6 protesters held in Madagascar
2006-10-11 20:10
Antananarivo - Madagascan police have arrested six protesters demanding the reopening of an airport that was closed to prevent a would-be presidential candidate returning from exile, said the opposition on Wednesday.
The arrests followed clashes between demonstrators and police with tear gas on Tuesday that injured two police officers on the huge and politically volatile Indian Ocean island.
Former vice-prime minister Pierrot Rajaonarivelo had been set to return from more than four years of exile in Paris on Saturday to the opposition stronghold of Toamasina.
But the government ordered the eastern port town's airport to be closed.
Rajaonarivelo is widely thought to be the only one capable of mounting a serious challenge to President Marc Ravalomanana in the December 3 election.
But he must register by October 14 to be able to participate. Rajaonarivelo is now waiting on nearby Reunion island.
Sporadically violent standoff
Senator Adolphe Ramasy, an official for Rajaonarivelo's Arema party said: "We were demonstrating for the airport to be opened."
"There was a clash between the crowd and the soldiers," he said, adding that six demonstrators were arrested and two policemen injured in the melee, the second there in days.
Rajaonarivelo served in former president Didier Ratsiraka's government before it collapsed in 2002 after an eight-month, sporadically violent standoff about a disputed election that put incumbent Ravalomanana into power.
Ratsiraka and several of his cabinet members, including Rajaonarivelo, fled into exile in Paris after huge protests.
Many have since been convicted in absentia for fraud and interfering with the handover of power.
'Conviction was politically motivated'
Rajaonarivelo was barred from holding office and sentenced in absentia to 15 years hard labour in August for misuse of funds. He says the conviction was politically motivated.
While Ravalomanana has retained some of the popularity that put him in office in 2002 backed by a people power revolution, the island has been shaken in recent years by protests against rising prices.
The government said the arrests were made because of a ban on political demonstrations in major towns to prevent unrest.
"Such political demonstrations are forbidden in town," said Pily Gilbain.