Word: tsiranana
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Mobs of university students, complaining that their academic program was still too French-oriented, surged through the streets of Tananarive, the capital. Tsiranana jailed 350 student leaders, but the rioting only grew worse. While policemen cheered them on, workers and civil servants burned down the plant of a pro-government newspaper and set fire to the city hall...
Even so, the placid, good-humored Malagasy people, an assortment of Malay-Polynesians and Africans, hardly complained until a year ago. Then, a violent revolt in the south against the regime of President Philibert Tsiranana left 800 dead. Tsiranana, an ailing autocrat who had ruled his country since its independence from France in 1960, responded by jailing 500 troublemakers. He also blamed it all on the U.S. embassy and expelled the American ambassador as well as five members of the embassy staff...
...good measure, Tsiranana also imprisoned his own vice president, André Resampa, who was becoming uncomfortably powerful. Earlier this year, Tsiranana was re-elected unopposed to a third term. In Tulear province, where the rebellion had taken place, the official ballot counters solemnly reported that not a single citizen had voted against...
...shaken Tsiranana agreed to release the students (except for five who "died" in prison) and promised university reform. Then he placed Tananarive under military control. When the demonstrations persisted, he surrendered his powers to the army chief of staff, General Gabriel Ramanantsoa. But he did not resign, apparently hoping to retain his title and his palace...
...promised to improve the lives of the country's peasants. "Among us military men," he declared, "the tradition is that you take care of the privates before you worry about the officers." The new government also announced that it was considering a national referendum to decide whether Tsiranana should be allowed to remain as President...