Top Madagascar army generals attend SADC heads summitBy RIVONALA RAZAFISON in Antananarivo | Friday, August 17  2012 at  12:49

Three top Madagascar army generals are attending the SADC heads of state summit in Maputo as the meeting pushes to further unlock the island nation's political deadlock.

The ranking officers are part of President Andry Rajoelina's official delegation to the two-day summit that ends Friday.

They are National Committee for the National Defence boss Gal Ranto Rabarisoa, state secretary for the National Gendarmerie Gal Randrianazary , and Gal Richard Ravalomanana, the head of the regional security forces for the Antananarivo Province.

Gal Désiré Ramakavelo, a former Defence minister said the military is key to overcoming Madagascar's three year crisis.

"The crisis resolution will come from neither President Rajoelina nor his predecessor Marc Ravalomanana, but from the army,” he said Thursday.

The army played a significant role in the upheaval of 2009 by backing Mr Rajoelina, who was the-then mayor of Antananarivo.

The outcome of two earlier meetings in Seychelles between President Rajoelina and the man he ousted from power, Marc Ravalomanana, and the consultative sessions with interested parties in Antananarivo will form part of the report of the chairperson on Politics, Defence and Security co-operation to the ordinary summit in Maputo.

Last week, the three generals met the SADC's mediator in Antananarivo where they held a five-hour closed-door meeting.

The sticking point remains whether to allow Mr Ravalomanana to return from exile to contest elections, which the incumbent is against.

Mr Ravalomanana has a conviction stemming from the killing of protesters by his presidential guard in the 2009 coup.