Calm after student riots rock university campus

Malagasy officials called for calm on Thursday after a student protest in the capital, Antananarivo, turned violent.

Close to 500 students from the University of Antananarivo took to the streets on Wednesday to demonstrate against a new government decree cutting university places, defence ministry spokesman Paul Andre confirmed.

Seventeen students were arrested and five police officers injured after students started throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails, Andre said.

"The violent behaviour of the students is worrying. We are now calling on the students to be calm and patient until the government addresses their concerns," he told IRIN.

The giant Indian Ocean island has been rocked by a series of demonstrations since last year, mainly over the soaring cost of living. Earlier this week the International Monetary Fund warned Madagascar that its high inflation rate remained a serious concern, and called for tight monetary and fiscal policies.

Three successive hikes have more than doubled the base rate, from 7 percent 16 percent, yet inflation surged to 27 percent last year, compared with 3.1 percent in 2003.

Civil rights worker Madeleine Ramaholimihaso said: "The students do have legitimate concerns, but I think that a lot of the frustration is fuelled by the difficult economic times - the students are just expressing what most people in the country are feeling right now. We expect the government to do more to ease the poverty."

Madagascar is one of the world's poorest countries, with more than half its 15 million inhabitants surviving on less than a dollar a day.