Madagascar seeks removal of EU envoy who criticised law for child rapists

Madagascar has demanded EU to replace its ambassador to the island nation, who had criticised a recent law allowing punishment of child rapists through castration, officials said.

On Thursday, a spokesperson for the European Commission told the AFP news agency that Madagascar has called on Brussels to replace the envoy.

"Madagascar's foreign affairs minister addressed a letter to the high commissioner to express his dissatisfaction... and to ask the EU proceed to replace the head of its delegation in Madagascar," Nabila Massrali, told AFP by telephone from Brussels.

She said the EU is studying the demand "in consultation with the Malagasy government" and that regular ambassador rotations are due to take place in September.

Clara Randrianjara, the head of communications for the Madagascar foreign affairs ministry, told AFP that "this letter should have remained confidential" and declined to comment further.

EU's condemnation

In early February, the Malagasy parliament passed a bill allowing chemical and surgical castration of people convicted of raping minors.

Amnesty International condemned the measure as "cruel, inhuman and degrading".

A few weeks later, the European Union's ambassador, Isabelle Delattre Burger, who has been critical of the government in the past, blasted the measure during a press conference as "contrary even to the Madagascar constitution" and to international norms.

She was summoned to the Foreign Ministry following the remarks.

The EU is one of the main donors to Madagascar, which heavily depends on international aid and where nearly 75 percent of the 29 million-strong population live in poverty.

At the end of February, Madagascar's High Constitutional Court validated the surgical castration portion of the controversial bill, but excluded chemical castration because of its "temporary and reversible character" that would not "permanently neutralise sexual predators".