Cape Town — The African Union (AU) has taken the first step towards imposing sanctions on the new army-installed government of Madagascar.
The AU peace and security council, meeting in Addis Ababa on Friday, suspended the country's membership of the continental body.
The decision followed three days after the council had demanded that all parties in Madagascar should "comply scrupulously with the provisions of the constitution of Madagascar on interim arrangements in the event of resignation."
When former President Marc Ravalomanana resigned on Tuesday, he purported to transfer power to a top-level military directorate, which in turn handed control of the government to opposition leader Andry Rajoelina.
However, the constitution stipulates that power should have been transferred to the president of the country's senate.
On Thursday, leaders of the Southern African Development Community – of which Madagascar is a member – denounced Rajoelina's seizure of power as illegal and unconstitutional.
The chairman of the AU peace and security council, Bruno Nongoma Zidouemba of Burkina Faso, was quoted by news agencies as telling journalists after Friday's meeting that the way in which power was transferred amounted to "a civilian and military coup."
Two separate civil society sources in Madagascar who attended a meeting to discuss the country's crisis on Tuesday told AllAfrica that pro-Rajoelina troops had disrupted proceedings and threatened participants – including church leaders and foreign ambassadors – with firearms.
"One of the military men came in," one source reported, "and started shouting, threatening everybody, saying 'Why are you people here when we have already achieved our goal? What is the reason for this meeting when we have already taken power?'"
After Rajoelina arrived and Ravalomanana's statement ceding power had been read, the source said that Rajoelina had intervened, cutting short the American ambassador to say: "According to me the president has no power to do this. I have taken over power, so this ordinance means nothing to me."
Both sources said they believed that the generals to whom Ravalomanana wanted to hand power had been detained at the end of the meeting, after which it was announced that they had declined to accept the assignment. However, one source reported that the highest-ranking officer present had said during the meeting he did not recognise Ravalomanana's decree because he had no prior knowledge of it.
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AU protocols provide that the Malagasy government now has six months in which to restore constitutional order. During the six months, it is suspended from taking part in the policy-making bodies of the organization – including the AU summit of heads of state, which is scheduled this year to be hosted by Madagascar.
The protocols say that after the expiry of six months, "a range of limited and targeted sanctions against the regime that stubbornly refuses to restore constitutional order should be instituted…" This can include visa denials for "perpetrators of an unconstitutional change," restrictions on government-to-government contacts and trade restrictions.
