Two Madagascar ministers resign over demonstration deaths

Antananarivo - Two Madagascar government ministers resigned over the shooting dead by security forces of dozens of unarmed opposition supporters at the weekend, reports said Monday.

Local media reported that Defence Minister Cecile Manorohanta had announced her resignation in a statement read out on a Malagasy radio station.

"After everything that has happened, I have decided not to be part of the government from this moment on," she was quoted as saying.

The justice minister, also a woman, whose name is given by the government's website as Justice Bakolalao Ramanandraibe Ranaivoharivony, was also reported by Michelle Ratsivalaka, a candidate for mayor of the capital Antananarivo, to have resigned.

The reports of the resignations came as Madagascans continued to mourn the victims of Saturday's carnage outside the presidential palace in Antananarivo.

At least 25 people were killed and 170 injured when presidential guards fired without warning on a crowd of demonstrators threatening to storm President Marc Ravalomanana's residence.

On Monday, thousands of people turned out to pay their respects to the dead in a sports hall, where their coffins were laid out in rows, some bearing photos of the victims.

Afterwards, the mourners began congregating in the May 13 square, which has been the rallying point for over two weeks of demonstrations that cost over 100 lives in the first week, mostly in incidents of looting.

Opposition leader, Andry Rajoelina, who has demanded to lead a transitional government, called for a national day of mourning Monday.

Rajoelina, whom the government sacked as mayor of Antananarivo last week, is also due to meet with a United Nations envoy, Haile Menkerios, who is in Madagascar to try to broker peace.

Menkerios was also due to meet with the president.

The opposition accuses the president of seven years of curtailing civil liberties and subverting the economy to suit his vast business interests and called for his resignation.

Ravalomanana has rejected calls to step down, saying he was democratically reelected to a second five-year term in 2006. (dpa)

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