They are among the most beauti—ful places on Earth, coral-reef re—sort islands described by their government as a "land whose peo—ple share whatever they have."
Yet this week, the Maldives re—vealed to the world the painful price of maintaining an earthly paradise.
Antigovernment riots swept across the Indian Ocean islands and the country's fearsome secu—rity force responded by firing at protesters, killing at least four and throwing hundreds of people in jail.
To the global tourism industry, the Maldives is a vast commercial success and a model in stability.
But rioters accused the govern—ment of President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom of engaging in per—secution, torture and manipula—tion of the democratic system.
The President has held power for 25 years and yesterday was granted another term in a unani—mous vote by his largely appointed parliament.
Human-rights organizations such as Amnesty International this week accused his government of imprisoning opposition leaders for long periods, conducting arbitrary mass arrests and holding unfair trials.
Others pointed to a much larger problem for the world's little para—dises.
"A lot of these countries believe they have to make a Faustian bar—gain by damaging their society and government in exchange for at—tracting resort operators, who rarely care about democracy or human rights," said Linda Richter, a specialist in tourism policy at the Kansas State University.
"These countries promise to do a lot of things in the short run to attract tourism, but in the long run they end up making a lot of things worse, and that ends up hurting the country and driving the tour—ism away."
Many other countries have dis—covered that big-business resort tourism can create political havoc. In the Philippines, dictator Ferdi—nand Marcos justified his police state on the grounds that it would create a happy and appealing des—tination for visitors.
In Gambia and Jamaica, govern—ments have discovered that chal—lenging the authority of resort companies can result in harsh po—litical and economic punishment.
"The tour companies are usually the most powerful political force in the country, more powerful than any of the political parties or leaders or national industries," Prof. Richter said.
The Maldives is one of the smallest and least populated na—tions in the world, with 1,200 tiny coral islands, many of them popu—lated by impoverished fishermen only a generation ago.
After Mr. Gayoom seized power, he converted 86 of the reefs into semi-independent, foreign-owned resort islands, which became re—nowned for their scuba diving, tal—cum-powder beaches and seamless hospitality.
Contact between visitors and the Maldivian population was de—liberately kept to a minimum, and tourists were discouraged from visiting the more populated is—lands, ostensibly to avoid offend—ing the local Muslim faith.
The tourist islands attract more than 400,000 visitors a year. By contrast, the 330,000 people who populate the island have an aver—age income of about $4,000 (U.S.) a year.
Mr. Gayoom blamed the rioting on criminals held in the capital of Male, saying those responsible would be punished "without leni—ency."
But Amnesty International ob—servers reported that the rioting was a legitimate political protest. It began after guards beat a pris—oner to death, and then allegedly tried to bury him secretly to cover up the crime.
After security forces fired on the initial protest, killing at least one person and injuring several, the riots spread and became a protest against the election process.
"The scale of protest . . . and the targeting, by the protesters, of gov—ernment buildings which are closely associated with endemic human rights violations, under—lines people's anger caused by bla—tant abuse of their human rights," Amnesty International reported.
Rioters were rounded up en masse and taken to the Dhoonid—hoo detention centre for interro—gation. Rights groups allege they were tortured and deprived of food or water for days.
Among the buildings looted in the riots was the country's electoral commission.
Mr. Gayoom's election faces a referendum vote next month. Few islanders, however, seem to be—lieve that he will achieve anything but a strong majority.
He is also unlikely to be investi—gated by his government, as he is also the nation's defence, finance and interior minister.