Nils Finn Munch-Petersen, Senior expert at the Nordic Institute of Asian Studies (NIAS) in Copenhagen, Denmark, holds a SASNET/UPF lecture entitled ”The Maldives Tragedy – A Small Nation losing is Culture and History” on Wednesday 26 September 2012. 

The seminar is jointly organised by SASNET and the Association of Foreign Affairs at Lund University (UPF).

Venue: Athén, AF-Borgen, Sandgatan 2, Lund.

The focus is on the February 7th, 2012, events when the first democratically elected government of the Maldives was brought down by a coup d’état, engineered by groups linked to the former dictator Maumoon Abdul Gayoom; the primary actors being the National Security Forces and hired street gangs along with major investors within the tourism industry – backed by a corrupt judiciary. The main argument for the coup was that the elected president Mohamed Nasheed was not truly Islamic and accordingly posed a threat to Islam. On the day of the coup all Buddhist and Hindu sculptures stemming from the Maldivian past were destroyed by supposedly Maldivian Muslim fanatics.

Read more.