Hundreds of unarmed army reservists who had barricaded Madagascar’s Parliament on Friday morning saying they had taken lawmakers hostage over a pay dispute left the area early in the afternoon, an AFP journalist at the scene reported.
The leader of the reservists, Georges Randimbiarijaona, called on the demonstrators to disperse at about 2pm after he met two deputy speakers of the National Assembly.
”We are taking the deputies hostage so that they debate our demands today. From our point of view, negotiations are over,” said Randimbiarijaona earlier on Friday morning.
A parliamentary official said all 160 deputies had been in the building to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the founding of an association of parliamentarians and their staff.
According to Randimbiarijaona, between 1 000 and 1 500 reservists had gathered at the National Assembly building in the central highland capital, Antananarivo.
The reservists were demanding demobilisation bonuses in excess of the 200 000 ariary (about R940) per person promised them by the government during a ceremonial laying down of arms in January this year.
They had been among about 2 500 civilians who responded to Ravalomanana’s appeal to ”take back the country” following a presidential election in December 2001, which Ravalomanana — then the mayor of the capital — claimed to have won outright but long-time leader Didier Ratsiraka said had to go to a run-off. — Sapa-AFP