Madagascar: OAU takes no sides

2002-06-22 08:40

Addis Ababa - Organisation of African Unity (OAU) leaders meeting here, early on Saturday refused to take sides in Madagascar's conflict between President Marc Ravalomanana and his rival and predecessor Didier Ratsiraka, a decision welcomed by Ratsiraka but rejected by Ravalomanana's delegation.

The pan African body's 17-state central organ - akin to the UN Security Council - recommended that Madagascar's seat remain vacant at next month's OAU summit in Durban, South Africa, at which an African Union will be launched.

"The central organ considered that the elections held in Madagascar on 16 December 2001 did not result in a constitutional and legally constituted government," a statement said after a seven-hour marathon meeting in the Ethiopian capital.

"It, therefore, recommended to the assembly of heads of state and government that in the meantime neither Mr Ratsiraka nor Mr Ravalomanana's governments should be allowed to represent the republic of Madagascar at the OAU.

"Consequently, the seat of the republic of Madagascar would remain vacant such a time that a government was established according to the provisions of this communique."

Ratsiraka told journalists following the statement by the African leaders: "I accept their decision." He added: "There is an equilibrium between Marc Ravalomanana and me."

But Ravalomanana's delegation leader Narisoa Rajaonarivony protested: "I just think it's unfair. They didn't take into consideration the situation in Madagascar, what is happening."

He told journalists: "How can we be in favour of (new) elections or referendum, it's something unacceptable for us."

Mozambique's President Joaquim Chissano said after the meeting: "In short, what I can tell you is that the seat of Madagascar at the OAU will remain vacant until a solution is found." He insisted, however: "Madagascar is not kicked out from the OAU."

Zambia's head of state and OAU chairman Levy Mwanawasa declared: "There is no government in Madagascar which is constitutionally elected, the seat is going to remain vacant."

"Our decision is based on constitutionalism", and "we are siding with the law", he added.

Free and fair elections

Among others attending the meeting were the presidents of Senegal and Tanzania, Abdoulaye Wade and Benjamin Mkapa, along with South African Vice President Jacob Zuma, Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, OAU Secretary General Amara Essy, and several foreign ministers, notably from Gabon, Togo, Namibia and Mali.

The statement said the leaders stressed the need for a political and negotiated solution to the crisis through the holding with the assistance of the UN, the OAU, the EU and the international community at large, of free and fair elections to enable the people of Madagascar to choose their leader and the setting up of transitional arrangements, the modalities of which should be agreed upon by both parties.

Repeating its support for the April 18 Dakar accord, the OAU central organ "urged both parties to work out the specific modalities for the transitional arrangements based on the spirit of the Dakar Agreement and subsequent consultations".

Finally, it called on the two protagonists "to exercise maximum restraint and promote a spirit of dialogue in the country".

A reconciliation deal reached in Dakar called notably for a power-sharing government to steer Madagascar to legislative polls.

When Ravalomanana named a new government earlier this week in Antananarivo, he blatantly excluded any key figures from Ratsiraka's camp from the new team.

As the talks began, a spokesman for Ravalomanana said in Antananarivo that 36 mercenaries were on their way to the island from South Africa on a mission to kill the head of state.

Officials in South Africa denied the claim, saying no unusual air traffic movements had been reported on Friday.

However three Ukranians were forbidden to board a Johannesburg-Antananarivo flight on Friday after a search found army-style combat uniforms and a small electricity generator in their baggage, Madagascar's consul general in Johannesburg told AFP.

The consul general, Bruno Ranarivelo, said the three men, who were around 40 and who had travelled from Kiev via Amsterdam on tourist visas, "were unable to say where they were going in Madagascar or where they would be staying, just that they would be met at the airport". - Sapa-AFP

- SAPA