MADAGASCAR: The "velvet revolution" on the giant African island of Madagascar is beginning to slide from peaceful resistance to violence following a spate of attacks in recent days.
Self-appointed president, Mr Marc Ravalomanana, says he is laying plans to topple the barricades around the capital, Antananarivo, where he seized power in a bloodless coup six weeks ago.
All roads leading to the highland city have been cut off by supporters of Mr Didier Ratsiraka, the island's long-time ruler now in effective exile at the coast.
The blockade has sparked a fuel crisis, caused food prices to skyrocket, and apparently caused crowds to stone and loot the city residences of four Ratsiraka officials two days ago. Soldiers shot dead one 17-year-old boy.
"We cannot wait any longer. The barricades must come down," Mr Ravalomanana told The Irish Times.
Better known for its unique wildlife, Madagascar has become the stage for one of the most unusual - and up to now peaceful - power struggles on a continent wracked by bloody wars.
Mr Ravalomanana, a yoghurt tycoon turned populist politician, is pitted against Mr Ratsiraka, the island's leader of over 20 years said to have ties with powerful figures in the French political establishment.
Claiming he was cheated of victory in last December's presidential election, Mr Ravalomanana's supporters seized power in February following a general strike and a series of mass protests.
Mr Ratsiraka fled by helicopter to the port town of Toamasina, where he established a parallel regime and orchestrated the economic blockade of Antananrivo.
The crisis has succeeded in strangling the city and causing enormous hardship to a people already among the world's poorest.
Many rank-and-file soldiers have sided with Mr Ravalomanana but most of the top brass are refusing to get sucked into the crisis.
"I refuse to fight my fellow citizens. It must be the people, not weapons, that speak," said second-in-command Brig Gen Bruno Rajaonson yesterday.
However the remarkably peaceful standoff now threatens to degenerate into an ugly confrontation. The violent attacks on Ratsiraka supporters in Atananarivo this week followed a televised appeal by Mr Ravalomana to "hunt down . . . like wild animals" the "enemies of the nation".