International Contact Group: A meeting under high security measures

The last chance meeting. So is labelled the international Group’s third meeting that has been taking place in Antananarivo since the morning of October 6th.  

Since their arrival at the end of week, the international mediators have in no way been short of work. They could meet representatives of the political mobilities and the representatives of the armed forces, as well as acting diplomats in the Malagasy capital city.  

Some 50 representatives of international organizations and partner countries of Madagascar are, in this sense, gathered in the Carlton hotel to try, once again, to find a consensual outcome to the political crisis that has been undermining the Great Isle’s life since January 2009. Are namely represented the UNO, the African Union, the SADC, the COMESA, the OIF, the European Union and the Indian Ocean Commission. One can particularly notice the participation of the American Under Secretary of State, Philip Carter, the French Secretary of State, Alain Joyandet, the president of the African Commission, Jean Ping, and the Mozambican former president, Joaquim Chissano, as mediator elected by the SADC.  

At the time of the meeting’s opening, Jean Ping reiterated that « the crisis is Malagasy » and that « the solution can be only Malagasy, but supported by the international community « . 

The four political mobilities (Marc Ravalomanana, Andry Rajoelina, Didier Ratsiraka and Albert Zafy), all bound by the signature of the Maputo agreement and the Transition’s Charter, are being represented at the time of the meeting. They are going to strive to find a way out of from the crisis. Let it be reminded that at the time of the second leg of the Maputo summit, the designation of the Transition’s decision making position nominees, namely the President, the Vice President and the Prime Minister, definitely created the deadlock.   

Andry Rajoelina keeps on struggling to remain to on top of the Transition, while Marc Ravalomanana definitely refuses to grant a crumb of legitimacy to a « putsch maker » as country leader, as he stated in a declaration. The situation seems, once again, frozen. 

The « nationalist » demonstrators rejecting the International Contact Group’s mediation have, besides, been dispersed by the police forces on the fringe of the Contact Group’s meeting. Soldiers made use of tear gazes close to the Carlton hotel. One of the leaders, Rajaonah Andrinjanaka, from the Otrikafo association, has uttered the word « betrayal » concerning the move made by the president of the HAT, Andry Rajoelina.