The sentencing of former President may trigger unrest: Madagascar ex-leader jailed in absentia
Posted by African Press International on June 3, 2009
ANTANANARIVO,
“Ravalomanana mixed public interests with his personal interests,” Mr Justice Minister Christine Razanamahasoa told reporters, announcing the Malagasy court’s decision. Ravalomanana is in South Africa seeking international support for a return to Madagascar, where he lost power in March after opposition leader Andry Rajoelina led protests against him and took over with army support.
Mr Rajoelina, who had called Ravalomanana corrupt and dictatorial, has established a transitional authority on the Indian Ocean island and promised an election by late 2010. African nations have generally condemned his takeover, and urged talks between the two rivals.
Ravalomanana allies said the court’s decision risked killing negotiations to end the island’s political crisis. The oil and mineral-rich island has been rocked by political turmoil since the beginning of the year, worrying foreign investors at a time of low commodity prices, and scaring off tourists.
“If this is true, it will seriously harm negotiations,” Raharinaivo Andrianantoandro, spokesman for Ravalomanana’s political party, told Reuters. Ravalomanana’s government purchased the $60 million Boeing jet late last year, triggering outrage among a population mired in poverty that has seen few tangible benefits from the influx of foreign firms such as Rio Tinto and Sherritt International.
Public funds
Mr Rajoelina, then mayor of the capital Antananarivo, seized on the purchase together with a proposed farmland deal with South Korean industrial giant Daewoo, to lambast Ravalomanana’s abuse of public funds and accuse him of mismanaging Madagascar.
The court also gave Ravalomanana’s former Finance and Budget minister Haja Razafinjatovo the same sentence for his role in the jet deal. UN-mediated talks to find a way out of the crisis have stalled as Madagascar’s political parties fail to agree on a consensus government to rule Madagascar in the run-up to the elections promised by Rajoelina.
source.nation.ke
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