New Maldives president sworn in
A former political prisoner Mohamed Nasheed who defeated Asia's longest-serving ruler in the first multiparty election in the Maldives, took his oath today to become president of the Indian Ocean archipelago."No other citizens in the world in modern times have changed a 30-year-old regime so peacefully. I congratulate the Maldivian citizens," Mohamed Nasheed, 41, said shortly before signing his presidential oath to thundering applause in parliament.
A one metre rise in sea levels would almost totally submerge the country's 1,192 coral islands scattered off the southern tip of India. According to the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a rise of at least 18cm is likely by the end of the century.
"I don't want Maldivians to end up as environmental refugees in some camp," Nasheed told reporters after his October 28 election win.
"We are talking about taking insurance - if the islands are sinking we must find highland some place close by. We should do that before we sink."Nasheed told Britain's Guardian newspaper that he had already broached the subject of finding a new homeland for Maldivians with several countries and found them to be "receptive".
