Now many dark months later the French are back in Madagascar in a big way. They want their colony back and are well on the way to making it happen.

And even now there is nothing or very little in the French press or blog world. How can the French people remain silent?

Will the ex-colonial power never admit and come to terms with their past and more importantly the present?

It may be that most people in France don’t know the suffering their governments international policies inflict on the world. But isn’t there an open press in France? Why is there no discussion? Where is the outrage?

The cost in terms of the suffering of the Malagasy people is evident everyday. No work, no food, no freedom, crime on the rise, brutal police & army actions, and forests disappearing along with our future…

PRESS RELEASE FROM « THE ASSOCIATION OF MALAGASY PATRIOTS »
(« COLLECTIF DES TIA TANIN DRAZANA MALAGASY »)
collectifgtt@gmail.com

A huge demonstration at Ambohijatovo Park on 28th March 2009 : 8 killed and 30 odd seriously injured

So far, we have always believed that there was no scale of barbarity, but what has occurred today in Antananarivo proved us wrong. While more than 50 000 peaceful demonstrators gathered in the Ambohijatovo park (whic is not a no-go area), a recurring event since Andry Rajoelina seized power by force, mutinous soldiers obeying Rajoelina’s orders made no bones about using live munitions and shooting at the surrounded crowd who were only asking for the return of the constitutional order and for the respect for democracy. In fact, this autocratic power is showing day after day its true face reflecting the image of the would be president who can exert his authority only by using force.

At the moment we are writing these lines the death toll is appalling : 8 dead, two of them were Members of Parliament.
As members of the Association of Malagasy patriots we hold that those killings are a further proof of the nature of that power in keeping with Andry Rajoelina who used weapons and henchmen to carry out his coup.
We also call for France to stop using an ambiguous language for it is deeply involved in those misdeeds, as proof, French elements were seen by the crowd in the scuffles, pursuing, with some mutinous military collaborating with that power, the demonstrators.
Therefore, we strongly blame France in its involvement in these troubles in Madagascar and we urge the French media to show lucidity and fairness : oddly enough they were not present during today’s demonstration whereas they covered other troubles shaking Antananarivo re’cently or in the past..
We do make it a principle that, henceforward, we will give a specific wide airing to the events in Madagascar.
Given the seriousness of the events which have taken a heavy toll of human life,certainly the Malagasy people cannot put up with such provocations and those attacks on unarmed civilians will result in making the Malagasy people angrier, and theirs claims for the return of legality and for the respect for democracy more radical.
After wielding power for one week, the only achievement of the puppet government is to cause thousands and thousand of Malagasy to take the streets in Antananarivo, leading to today’s crisis. Unsurprisingly, the meeting, which has become a daily happening, is gathering more and more people ; since las Thursday school and university students, and civil servants have joined the peaceful and nonviolent movement.
In a context of general defiance, not to mention the non-recognition by most of the world’s Governments, except France, and by international Organisations of this regime guilty of a democratic hold-up, and with a general strike looming ahead as soon as next week, the only possible solution is the standing down of the would-be president Andry Rajoelina, and the return to power of a democratically elected president, Marc Ravalomanana. If France wants to do the Malagasy people a good turn, let her repatriate her peculiar protégé Andry Rajoelina, who is a French national.
In any case, we do take exception to the biased and unfair way in which the events in Madagascar have been dealt with, so far by the media. We are convinced that the French people do not realize what their leaders are up to in Africa. We believe that Mr Sarkozy’s recent visit to Niger and DRC are disguised way to make amends in the eyes of the French people and to ease his conscience about the terrorist acts being carried out in Madagascar.