Maldives Boat Crisis Update, 8-11-06 (2)

The Coast Guard is said to have boarded the boat, handcuffed and arrested people on board the dhoni. There is no word after that.

The Maldivian crisis raises anew a range of very old questions that states and citizens across South Asia need to consider:

1. Do borders delimit and limit our concerns about human rights and democracy?
2. Where is the threshold beyond which polite, international legal constraints about sovereignty and non-interference in internal affairs do not apply, for clearly there should be such a threshold in international society?
3. Should considerations about such limits inform the decision to buy and sell arms, boats and other equipment that can have a 'dual-use' capability--against true marauders and against one's citizens?

The crisis also points to how government-controlled media can prove a liability to the government itself because their credibility is eroded over time. The result is that coverage of crisis situations is polarized to the point where everything one side says seems wrong to the other. In the argument over who is telling the truth, it is real people who fall between the cracks.