Madagascar president appeals to security forces
ANTANANARIVO (Reuters) - Madagascar's president called on the splintering security forces on Thursday "to fulfil their responsibilities" as a power struggle with the opposition that has killed 135 people rages on the Indian Ocean island.
Planned U.N.-brokered talks were postponed and the United States urged its diplomats and citizens in the country to leave. The unrest on the world's fourth largest island means it is unclear who is in charge of the government and security forces.
On Wednesday, the leader of a widening mutiny within the army named himself chief of staff, ousting Madagascar's top general who had given the political rivals 72 hours -- until Friday -- to find a solution or face military intervention.
In a statement on national radio, President Marc Ravalomanana, who has recently appeared to be losing control of the traditionally neutral armed forces, called for calm.
"Our priority is to restore law and order. I appeal to the security forces to fulfil their responsibilities and protect the people and to do it with dignity," he said.
Shops around the capital Antananarivo's May 13 Plaza -- epicentre of popular revolts since independence from France in 1960 -- stayed shut as nervous residents awaited developments. Usually traffic-choked streets were quiet.
Mediators had hoped to bring Ravalomanana and opposition leader Andry Rajoelina together on Thursday for face-to-face talks to end the chaos that is crippling a $390 million-a-year tourism industry and spooking foreign investors.
But Rajoelina, who has been under U.N. protection since fleeing attempts to arrest him last week, refused to attend.
U.S. Ambassador Niels Marquardt, who said on Wednesday that Madagascar was "on the verge of civil war," had offered staff voluntary evacuation, sources at the mission told Reuters.
A U.S. Embassy statement urged all Americans in Madagascar to monitor the situation closely and to consider leaving while commercial flights were still operating normally.
MILITARY FACTOR
Rajoelina, 34, a baby-faced former disc jockey, has tapped into a deep vein of public anger at Ravalomanana's failure to tackle poverty. He calls the president a dictator and has tried to establish a parallel administration.
On Thursday, dissident troops surrounded the prime minister's office and said they were negotiating with his bodyguards to install a replacement premier picked by Rajoelina.
Critics call Rajoelina a maverick and troublemaker, and analysts are unsure whether he has over-played his hand or is riding on a popular wave that could carry him to power.
The political crisis, which has been running since the start of 2009, has worsened significantly over the past few days.
European Union mission head Jean-Claude Boidin told Reuters any "non-constitutional" solution to the political impasse -- meaning a coup -- would lead to a suspension of aid.
"It is not a possibility, it is the rule," Boidin said.
Rajoelina's camp appeared to endorse the army mutineers for the first time on Wednesday, praising them "for not wanting to disgrace their military honour through acts of repression."
On Thursday, the head of Madagascar's gendarmerie, or military police, said his men were also now supporting the dissenters and would work with the army's new chief of staff.
"The priority is to restore order," General Pily Gilbain told reporters. That means two sections of the country's security forces -- the army and gendarmerie, but not the regular police -- have now swung against Ravalomanana.
Asked whether the gendarmerie would act against civilian demonstrators, Gilbain said, "Popular protests are political protests. We, the armed forces, are not political so we should not meddle in political affairs."
Pro-opposition driver Rivo Rasandratra said his biggest fear was that the president would hire mercenaries from outside since the army no longer listened to him.
"The security forces would never accept it. Then we have a problem," Rasandrara said.