Tensions in Madagascar

MADAGASGAR'S capital remains tense a day after police opened fire on anti-government protesters, leaving at least 28 dead, according to an official toll.

More than 200 others were injured in yesterday's unrest when presidential guards shot at the demonstrators who attempted to march to President Marc Ravalomanana's office.

"In the city's three main hospitals, we counted 28 dead and 212 wounded," said Captain Lala Rakotonirina, spokesman of the national police force.

University hospital official Eric Rambinison said 90 per cent of the injured had bullet wounds.

The previous toll, given late yesterday by the fire brigade, was 23 dead and 83 wounded.

The crowd marched towards the president's office after a rally in Antananarivo's main square called by former mayor Andry Rajoelina, a fierce critic of the government who wants to oust the president.

Security forces today blocked the street leading to the president's office, which was strewn with abandoned orange shoes and caps. Orange is the colour of Mr Rajaoleina's movement.

While some residents headed to church, others frantically searched for missing friends and relatives in hospitals and morgues.

"I am looking for my room-mate," said Franck Raharisoa, 24, a university student who was caught up in the bloodshed.

"They fired. I lied down and I lost him. I have been calling him since but only reaching his answering machine. I have looked at all the bodies in the morgue. He is not there."

In a special edition - the Indian Ocean island has no Sunday newspapers - The Gazette newspaper carried front-page pictures of the shooting under the banner headline "Carnage!"

"Presidential guards killed a crowd of unarmed protestors in cold blood," it said, describing the incident as "a bloodbath rarely seen in our country since independence."

At the hospitals, mortuaries were open to the public and lists of the wounded were seen pinned on notice boards.

Today's revised death toll brought to 96 the number of those killed in protests that erupted on January 26 when the now-sacked Mr Rajoelina called for anti-government demonstrations.

The unrest has heightened a power struggle between Mr Ravalomanana and Mr Rajoelina, who announced a rival "transition authority" with himself in charge.

The former DJ on January 31 proclaimed himself in charge of Madagascar's affairs, charging that the president and his government had abandoned the people.

Ravalomanana called for a return to calm yesterday.

"I call on the security forces and the population to lend a hand in re-establishing calm and order in Antananarivo and in the whole of Madagascar," he said in a nationally-televised address.

But Prime Minister Charles Rabemananjara announced on state television that a night curfew, already in force in the capital, would be extended by a week.

Mr Rajoelina has echoed widespread popular grievances concerning shrinking civil liberties, controversial economic decisions by the president and a general slump in purchasing power.

Article from: Agence France-Presse
By Francois Ausseill