Talks between Madagascan politicians in Maputo postponed

Madagascan politicians postponed their scheduled talks on power transition on the eleven hour due to controversy over the transitional charter they signed 10 days earlier in Maputo, Mozambique.

Under the agreement made in Maputo, President of the High Transitional Authority Andry Rajoelina and his predecessors, Marc Ravalomanana, Didier Ratsiraka and Albert Zafy, should go to Maputo on Wednesday to continue their talks on the establishment of the transitional institutions.

Rajoelina called all parties, including international mediators,to hold a preliminary meeting in Antananarivo on Friday before going to Maputo for official talks.

Media here reported on Wednesday that Rajoelina also urged other political leaders to state their intentions and open their proposals on transition before going to Maputo for their second summit next Monday.

Sponsored by special envoys of the United Nations, the African Union, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the International Organization of French-speaking Countries, the four political camps led by Rajoelina, Ravalomanana, Ratsiraka and Zafy signed on Aug. 9 six documents on transition after four-day talks, in which they had agreed to share power before next national election in 15 months.

They also agreed to go to Maputo on Tuesday to discuss the establishment of a transitional government and the power-sharing as it was proposed by the international mediators.

The international mediators led by former Mozambique president Joachim Chissano, who is also the special envoy of the SADC, are scheduled to arrive here on Thursday to consult all representatives of the four camps, a communication official under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs told Xinhua through telephone on Wednesday.

Chissano visited Antananarivo toward the end of last month, during which he had convinced the four stakeholders to seek a way out of the 7-month-long political crisis.

Madagascan politicians should realize that anyone of them could not take hold of the national power and the only realistic way to end the crisis over the island country was to sit and talk what was possible, Chissano told a press conference before leaving the country on July 31.

However, major players of the crisis, Rajoelina and Ravalomanana, have insisted on their positions for their own interests.

In a letter to the international mediators, Ravalomanana's supporters urged to release 56 political prisoners, all close allies of Ravalomanana, under the agreement made between the four parties at their first meeting in Maputo.

They also called the mediators to pay attention on the implementation of the accords signed by the leaders of four political camps at the end of the meeting.

Only five of the 56 Ravalomanana's supporters, imprisoned by the High Transitional Authority since last March, have been released until now though they should be set free immediately after the signing of the agreement.

Supporters of Rajoelina, including the commanders of the armed forces and the police, asked Rajoelina and his transitional prime minister Monja Roindefo to keep their positions during the transition while other political groups also wanted their says and seats in the transition.

Supporters of Ravalomanana stopped their daily anti-Rajoelina demonstration since the signing of the Maputo accord to make a suitable environment for the return of their leader as it was demanded in the Maputo agreement.