that can be used,” the statement said.
It added that it was being targeted “in the name of democracy promotion, to increase the [Commonwealth’s] own relevance and leverage in international politics”.
On 23 September the Maldives government was officially put on notice by CMAG and given six months to address concerns including the detention and prosecution of opposition leaders, meddling with the judiciary and undermining democratic institutions.
It was the third time the country had been threatened with partial or full suspension from the Commonwealth since Nasheed, the country’s first democratically elected president, was forced out. He was replaced by the current president, Abdulla Yameen, in a 2013 poll widely regarded as dubious.
A September report (pdf) by the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), an independent NGO, found “further evidence of curbing fundamental rights, targeted persecution of opposition leaders [and] misuse of state institutions (including the judiciary, legislature and the police) to restrict, crush and punish dissent”.
“It’s a sad day,” said David White, the chief of the CHRI. “We did call for them to be suspended, but that was in order to call for more support for the Commonwealth to push for political reform.”
A spokeswoman from the CHRI’s Delhi office said the decision to end the Maldives’ 34-year Commonwealth membership was a way of “saying you’re no longer committed to democracy and rule of law”.
“It’s a huge setback to civil society and the democracy movement,” she said. “The national institutions are really failing, the entire democratic structure that the country committed to in 2008 is under threat.”
The Commonwealth secretary general, Patricia Scotland, said: “The Commonwealth family at large [will] share my sadness and disappointment at this decision.
“The Commonwealth charter reflects the commitment of our member states to democracy and human rights, development and growth, and diversity. We will continue to champion these values and to support all member states, especially small and developing states.
“Therefore, we hope that this will be a temporary separation and that Maldives will feel able to return to the Commonwealth family and all that it represents in due course.”
The archipelago, best known for its luxury tourist resorts, transitioned to democracy in 2008 after the end of 30 years of autocratic rule by Maumoon Abdul Gayoom.
But the ascension in 2013 of Yameen – Gayoom’s half-brother – has led to regular political crises and the prosecution of political figures, including Nasheed last year on terrorism charges Amnesty International said were politically motivated. The former president received political asylum in Britain in May.
A former vice-president, Ahmed Adeeb, was convicted in June of trying to assassinate Yameen by planting a bomb on his speedboat.
The government was recently rocked by a documentary, broadcast by al-Jazeera, alleging Yameen and other senior government members had been involved in money laundering and tampering with judges, among other crimes. They have denied the allegations.
Islamic extremism is also thought to be a growing problem, with up to 100 Maldivians – from a population of 300,000 – believed to have left the country for Syria as of January 2015.