An army unit siding with anti-government protesters on Sunday installed a new military chief as Madagascan President Andry Rajoelina denounced an “attempt to seize power illegally.”
The soldiers from the CAPSAT contingent joined protesters for a second consecutive day, attending a rally in the capital to remember the people killed in more than two weeks of anti-government demonstrations that erupted on Sept. 25.
The unit, which played a major role in a 2009 coup that first brought Rajoelina to power, on Saturday declared it would “refuse orders to shoot” on demonstrators.
Photo: AP
Soldiers then entered the city center to meet several thousand protesters, who welcomed them with jubilation and praise.
Early on Sunday the contingent claimed in a video statement that “from now on, all orders of the Malagasy army — whether land, air or the navy — will originate from CAPSAT headquarters.”
Hours later, its pick for new chief of the army staff, General Demosthene Pikulas, was installed during a ceremony at the army headquarters attended by Madagascan Minister of Armed Forces Manantsoa Deramasinjaka Rakotoarivelo.
“I give him my blessing,” said the minister, who was appointed by Rajoelina last week.
Pikulas told journalists that events in Madagascar over the past few days had been “unpredictable.”
“So the army has a responsibility to restore calm and peace throughout Madagascar,” he said.
Asked about calls for Rajoelina to resign, he said he refused to “discuss politics within a military facility.”
Rajoelina earlier on Sunday said that “an attempt to seize power illegally and by force, contrary to the constitution and to democratic principles, is currently under way.”
“Dialogue is the only way forward and the only solution to the crisis currently facing the country,” he said in a statement.
CAPSAT Colonel Michael Randrianirina said his unit’s decision to join the protesters did not amount to a coup.
“We answered the people’s calls, but it wasn’t a coup d’etat,” he told reporters.
The protests were initially focused on chronic power and water cuts in the impoverished Indian Ocean nation, but developed into a broader anti-government movement that called for 51-year-old Rajoelina to resign.
The UN has said that at least 22 people were killed in the first days, some by security forces, and others in violence sparked by criminal gangs and looters in the wake of the demonstrations.
Rajoelina has disputed the toll, saying last week there were “12 confirmed deaths, and all of these individuals were looters and vandals.”
Large crowds of people on Sunday joined prayers outside Antananarivo City Hall for the victims, who included a CAPSAT soldier killed in a clash with gendarmes on Saturday.
“We will prevail, because evil will not prevail in Madagascar,” Randrianirina told the gathering where officers were joined on stage by opposition political figures, including former Madagascan president Marc Ravalomanana, who was ousted in the 2009 uprising.
Officers of the gendarmerie, accused of heavy-handed tactics against the demonstrators, said in a video statement that they recognized “faults and excesses during our interventions.”
“We are here to protect, not to terrorize,” they said.
To try to defuse the protests, the president last month sacked his entire government.
Meeting one of the demands of the protesters, the Madagascan Senate on Sunday announced the dismissal of its president, Richard Ravalomanana, a former general of the gendarmerie paramilitary police.
Amid rumors that Rajoelina had fled, his government on Saturday said that he remained in Madagascar and was managing national affairs.
Madagascar has had a turbulent political history since it gained independence from France in 1960.
Although rich in natural resources for farming, forestry, fishing and minerals, nearly three-quarters of the population of 32 million lived below the poverty line in 2022, according to the World Bank.
FRUSTRATIONS: One in seven youths in China and Indonesia are unemployed, and many in the region are stuck in low-productivity jobs, the World Bank said Young people across Asia are struggling to find good jobs, with many stuck in low-productivity work that the World Bank said could strain social stability as frustrations fuel a global wave of youth-led protests. The bank highlighted a persistent gap between younger and more experienced workers across several Asian economies in a regional economic update released yesterday, noting that one in seven young people in China and Indonesia are unemployed. The share of people now vulnerable to falling into poverty is now larger than the middle class in most countries, it said. “The employment rate is generally high, but the young struggle to
STEPPING UP: Diminished US polar science presence mean opportunities for the UK and other countries, although China or Russia might also fill that gap, a researcher said The UK’s flagship polar research vessel is to head to Antarctica next week to help advance dozens of climate change-linked science projects, as Western nations spearhead studies there while the US withdraws. The RRS Sir David Attenborough, a state-of-the-art ship named after the renowned British naturalist, would aid research on everything from “hunting underwater tsunamis” to tracking glacier melt and whale populations. Operated by the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), the country’s polar research institute, the 15,000-tonne icebreaker — boasting a helipad, and various laboratories and gadgetry — is pivotal to the UK’s efforts to assess climate change’s impact there. “The saying goes
ENERGY SHIFT: A report by Ember suggests it is possible for the world to wean off polluting sources of power, such as coal and gas, even as demand for electricity surges Worldwide solar and wind power generation has outpaced electricity demand this year, and for the first time on record, renewable energies combined generated more power than coal, a new analysis said. Global solar generation grew by a record 31 percent in the first half of the year, while wind generation grew 7.7 percent, according to the report by the energy think tank Ember, which was released after midnight yesterday. Solar and wind generation combined grew by more than 400 terawatt hours, which was more than the increase in overall global demand during the same period, it said. The findings suggest it is
TICKING CLOCK: A path to a budget agreement was still possible, the president’s office said, as a debate on reversing an increase of the pension age carries on French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday was racing to find a new prime minister within a two-day deadline after the resignation of outgoing French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu tipped the country deeper into political crisis. The presidency late on Wednesday said that Macron would name a new prime minister within 48 hours, indicating that the appointment would come by this evening at the latest. Lecornu told French television in an interview that he expected a new prime minister to be named — rather than early legislative elections or Macron’s resignation — to resolve the crisis. The developments were the latest twists in three tumultuous
RSS