Maldives protesters want president to quit

Nearly 1,000 demonstrators turned up in Republican Square after Friday prayers demanding that President Mohamed Nasheed resign and saying reforms proposed by International Monetary Fund has sent commodity prices sky high.

Police quickly pushed the protesters out of the square, where authorities had banned entry saying it is a high security area.

Reports say that people were handcuffed and taken away in police vehicles. It was not immediately clear how many people were arrested.

The protesters moved briefly to another location and vowed to regroup later for a seventh night of demonstrations.

They are angry over the government’s decision to allow the local currency, the rufiyaa, to float against the US dollar as part of the IMF proposals. As a result, they say, the rufiyaa has dropped in value, resulting in high prices for goods, most of which are imported to the islands.

President Nasheed was elected in the country’s first democratic election in 2008 after a 30-year rule by Maumoon Abdul Gayoom.

Foreign Minister Ahmed Naseem told reporters in Sri Lanka’s capital, Colombo, the opposition protests are harming the tourism-based economy by scaring away potential visitors.

“Today, there is a planned big demonstration, which may go quite nasty,” he said hours before the protests began. “So, police have taken appropriate action to prevent any damage to public property, damage to people and to keep order in the country.”

The government says the reforms are necessary to bridge the country’s budget deficit.

The Maldives, an Indian Ocean archipelago of 1,200 islets, has a population of around 300,000.