MALE,  (Reuters) - The ousted president of the Maldives, credited with bringing democracy to the Indian Ocean islands, said yesterday he had been forced out of power at gunpoint, prompting clashes between police and angry supporters.

Mohamed Nasheed

Mohamed Nasheed, who in 2008 became the first democratically elected president of the 1,200-island archipelago best known for luxury tourism, resigned on Tuesday after three weeks of opposition protests culminated in a police revolt.

Just a day after he stepped down, it was as if Nasheed had stepped back in time: riot police and soldiers launched tear gas grenades and beat him and other supporters, a scene played out scores of times under the 30-year rule of former president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, whom he succeeded.

Witnesses said around 40 or 50 people including Nasheed had been injured, some severely. Police and soldiers surrounded the main hospital and kept journalists out of Republic Square, the site of the protest on Male’s northern seafront.

“I was quite close to him when they began to charge. He had some cuts and bruises but he was beaten quite badly,” a cousin of Nasheed, who asked not be identified, told Reuters.

Adam Manik, a senior official in Nasheed’s Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), said the former leader was in a safe house. The party in a statement appealed for international help, and Nasheed blamed his old rival Gayoom for the crisis.

AT GUNPOINT

Nasheed on Jan. 16 ordered the military to arrest the criminal court chief justice, saying he was blocking multi-million dollar corruption and human rights cases against Gayoom allies. That set off the protests that led to his departure.

“Yes, I was forced to resign at gunpoint,” Nasheed told reporters after addressing a meeting of his Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) in his first public appearance since his ouster. “There were guns all around me and they told me they wouldn’t hesitate to use them if I didn’t resign.”

Earlier, a close aide told Reuters the military on Tuesday marched Nasheed into his own office to give his resignation on state TV, in the first eyewitness account.

“The gates of the president’s office swung open and in came these unmarked vehicles we’ve never seen before and Nasheed came out with around 50 soldiers around him, and senior military men we’d never seen before,” said Paul Roberts, Nasheed’s communications adviser.