Grand Theft Zebu: the army finally announces a real kick back

The army deploys units and fire support bases once more against the terror which has been engulfing the country’s southern part for months. Within a week, the situation has completely run out of control.

Some 150 Dahalo militiamen killed, more than a good hundred of them slaughtered by villagers, at least four policemen and two soldiers taken down, some collateral damage into the civilian population, 2000 stolen zebu, half of which having been recovered; the death toll is getting more critical with every single day.

General Rakotoharimasy General, the HAT’s transitional Minister of Defence resumes … statements to put an end to everything. The army sent reinforcements to positions manned by its units in the South. One hundred privates were sent to the three current hot spots, namely Belo-on-Tsiribihina, Betroka and Ranomafana, in the Anosy region.

This new contingent expected to crush the Dahalo insurrection will be better equipped than its previous predecessor. What kind of heavy artillery will come to its support? Shall a gunship chopper armed with an M-60 eventually be in action? An airborne unit will definitely be based in Ihosy. Will it bring or merely track the enemy down?

The Minister of Defence carried on with praising the courage of the villagers who repelled the Dahalo militia raids in the Anosy region on their own… and consecutively took a small share of the glory when highlighting the armed self-defence training provided by the army to these citizens. Lucien Rakoharimasy welcomed the relevance of a “village’s self-defense in the rules of art”, in other words “shoot to kill but only in the case of self-defense.”

The speech is politically motivated and completely looks down on the suffering endured by the population when their village is raided by armed and merciless Dahalo militias. “We must basically focus on trialing and not killing them” added the Minister Rakotoharimasy, who does not seem to be aware of the seriousness of the situation on the ground, for casting doubts on the attacked villagers’ intentions.

The 110 Dahalo killed by villagers in the Anosy region is actually an exceptional case. Thieves generally win battles, crush resistance, plunder and abuse their prisoners and take away the bodies of their fallen brothers-in-arm. In the aftermath of the attack on Belo-on-Tsiribihina, in which an army unit and the state police suffered five casualties, including two high ranked officers, the very same area had to undergo another raid.

The Dahalo militia actually applied a new strategy. They were only 80 men, who stormed the village, but more than 200 to secure the convoy of zebu, and repel the villagers on their heels.

The reinforcements including contingents sent from Sakaraha to hunt the outlaws down who killed policemen in Betroka , had to pull back before the “Kizo”, the bushy woods roamed by convoys of stolen zebu. This strategic area used as a quite good stronghold by the outlaws remains out of the army’s operation radius but is it exclusively controlled by Remenabila? Scores of attacks are perpetrated in the name of the Dahalo great hero, without having a thing to do with him personally.

The local authority holds the new Dahalo behavior as a tactical option aimed at scaring the population away. While carefully keeping away from the red zones, the army’s top command declared that special forces might possibly be sent to hunt the Dahalo leader. It would merely be an option, just as the potential call to the French army based in La Réunion is.