spotlight madagascar

I’ll start with the news.

• ANALYSIS-Madagascar could face more instability (Reuters)

“He does not have a real autonomous power base except possibly the urban mob in Antananarivo and I don’t think that takes you far,” Ellis added.

…

• Madagascar Deals With A Leadership Crisis (NPR)
• New Madagascar leader sets agenda (Al Jazeera)

• SADC Leaders Meet Thursday, Likely to Suspend Madagascar’s New Government (VOA News)

“In Africa we have 54 countries. We cannot say because we have coups in Madagascar, Mauritania, and Guinea that’s the trend. The trend is democracy, democracy, democracy. Yes we have to put a stop on this thing to happen, and the only way to do that is to send a clear message to those who follow this pattern that this is not unacceptable in Africa and in the SADC region,” Salomao said.

• Madagascar’s highest court has backed the handover of power to interim leader Andry Rajoelina (BBC News)
• Norway freezes aid to Madagascar (The Norway Post)
• Southern Africa rejects Madagascar’s new leader (The Associated Press)
• Madagascar’s new president suspends parliament (AFP)

“Honestly, I don’t see why they would sever ties now if they were not dissuaded by Ravalomanana’s governance,” said Roindefo.

• Mozambique: Guebuza At Talks On Madagascar Crisis (allAfrica.com)
• Madagascar dissolves parliament (Al Jazeera English)
• Africans reject Madagascar leader (BBC News)
• New president: Madagascar never to separate from France (China View) WHAT?!

Andry Nirina Rajoelina, Madagascar’s newly-installed president, declared here on Thursday that the Indian Ocean Island country would never separate itself from France.

• Citizens in Madagascar React to New Government (VOA News)
• US calls Madagascar change in power ‘undemocratic’ (AFP)

“We view this as an undemocratic transfer of power,” State Department spokesman Robert Wood told reporters.

“And we’re going to take a look and evaluate and see what … kind of an impact it’s going to have on our programs and activities with that government,” Wood added.

I’ve never heard of the South African Development Community, or SADC, and today I read that they’re sending peacekeeping forces to “intervene” in Madagascar and DR Congo. Perhaps I’ve been living under a rock, but I have been reading the news quite a bit lately and this is the first I’ve seen this organization. According to this particular article from China View News:

The Dolphin Phase-I Mapex is a joint and integrated military exercise aimed at preparing the SADC Standby Brigade for peacekeeping operations in a multidimensional way in accordance with the program of the African Union’s standby forces.

The task of the standby brigade, he said, consists of observing and controlling, support to peace, intervention in a member state in order to restore peace and security, prevention of disputes or conflicts in any manner, thereby preventing it from worsening or spreading to neighboring states or areas, provision of humanitarian assistance, post-conflict disarmament and demobilization.

One of the missions of the SADC is to “harmonise political and socio-economic policies and plans of Member States”, which include Angola, South Africa, Botswana, Mauritius, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Madagascar, Namibia, DR Congo, Congo, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Dolphin Phase-I Mapex? What can this possibly mean?

Photo courtesy of answersingenesis.org

I found this on the SADC website:

The signatories of the SADC Treaty agree that underdevelopment, exploitation, deprivation and backwardness in Southern Africa will only be overcome through economic cooperation and integration. The Member States recognise that achieving regional economic integration in Southern Africa requires them to put their full support behind SADC to act on behalf of all Southern Africans for their common prosperity, peace and unity.

And this organization has been in existence since 1980.  I wonder what they’ve been doing up to now?  Have they been preventing “backwardness” and underdevelopment?

I was really curious about this dolphin project, a “joint and military exercise”, which sounds pretty frightening to me, so I searched a little more.  I found nothing.  I’ll keep looking.

Some of it is more of the same, recycled articles from Reuters and AP in foreign papers, etc. But AFP had some updates about 10 hours ago on the meeting of the African Union-the Prime Minister of Madagascar is attending that:

Other conflicts also demanded the summit’s attention. With Madagascar’s political crisis worsening by the day, the head of the AU Commission Jean Ping warned on the eve of the summit that “any unconstitutional change of power will be condemned.”

Hours after Ping spoke, opposition leader Andry Rajoelina proclaimed himself in charge of the island’s affairs, in a shock move escalating his battle against the president’s regime.

Madagascar is supposed to host the next AU summit in July, and sent its Prime Minister Charles Rabemananjara to the current meet in Addis Ababa.

It seems as though there’s a shortage of cooking oil and rice, and most of the supplies that Malagasy people use in their daily lives. Rumor has it that the President has a stockpile somewhere. It’s getting weirder.