Army storms Madagascan presidency

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(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-03-17 07:50

ANTANANARIVO – Around 100 soldiers backed by tanks stormed the Madagascan presidency on Monday in a show of force by the military which is pressuring President Marc Ravalomanana to leave office.

The Indian Ocean state's 59-year-old leader, most of whose family left the island last week, was not inside the compound. He was hunkered down in his palace outside the city centre with the last loyal members of his 500-strong personal guard.

Madagascan pro-opposition armed forces successfully forced into a presidential palace on Monday evening in the downtown of Antananarivo, Madagascar's capital, but President Marc Ravalomanana was not inside the building.

Soldiers are seen after two tanks, backed by troops, forced their way into a presidential palace in Antananarivo March 16, 2009. [Agencies]

Opposition leader Andry Rajoelina earlier rejected Ravalomanana's offer of a referendum to decide their three-month-old feud and urged the country's security forces to arrest him for "high treason".

Soldiers wearing red berets and armed with rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) surrounded the presidential compound after dusk and moved in after a military official using a loudspeaker ordered all remaining guards and staff to leave.

"We seized the presidency to hasten Ravalomanana's departure," Madagascan army chief of staff Colonel Andre Andriarijaona told AFP.

Two armoured vehicles smashed the compound's gates open and two large explosions and heavy automatic gunfire were heard inside the presidency soon after, an AFP correspondent said.

Andriarijaona said there was no immediate plan to assault the presidential palace in Iavoloha where the embattled president has taken refuge.

As the military upped the pressure, Rajoelina told thousands of supporters gathered in Antananarivo's May 13 square earlier that his three-month-old bid to unseat his rival would soon bear fruit.

"I order the security forces to execute, without delay, the measures by the minister," the firebrand 34-year-old opposition leader said, referring to an arrest warrant. "I repeat that victory is near."

The warrant for high treason was announced minutes earlier on the capital's May 13 square by Christine Razanamahasoa, who was named justice minister in a parallel administration set up by Rajoelina last month.

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