May 6, 2002	Monday	Safar 22, 1423

ANTANANARIVO, May 5: Provincial governors on Madagascar said they had decided to carry out a threat to break from central rule, fuelling fears the Indian Ocean island’s prolonged power struggle would foster deeper divisions.

Five of the island’s six governors appeared on television late on Saturday displaying documents they said would formalise their secession bid, designed to support embattled President Didier Ratsiraka.

Ratsiraka’s rival Marc Ravalomanana, who controls the capital Antananarivo, was declared president by a court on Monday but provincial governors loyal to veteran leader Ratsiraka have not accepted the ruling.

“We have decided to create a confederation of five independent states,” said Samuel Lahady, governor of the eastern province of Toamasina. “We have signed these documents for this proclamation,” he said, holding papers for the camera.

It was not immediately clear whether the governors would have enough popular support from the island’s 16 million people for a meaningful secession bid.

Lahady did not give a date for when the breakaway confederation would come into effect on the island, which is larger than France.

The governors first threatened to secede last week after a court on Monday declared Ravalomanana the winner of a December election. The governor of the northern province of Antsiranana has already declared independence.

MEDIATORS LEAVE: With no immediate sign of a breakthrough in the four-month crisis, African diplomats left the island where officials say as many as 60 people may have been killed in clashes involving protesters and security forces.

Mediators from the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) reiterated a call for the island to hold a referendum to choose between the rival rulers — one of the options in a peace deal Ratsiraka and Ravalomanana signed in Senegal last month.

“The delegation exhorts the two leaders to take their historic responsibilities before their people, Africa and the international community, and to do everything to advance the spirit of dialogue and compromise,” said a statement issued by the delegation as they ended their three-day visit on Saturday.

The statement urged the lifting of barricades which Ratsiraka supporters have set up at major roads to starve the capital of fuel deliveries from ports, leading to the near paralysis of the island’s lifeline textile industry.—Reuters