A RENEGADE army unit siding with anti-government protesters in Madagascar has installed a new military chief as President Andry Rajoelina denounced an “attempt to seize power illegally”.
General Demosthene Pikulas was installed on Sunday by the Army Personnel Administration Centre (CAPSAT) during a ceremony at the military headquarters attended by Armed Forces Minister Manantsoa Deramasinjaka Rakotoarivelo.
“I give him my blessing,” the minister said of Pikulas at the ceremony in Antananarivo.
The elite CAPSAT army unit, which played a major role in a 2009 coup that first brought Rajoelina to power, joined forces with the youth-led demonstrators on Saturday.
Early on Sunday, the contingent claimed in a video statement that “from now on, all orders of the Malagasy army – whether land, air or [naval] – will originate from CAPSAT headquarters.”
The declaration came hours after the presidency accused unnamed forces of attempting to overthrow Rajoelina. In a statement, the presidency said “an attempted illegal and forcible seizure of power” was under way in the African nation, without providing details.
After the army ceremony in the capital, Pikulas admitted to journalists that events in Madagascar over the past few days had been “unpredictable”.
“So the army has a responsibility to restore calm and peace throughout Madagascar,” he said.
Asked about calls for Rajoelina to resign, he said he refused to “discuss politics within a military facility”.
On Saturday, military personnel from CAPSAT had urged their comrades to stop following orders and instead back the youth-led uprising.
“We have become boot lickers,” some members of the unit said in a video posted on social media. “We have chosen to submit and execute orders, even illegal ones, instead of protecting the population and their property.”
“Do not obey orders from your superiors. Point your weapons at those who order you to fire on your comrades in arms because they will not take care of our families if we die,” they said.
CAPSAT Colonel Michael Randrianirina said his unit’s decision to join the protesters did not amount to a coup. “We answered the people’s calls, but it wasn’t a coup d’etat,” he told reporters.
Prime Minister Ruphin Fortunat Zafisambo, a military general appointed after Rajoelina dismissed his predecessor under pressure from demonstrators, said the government was “fully ready to listen and engage in dialogue with all factions, youth, unions or the military”.
Separately, the country’s Senate announced in a statement that Senate President General Richard Ravalomanana – a close ally of Rajoelina’s – had been removed from office, citing “the current political situation in Madagascar and in response to the Malagasy people’s aspirations for stability, justice, and transparent governance.”
People on the streets of Antananarivo were pleased about the announcement, said Al Jazeera’s Fahmida Miller, reporting from the city’s Independence Square on Sunday.
“People here say that his dismissal is important because it could mean that Andry Rajoelina could leave office. We don’t know if that’s the case; it could be that the Senate is trying to appease Malagasies who have been out protesting on the streets,” she said, but added that this in addition to CAPSAT coming out in support of the protesters has given many hope.
“What we can say is that Madagascar is in crisis,” Miller said. “[But] people here are optimistic that there is change coming. They call it a revolution. People here have given Andry Rajoelina one day to leave office … They are demanding that he leave office, they are also demanding that he apologise for the people who have been killed [by security forces].”
Madagascar’s army has a long history of intervening in politics during crises. Since independence from France in 1960, it has backed or led several power shifts, including coups in the 1970s and in 2009, when it helped oust President Marc Ravalomanana and bring Antananarivo’s reformist mayor, Rajoelina, to power.
Though the military has stayed mostly in the background in recent years, it remains an influential force in the country’s often fragile political landscape.