Madagascar President Warns of Coup Attempt After Military Unit Defects
Elite troops participate in youth-led utility protests that have grown to pose the biggest challenge to President Andry Rajoelina’s administration. In Madagascar, a rebellious army unit supporting anti-government demonstrators has appointed a new military leader after President Andry Rajoelina condemned a “illegal attempt to seize power.”
Armed Forces Minister Manantsoa Deramasinjaka Rakotoarivelo was present at the event held at the military headquarters on Sunday to install General Demosthene Pikulas by the Army Personnel Administration Centre (CAPSAT).
At the event in Antananarivo, the minister declared, “I give him my blessing.”
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The youth-led protesters on Saturday were joined by the elite CAPSAT army unit, which was a key player in the 2009 coup that initially installed Rajoelina.
“From now on, all orders of the Malagasy army – whether land, air, or [naval] – will originate from CAPSAT headquarters,” the contingent asserted in a video statement released early on Sunday.
The announcement was made just hours after the president claimed that unidentified forces were trying to topple Rajoelina. Without giving specifics, the president said in a statement that “an attempted illegal and forcible seizure of power” was occurring in the African country.
After the army ceremony in the capital, Pikulas admitted to 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”.
On Saturday, military personnel from CAPSAT had urged their comrades to stop following orders and instead back the youth-led uprising.
“We have become boot lickers,” some members of the unit said in a video posted on social media. “We have chosen to submit and execute orders, even illegal ones, instead of protecting the population and their property.”
“Do not obey orders from your superiors. Point your weapons at those who order you to fire on your comrades in arms because they will not take care of our families if we die,” they said.
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.
Prime Minister Ruphin Fortunat Zafisambo, a military general appointed after Rajoelina dismissed his predecessor under pressure from demonstrators, said the government was “fully ready to listen and engage in dialogue with all factions – youth, unions or the military”.
People on the streets of Antananarivo were pleased about the announcement, said Al Jazeera’s Fahmida Miller, reporting from the city’s Independence Square on Sunday.
“People here say that his dismissal is important because it could mean that Andry Rajoelina could leave office. We don’t know if that’s the case; it could be that the Senate is trying to appease Malagasies who have been out protesting on the streets,” she said, but added that this in addition to CAPSAT coming out in support of the protesters has given many hope.
“What we can say is that Madagascar is in crisis,” Miller said. “[But] people here are optimistic that there is change coming. They call it a revolution. People here have given Andry Rajoelina one day to leave office … They are demanding that he leave office, they are also demanding that he apologise for the people who have been killed [by security forces].”
Madagascar’s army has a long history of intervening in politics during crises. Since independence from France in 1960, it has backed or led several power shifts, including coups in the 1970s and in 2009, when it helped oust President Marc Ravalomanana and bring Antananarivo’s reformist mayor, Rajoelina, to power.
Though the military has stayed mostly in the background in recent years, it remains an influential force in the country’s often fragile political landscape.
