His Excellency, President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom

The President’s Office
Shaheed Abdulla Zuhair Hin’gun
Male’, 20113
REPUBLIC OF MALDIVES

copies:

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights

Human Rights Watch Organization

Amnesty International

19 August 2004, Leiden, the Netherlands

Mr. President,

I, Leonid Kulikov, scholar and indologist, affiliated with Leiden University, the Netherlands, urge the immediate release of Dr. Mohamed Munavvar, as well as other democratic activists, arrested last week in Male. (I know Mohamed Munavvar personally since 1983-1984, when he has greatly assisted in my research on the Maldivian language [Dhivehi] and history in Moscow. I know him as a very honest, intelligent person, an excellent expert in international law and a man sincerely devoted to the interests of his country). I consider the detention of Mohamed Munavvar, Ibrahim Hussain Zaki and other democratic activists a rude violation of human rights.

A hard copy of this E-mail will be sent to the President’s Office by regular mail. Copies will also be sent to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights , the Human Rights Watch Organization and Amnesty International.

I hope my colleagues from the Netherlands and other countries will join my protest.

Dr. Leonid Kulikov, PhD

Leiden University, Faculty of Arts,

Dept. of Comparative Linguistics

PO Box 9515, 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands

E-mail: L.Kulikov@let.LeidenUniv.nl

Phone :+31-71-5272203 (office); +31-71-5155654 (home)

Fax: +31-71-5277569

Homepage: http://www.let.kun.nl/~L.Kulikov/