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Call for Madagascar forces to defy protest orders
Antananarivo (AFP) March 9, 2009 Soldiers at a key army base in Madagascar who said they were defying orders to put down opposition protests denied Monday that they had staged a munity. "This is not a mutiny," their spokesman Colonel Noel Rakotonandrasana told reporters a day after troops declared they would no longer cooperate with government repression of a three-month-old opposition movement. Security forces had foiled several opposition rallies in Antananarivo and other towns since Wednesday, leading to clashes that left at least four people dead. "We cannot accept the repression of the civilian population," said the colonel. He appealed to other members of the security forces to join his men's protest, adding that a number of army officers had already pledged their support. It was unclear Monday how many troops were involved in the campaign, but the base at which it has taken root, located around six kilometres (four miles) from the centre of the capital, is one of the army's most important. President Marc Ravalomanana, who has formally banned anti-government demonstrations that have roiled the Indian Ocean island since January, described the soldiers' protests as mutiny in a statement released by his office. Around 50 troops left the camp early Monday to arrest looters who were trashing a supermarket in the Tanjombato district of the capital, an AFP journalist said. "We do not want to intervene against demonstrators, but we will act against looters," said one of the soldiers on condition of anonymity. Around 5,000 anti-government demonstrators marched peacefully in the centre of the capital Antananarivo on Monday. Opposition leader and former Antananarivo mayor Andry Rajoelina, who went into hiding after an attempt to arrest him at the weekend, did not attend the protest. More than 100 people have been killed in clashes since Rajoelina began a campaign to unseat Ravalomanana three months ago, accusing him of running a dictatorship while his people starve. Share This Article With Planet Earth
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