Sawt Falasteen - Military seizes power in Madagascar as president impeached

Rajoelina, who was in hiding reportedly out of the country, had refused growing demands to step down after demonstrations started on September 25 won the backing of the CAPSAT military unit at the weekend.

CAPSAT commander Colonel Michael Randrianirina read out a statement at the presidential palace saying the unit would set up a governing committee composed of officers from the army, gendarmerie and national police.

"Perhaps in time it will include senior civilian advisers. It is this committee that will carry out the work of the presidency," Randrianirina said.

"At the same time, after a few days, we will set up a civilian government," he said.

"We have taken power," he confirmed to AFP afterwards.

After the announcement, officers from the unit rolled through the capital in armoured Humvees and pick-up trucks, AFP journalists saw.

Crowds lined the pavements, cheering and waving as they passed, while some followed the convoy in their own cars, honking their horns in a victory lap through a city still on edge.

The near-daily protests, led by a youth movement called Gen Z, took a turn at the weekend when CAPSAT -- which played a major role in the 2009 coup that first brought Rajoelina to power -- joined the demonstrators.

They were followed by the gendarmerie paramilitary police force, which admitted to "faults and excesses" in their response to the demonstrations.

- 'Safe place' -

Parliamentarians on Tuesday pushed ahead with the impeachment vote despite Rajoelina's attempt to block it by issuing a decree hours earlier to dissolve the national assembly.

The impeachment vote passed with 130 votes in favour -- well above the two-thirds constitutional threshold required in the 163-member chamber.

In a statement as voting was under way, the presidency said the session was "devoid of any legal basis".

The youth-led protests were ignited by anger over power and water shortages before developing into demonstrations against the president and ruling elite.

After reports that he had left the country with the assistance of France, Rajoelina said in a national address late Monday that he was in a "safe place to protect my life" but did not reveal his location.

The 51-year-old made clear he would not step down, saying he was "on a mission to find solutions" to the political crisis and would not let the impoverished Indian Ocean nation "destroy itself".

Civil servants and trade unionists joined the large crowd in the capital in a fresh demonstration demanding that Rajoelina quit and also expressing anger at reports of French involvement in helping him leave the country.

Before Monday's address, Rajoelina had not appeared in public since Wednesday when he pledged at a public meeting to address complaints against his government.

Rajoelina later disputed the toll, saying there were "12 confirmed deaths and all of these individuals were looters and vandals".

To try to defuse the protests, Rajoelina sacked his entire government last month. Meeting one of the demands of the protesters, the president of the Senate was replaced.

Madagascar has had a turbulent political history since the country off the east coast of Africa gained independence from France in 1960.

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X.Habash--SF-PST