Dear Friends,

Efa namangy ny olony Jeso, Izay Tompon’ny aina;
Lasa ny alina maizina, Tonga indray ny maraina.

Jesus the Lord of life has visited his people;
The dark night has left; the morning has come again!

Since we returned to the island on December 31, 2001, the country has been embroiled in the aftermath of a presidential election. Much of this process has been remarkably and blessedly peaceful. The protests and massive strikes in the capital and elsewhere have been nonviolent, and the new government, led by Antananarivo mayor Marc Ravalomanana, has been able to take over the capital city and government offices there with little conflict. We continue to be in awe of the Malagasy people’s will to make this change without violence.

On the other side, the old regime, led by former president Didier Ratsiraka, has responded by setting up a parallel government in Tamatave (also known by its Malagasy name, Toamasina) and erecting economic barricades to starve the capital, which have been effective in many ways. A missionary we know commented that since his family came to Madagascar, they’ve lived month to month; since January, they’ve lived week to week; and now they were living day to day because of the lack of auto fuel, cooking gas, salt, sugar, flour, rice, and oil in the stores. And of course, the difficulty missionaries experience is multiplied exponentially for most Malagasy people trying to feed their families through this crisis. Despite grave difficulties in getting the essentials of life, and despite nearly three decades of oppressive rule led by Ratsiraka, the populace is ready, for the most part, to determinedly and peacefully work for this change without lashing out with violence. It has been humbling to witness.

However, the past few weeks in our hometown of Fianarantsoa have not followed this peaceful pattern. Fianarantsoa, which is seen by both the old and new regimes as pivotal for control of the island, is being used as the test case for the new government to see if they can successfully install one of their own as a provincial governor. Currently, both the "new" and the "old" governors are in town in Fianar. This state of affairs has led to a variety of events. For weeks there have been sporadic incidents of violence, including both explosions at a number of radio and television stations in attempts to control media and a few grenades thrown into protesting crowds over the weeks, killing a few people and injuring many more. The vast majority of the violence and bloodshed has been instigated from the old regime. The new government and their staffers have worked very hard not to use violence to achieve their ends.

Then on Tuesday, March 26, four young men were kidnapped by a military colonel working for the old regime. In response, a crowd of many thousands of people marched to the governor’s mansion and demanded that the young men be released and the governor resign. The governor commanded the police guarding the mansion to fire on the crowds. This one act, which had no parallel in the capital city, caused something to snap. In the first moments, over 50 people were hospitalized; 10 were killed. Grenades, petrol bombs, and gunshots were heard throughout the next 18 hours. The houses of five government officials who had ordered past episodes of violence were burned down by angry crowds.

We had already been called by our mission chairperson, Pastor Kevin Ogilvie, to come to the capital, Antananarivo, for a meeting over the Easter weekend. The days after the 26th were quiet in Fianar, and the old governor agreed in negotiations to resign and leave; he left before the week was out. We got busy getting the necessary permissions and certifications to have a plane come to Fianar to take our family and other missionaries to Tana (short for Antananarivo) for the Easter meeting. Because it seemed that the worst was over at home, we planned to come to Tana only for the weekend.

Then on Good Friday, while we were waiting at the airport for the mission plane, the old governor returned by military helicopter with many, many armed soldiers in attendance. As we left the ground, our pilot shared with us that a major bridge north of Fianar on the road to the capital had been blown up, effectively cutting Fianar off from the north. It began to seem that Fianarantsoa was not done with violence just yet.

On April 1, the missionaries met, and decisions were made. Some who were to go on home leave in the next few months are going now; others who had study leave coming soon have gone now rather than later. Because Cynthia has finished nearly half her dissertation and is at the point of needing to do concentrated on-the-ground research with the two churches with whom she works (which is possible in Antananarivo), we are to stay in the capital until the end of the children’s school year (June 30) or until such time as the situation stabilizes in Fianarantsoa. The news there is not good; after a rather quiet week, grenades and gunshots were again active for about three hours Friday evening and again Saturday night, and over the last week, two other bridges have been broken by overloaded trucks trying to take alternate routes. Today two children were injured picking guavas on the mountainside near the governor’s mansion when they inadvertently set off one of the landmines that have been planted in that area to keep people away from the mansion. The struggle continues.

On Friday, April 5, the new president, Marc Ravalomanana, declared war on the "economic terrorists" who have set up armed barricades, blown up bridges and are operating the black market in crucial resources in efforts to starve the capital city, Antananarivo, into submission. It is not clear whether the military will stand with him; after all, this people’s revolution has based itself in the power of nonviolent protest to work for positive change. A declaration of war presupposes willingness to use violence. Can the new regime, which has come to power through the use of nonviolence and people power, now use military force to make its revolution come to full flower? The future remains uncertain.

We are grateful for the support of the church, both here and in the States; for the community of missionaries with whom we serve, who are working to provide a safe and stable life for our family in the midst of this crisis; for our Malagasy colleagues and staff, who support us in every way possible to ensure our safety, and who have been impacted much more negatively than we have by the crisis; and for your prayers. May they continue! The people of Madagascar really need your prayer support. In addition, if you can be in touch with U.S. government officials to encourage support for the new government, that may also help. So far, no foreign government has recognized Ravalomanana as president, and U.S. embassy officials have stated to us recently that there is only one "legitimate" government in Madagascar: Ratsiraka’s. These attitudes make it difficult for the new government to take the actions required to secure the island.

Finally, we end this missive where we started: with the joy and hope of resurrection in our Lord Jesus Christ. This is a hope that the Malagasy people with whom we work hold fast and in which they are standing strong. May you also be blessed with the strength of this central truth.

In the Peace of the Risen Lord,

Cynthia Holder Rich and Mark Rich
ELCA and PC(USA) missionaries to Madagascar

The 2002 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 41