EMMANUEL GIROUD, Antananarivo, Monday
MORE than 100 inmates set fire to and broke out of the main jail in Madagascar’s capital Antananarivo on Sunday, police said, in an incident the opposition blamed on President Didier Ratsiraka.
Just seven of the 123 escapees were still at large after the mass break-out from Antanimora prison, sparked when mutinous prisoners set fire to part of the penitentiary, an official at the police crisis unit said late on Sunday.
Fifteen detainees were caught at the prison gates immediately after the break-out, while others were rounded up at roadblocks set up near the prison and after house-to-house searches of the area, the police said.
Police armed with assault rifles were seen holding 11 bloodied, handcuffed prisoners against the ground in the main courtyard of the prison. Some police were beating the prisoners with batons, an AFP reporter at the scene said.
Guards said the fires were intended as a diversion while inmates scrambled over the prison wall.
The fires destroyed part of the main building, a sleeping area and a kitchen facility.
Jacques Sylla, the ”prime minister” in self-proclaimed president Marc Ravalomanana’s rival government, accused Ratsiraka of having a hand in the incident.
”We have noticed growing pressure on the part of the Ratsiraka camp on the city of Antananarivo, first through shortages, certain problems in businesses, and today maybe this option,” Sylla said at the prison.
Ravalomanana, who is mayor of the capital, declared himself president of Madagascar in February after talks aimed at resolving a months-long dispute with Ratsiraka over the outcome of a presidential election failed.
A blockade organised by supporters of Ratsiraka, who have erected roadblocks and blown up strategic bridges linking the capital to port cities, has resulted in chronic fuel and food shortages in Antananarivo.
”One could assume that there was external help, even if one cannot be categorically sure,” Sylla said.
He said he would step up security in the capital and neighbouring towns.
”More patrols are beginning to circulate, roadblocks have been set up at the periphery but also in some surrounding towns,” he said.
The ”police minister” in Ravalomanana’s government supported Sylla’s claim that the mutiny had outside help.
”There was a canister of petrol and a box of matches. That’s criminal. It was not an accident. How could this canister of petrol be found here, in a prison?” asked General Augustin Amady.
”It is very likely that there was external help, and it’s not by chance that it happened today,” he said. ”Those prisoners have been there for a long time without ever having agitated, so why today?”
The colonial-era Antanimora prison, which has a capacity for 1 200 inmates but is thought to house more than twice that number, has seen several escapes. – AFP