Maldives President asks India to help violence-hit Libya

New Delhi: The Maldives, a Sunni Muslim nation, Friday demanded the suspension of Libya from the UN Human Rights Council and urged friendly countries like India to take the lead in helping build democratic institutions and restore peace in the violence-torn country.

Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed also pressed for a probe into human rights violations of the Muammar Gaddafi regime and also warned that any delay in the timely intervention on its part would lead to the UN system being obsolete.

"Libya should be suspended from the Human Rights Commission and the crimes against its people should be investigated," Nasheed, who completed a three-day visit to India Friday, told IANS.

"It should be done now. There is no point doing it a month later. Like this the UN system will become obsolete," he added.

"A month later we will be giving figures so many people have killed but we should go there and stop these killings," he said.

Alluding to India's stint as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council, Nasheed said the "world listens to India" and urged New Delhi to think of taking the lead for a having a peace keeping force in Libya.

The situation in Libya and the Middle East also figured in discussions Nasheed had with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

"The prime minister feels the gravity of the issue," he said about his discussions on the issue. "There is an amazing hope that we are going to see a democratic Middle East. It will have a positive impact on South Asia," he said, adding that the Maldives' success as a democracy showed that Islam and democracy are not incompatible.

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