Wednesday, January 28, 2009
By Alain Iloniaina
ANTANANARIVO (Reuters) - Madagascar's army patrolled empty and rubbish-strewn streets on Wednesday after the death of at least 27 people in the worst bout of civil unrest for years on the politically volatile Indian Ocean island.
Firefighters found the charred bodies of 25 suspected looters late on Tuesday in a burned-out store, adding to at least two other deaths when anti-government protests since the weekend degenerated into violence in the capital Antananarivo on Monday.
Opposition leader and Antananarivo mayor Andry Rajoelina and President Marc Ravalomanana have both called for calm, but are yet to start talks between themselves to resolve the impasse.
Rajoelina, stung by the closure of his private radio station in December, wants supporters to demonstrate again on Wednesday.
The political crisis is denting Madagascar's image as a popular tourist venue and a destination for foreign investment in its mining and oil exploration sectors.
Police said the streets, which had been convulsed by fires and looting since Monday, were calm after an overnight curfew. "The army are patrolling on foot and in trucks, together with police," said National Police spokesman Alexandre Ranaivoson.
The mayor, Rajoelina, a 34-year-old firebrand politician who has run the city since 2007, accuses Ravalomanana, 59, of turning Madagascar into a dictatorship.
Rajoelina's supporters torched a state media building earlier in the week at the height of the street violence.
The president, a self-made dairy tycoon who used to hawk yoghurt on the streets of Antananarivo, accuses his rival of trying to overthrow the government.
FRANCE URGES RESTRAINT
"I appeal to people to remain calm," Ravalomanana said in a statement he gave on Wednesday in front of the damaged state media compound in Antananarivo.
He added that an arrest warrant had been issued for Rajoelina's cabinet director General Dolin Rasolosoa and for Roland Ratsiraka, the nephew of ex-president Didier Ratsiraka.
The government shut the mayor's radio station last month after it ran an interview with the former president from France.
Paris, which controlled Madagascar from the late 19th century until independence in 1960, has called on the Malagasy authorities to show restraint in the search for "a peaceful and lasting solution," a foreign ministry statement said.
The world's fourth largest island, Madagascar has a history of political unrest. Continued...
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