Tense calm in Maldives after political violence

MALE, Maldives — A tense calm settled over the rainy Maldives capital Thursday, one day after rioters rampaged through its streets to demand the return of ex-President Mohamed Nasheed after what he says was his ouster earlier in the week.

The streets of the country's main island were crowded with commuters, and officials of the new government — which maintains that Nasheed resigned voluntarily — say the violence has stopped on outlying islands after more than a dozen police stations were destroyed by pro-Nasheed protesters.

But the new defense minister vowed to punish those responsible for Wednesday's violence on the Indian Ocean archipelago, a mostly Muslim nation of 300,000 that is home to dozens of high-end luxury resorts. He called the destruction "acts of terrorism."

"The Maldives national defense force remains vigilant in enforcing the law and order and upholding the constitution of the Maldives," Mohammed Nazin told reporters Thursday, barely 12 hours into his new job.

What exactly happened to Nasheed, a onetime human rights campaigner, remained unclear. He resigned Tuesday, after police joined months of street protests against his rule and soldiers defected, but insisted he had not been forced from power. He was replaced by his vice president, Mohammed Waheed Hassan.

On Wednesday, though, Nasheed said he had been ousted in a coup, and his supporters swept into the streets of Male and rampaged through a series of small, remote islands.

The new president insists there was no coup.

Maldives police commissioner Abdullah Riyaz said 18 police stations on several islands, along with an undetermined number of court houses and police vehicles, were destroyed in the violence. Police said they detained 49 people after the Male rioting.

The rights group Amnesty International put at least some blame on the new government, saying Maldivian security forces attacked Nasheed's supporters Wednesday, failed to protect them from counter-demonstrators and detained five members of parliament.

The rights group called on the new government to investigate the attack and ensure freedom of expression in the Indian Ocean island nation.

"We will come to power again," Nasheed said Wednesday. "We will never step back. I will not accept this coup and will bring justice to the Maldivians."

The Maldives is made up of nearly 1,200 scattered islands, some of which have just a few hundred residents.