Former member of parliament Feno Ranaivo is arrested as he protested with Ravalomanana supporters in Antananarivo yesterday.

 

AFP/Reuters/Antananarivo

 

Madagascar police used teargas yesterday to break up a rally by supporters of ex-president Marc Ravalomanana, who was placed under house arrest after returning from exile in South Africa.

Up to 300 people turned up for the banned protest in the capital Antananarivo, throwing stones at police cars and setting fire to cardboard boxes.

One man had two fingers crushed while trying to move a huge stone to block a road. He was arrested by the police and taken to hospital.

The police arrested two others, including a politician who addressed the gathering.

“This demonstration was not authorised, neither by the mayor nor by the prefecture,” said Colonel Florens Rakotomahanina, Commander of the Antananarivo District Police. “We will proceed with arrests, even if the demonstrations are led by parliamentarians.”

Ravalomanana is effectively being held under house arrest in Antsiranana (Diego Suarez) in the north of the Indian Ocean island.

The former president, who was sentenced in absentia to life imprisonment with hard labour, slipped back into Madagascar on Monday, five years after a military coup and two months of violent protests forced him to flee first to Swaziland and then to South Africa.

On his return he was promptly arrested by a phalanx of heavily armed special forces, but not before telling supporters that he still held “lots of power” and that his presidential successor is “not the people’s choice”.

Ravalomanana’s ouster, exile and fierce personal rivalry with his immediate successor Andry Rajoelina polarised the island nation, which is highly dependent on coffee, vanilla and other agricultural products.

Ravalomanana, who is called “Dada” by his supporters, tried returning to Madagascar several times since 2009 but was prevented by the authorities who feared his homecoming would destabilise the island which has a long history of coups.

“We are here to demand the release of our Dada,” said Nivo Rakotomalala, a pro-Ravalomanana supporter at the rally.

Ravalomanana’s wife, Lalao, on Friday said the people would “rise up” to free her husband.

“The imprisonment of my husband is undignified, unjust and illegal,” she told a local radio station on Friday. “We will not be quiet until Dada is liberated.”

President Hery Rajaonarimampianina, who took office in January after a peaceful election last December, said that Ravalomanana was detained “for his own safety”.

Security in Antanarivo had been beefed up throughout the week.

 

 

 

 

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