The joint opposition has condemned the Maldives' government's decision to abstain from a vote to include a supplementary item on the formal agenda for the 72nd United Nations General Assembly.
On Friday, the UN General Assembly voted to include the item entitled “The Responsibility to Protect and the prevention of genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity” on its formal agenda. A representative of Maldives was not even present during the discussion and subsequent vote.
Speaking at a press conference on Saturday, Chair of opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP)'s Foreign Relations Committee, former Minister of Foreign Affairs Abdulla Shahid said the opposition condemned the government's decision "to not even send a representative to the session".
He said that this showed that the Maldivian government supports the atrocities against Rohingya Muslims, which senior UN officials have described as "a textbook case of ethnic cleansing".
Shahid further noted that the nations that had voted against the item include "the nation that has been working to colonize and dominate the Maldives, in the name of developing it".
He said that "it is likely that Maldives had abstained from the vote on China's orders".
The former minister had also responded to the government's claims that the vote at the UN General Assembly had no connections to the Rohingya Muslims who have long been suffering persecution in Myanmar.
"Whether it is regarding the Rohingya Muslims, or any other ethnic groups suffering persecution, the only way to talk on it at the UN General Assembly is by placing the item on its formal agenda. Maldives has said no to this," added Shahid.
Former Presidents Maumoon Abdul Gayoom and Mohamed Nasheed have also expressed concern over the government's decision, with Maumoon emphasizing that "it is a shame" that the country's top officials do not realize that including the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) in the UN General Assembly "is highly relevant to Rohingya Muslims as it calls for elimination of genocide, ethnic cleansing, war crime and crimes against humanity".
