Ravalomanana’s wife barred from going home

ANTANANARIVO, Sunday

Former Madagascar First Lady Lalao Ravalomanana was banned from boarding an Airlink flight at Oliver Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg while planning to return home on Sunday.

Officials of the Troika Organ of the Southern African Development Community were kept informed on her intention some days before.

“As a mother, she has been worried of the misery of the Malagasy women hit by the crisis.

“She will be bringing a part of solution for her fellow citizens,” ousted President Marc Ravalomanana, her husband, announced by phone.

Daughter Saraha Ravalomanana should accompany the mother. But she wasn’t too allowed to leave South Africa.

“There was ‘disguised’ NOTAM (note to air men) issued by the Malagasy Ministry of Transport,” Ms Hanitra Razafimanantsoa, one of the lawyers of toppled President Marc Ravalomanana said.

“The Airlink staff informed Ms Ravalomanana and her daughter just after they got their boarding pass that it was impossible to fly them for safety reasons,” she explained.

An official letter from Antananarivo warned the company that the safety of the aircraft was not guaranteed in Madagascar if it persisted in carrying the ousted leader’s family.

Airlink, a regional carrier affiliated with South African Airways, said South Africa’s foreign ministry had ordered it not to fly Mrs Ravalomanana back to Madagascar — a story the foreign ministry’s spokesman denied.

“We would have continued as normal and everything as normal but basically we were told by foreign affairs that she was not allowed to travel,” Airlink spokeswoman Karin Murray said.

“Our foreign affairs office gave us the notification, so it’s a diplomatic matter.”

But foreign ministry spokesman Clayson Monyela said his office, the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO), was not involved and that the Ravalomananas’ return to Madagascar was being handled by mediators from the 15-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC).

“It’s not true. DIRCO couldn’t take that decision. The mediation in Madagascar is said. “We don’t even know that she was supposed to be going back.”

Mr Ravalomanana’s South African public relations firm declined to comment, and his spokesman and personal assistant did not immediately return phone calls.

Meanwhile in Antananarivo, where several thousand supporters had gathered to welcome the former first lady, top Ravalomanana ally Mamy Rakotoarivelo, speaker of the lower house of the country’s transitional parliament, accused the Madagascan transport ministry of blocking her return.

“Today we learned that the transport ministry sent a letter to the director-general of Airlink saying that if the company agreed to let Mrs Ravalomanana on board it would be at its own risk and peril,” Rakotoarivelo told AFP, accusing the ministry of intimidation.

“Her luggage had to be taken off the plane. She had her boarding card in her hand,” Rakotoarivelo said.

Transport Minister Benjamina Ramanantsoa confirmed his ministry had sent a letter to Airlink but denied it was designed to intimidate. “It wasn’t exerting pressure, it was just to let everyone know one another’s responsibilities,” he told.

“I can’t force a private airline to board or remove anyone.” The aborted trip comes two weeks after the Mr Ravalomananas boarded an Airlink flight home, only to be forced to do a U-turn in mid-air when Madagascan authorities closed the country’s main airports.

Ravalomanana has been eager to return home despite a threat from Madagascan authorities to arrest him on arrival after he was sentenced in absentia to life in prison and hard labour for the killing of 30 protesters by his presidential guard in 2009 in the run-up to his overthrow.