2023-11-13 09:04:33
Another unsuccessful attempt for the Collective of candidates for the presidential election who wanted to take over the Place du 13 Mai last Saturday. For the first time in several weeks, demonstrators erected barricades, blocked traffic, particularly in Behoririka and Andravoahangy, burned tires and moved garbage bins to confront the police. A new clash between the two camps took place in the surrounding neighborhoods of Analakely. The repressed demonstration led to around ten arrests and left several injured.
Less than a week before the November 16 election, the pre-election climate remains tense. Although only one candidate, Roland Ratsiraka, was seen in the streets last Saturday, the demonstration took an unusual turn. Until noon, the supporters of the white march gathered at the Behoririka bridge, closely accosted by disruptors in the pay of the pro-regime who, as usual, appear threatening as soon as they are caught. photo by journalists.
Men in fatigues ordered the demonstrators to disperse but to no avail. The soldiers, armed with shields, were ordered to push the demonstrators to leave, thus cutting off traffic on the bridge for a moment. Under the Behoririka bridge, and mainly on the roads leading towards Antanimena, at the Société Générale bank, then at the junction which leads to Tsiazotafo, other demonstrators erected roadblocks and set fire to tires. The police from Soarano initially tried to dislodge them with tear gas canisters, but the demonstrators responded by throwing stones and throwing the tear gas canisters back at the soldiers.
The police called for reinforcements to push the demonstrators back towards Andravoahangy and under the bridge. Several types of grenades were visibly used, including stun grenades and more powerful tear gas according to some testimonies. Before launching them, a gendarmerie commander even recommended that journalists following the demonstration protect themselves with glasses. Although qualified as weapons of reduced lethality, the weapons used by the security forces for several weeks as tools of repression are very dangerous and have caused serious mutilations, the most recent of which is the case of a man shot at point blank range by a gendarme during the demonstration on November 4 in Mahamasina.
At the end of the demonstration, 11 people were arrested. A pregnant woman and another man, a guard of a building in Behoririka, were also mishandled by the police before they were released. None of these acts escaped the camera lenses of those present at the scene who quickly broadcast the images on social networks.
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