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      Last Updated: Friday, 16 November 2007, 17:08 GMT

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   Madagascar death penalty defended


                                                                       Map

   Madagascar's justice minister has personally defended the death penalty
   after a UN draft resolution called for member countries to end the
   practice.

   Her comments also come several days after 12 people were sentenced to
   death for murder and rebellion on the island.

   The case centred on a deadly land dispute in which a village revolted
   against attempts to evict residents.

   Correspondents say no executions have been carried out in Madagascar
   since independence in 1960.

   Mass revolt

   Justice Minister Bakolalao Ramanandraibe told the BBC that her views on
   the death penalty were personal and should not be taken as the Indian
   Ocean island's official line.

   She added that she was not prepared to comment on the land dispute case
   which saw 12 death sentences being handed down on Wednesday.

   The BBC's Jonny Hogg in the capital, Antananarivo, says in total 92
   people were charged in the case.

   Besides the death sentences, some were jailed for five years, others
   were sentenced to hard labour, he says.

   The dispute began five years ago when a businessman bought the land
   around Analovary village, 90km west of the capital, for a tourist
   development.

   In August 2006, police from the capital were dispatched to the village
   to remove the residents but were met with fierce resistance.

   The villagers rose up en masse and two policemen were stoned to death
   and a villager was shot dead in violence.

   The villagers claim they had been living on the land for generations.

   The court upheld the prosecution's view that their actions constituted
   both murder and rebellion.


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