MALE: A curfew in the capital of the Maldives was eased Monday but parliament sessions were put off indefinitely and emergency rule continued following last week’s riots, officials and residents said.

State television in the Indian Ocean atoll nation, a luxury tourist destination, said the curfew now came into force in Male at 11.30 p.m., two hours later.

Shops, offices and schools also opened Monday in a sign of a return to normality after Friday’s unrest linked to pressure on President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom to bring in democratic reforms.

Scores of people suspected of being anti-government activists were kept in custody. The authorities said 185 suspects were detained, but activists put the figure much higher.

Four dissidents wanted by the government were arrested overnight, residents said. However, there was no confirmation from the police or the National Security Service which is spearheading the crackdown.

The parliament announced overnight that its regular sittings would not be held and gave no reason for the indefinite postponement, but residents said at least five members of parliament had been arrested for supporting dissent.

The Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), which is campaigning for a multi-party democracy in the tiny, one-party nation, said Gayoom loyalists continued to intimidate the population.

"My daughter has been beaten up in prison," MDP spokesman in Colombo, Mohamed Latheef, told AFP. "They feel they have brought the situation under control and they can now do anything they want." The MDP called on the international community to take action to prevent the country of 270,000 Sunni Muslims from slipping into chaos after a state of emergency was imposed Saturday.

Among those detained was Ibrahim Zaki, former secretary general of the seven-member South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) and former Maldives attorney general, Mohammed Munavvar, government officials said. The unrest in the capital caused no disruption to tourism, the archipelago’s main foreign exchange earner, residents said.