Commission head named amid new calm in Kabyle after deadly riots

TIZI OUZOU, Algeria, May 02, 2001 (AP WorldStream via COMTEX) -- Shopkeepers began reopening businesses Wednesday and workers cleared debris from more than a week of riots that left dozens dead in Algeria's northeast Berber region.
A lawyer specializing in international law was named to head a commission charged by President Abdelaziz Bouteflika to investigate the 10 days of riots that, according to an official death toll left 42 people dead, with 184 protesters and 388 police injured. Local media put the death toll between 60 and 80.

Small skirmishes between youths and security forces around Tizi Ouzou, 100 kilometers (60 miles) east of Algiers, were rapidly dispersed, but police - widely criticized for strong-arm tactics that led to deaths - remained generally discrete.

The riots began after an 18-year-old student was shot dead in a police station April 18. Authorities said the young man was killed by accident, but the news sent thousands into the streets across the mountainous Kabyle region, home to Algeria's ethnic Berber population.

The rioting became a vehicle for young Berbers to vent their frustration at crippling poverty, unemployment and government policies.

Bouteflika on Monday announced plans for a "free and open investigation" into the clashes.

State television said Wednesday night that the commission would be headed by Mohand Issad, a respected expert in international law who presided over a commission to reform Algeria's justice system.

Issad said he has "carte blanche" to choose commission members, "specialists or not," but did not elaborate on who might serve. It was not immediately clear whether officials would be included on the commission.

The president's announcement of an inquiry failed to halt a pro-Berber party, the Rally for Culture and Democracy, from pulling its two ministers out of the government on Tuesday - a blow to Bouteflika.

Lawmakers voted on Wednesday to carry out their own investigation.

In Paris, French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine issued veiled criticism of Algerian security forces for the "violence of this repression," telling the National Assembly that France, former colonial ruler, "cannot remain silent today."

Vedrine said that it is "through political dialogue that solutions can be found to this problem, so acute, so grave, today pathetic."

In Algiers, students, holding sit-ins to protest the firing on Berber youths, decided to boycott classes and exams and planned a march Thursday.

The other pro-Berber party, the Front for Socialist Forces, planned its own march in Algiers on Thursday to denounce the "provocation" of security forces against rioters.

It was not immediately clear whether either march would be allowed.

Most independent newspapers were critical of Bouteflika's address, noting that the speech was delivered in a formal Arabic that ethnic Berbers in particular would find hard to decipher.

"The population could understand almost nothing, just a few snatches of the speech given in an academic Arabic. The impact was lost," the daily El Watan said in an editorial Wednesday titled, "An Unconvincing Bouteflika."

The Berbers, who claim to be the original inhabitants of North Africa and have pressed for official recognition of the Berber language, have had tense relations with Algiers for decades.

Bouteflika is already under fire for failing to halt a nine-year Islamic insurgency that has claimed more than 100,000 lives. The president took office in 1999 on a promise to restore peace.

On Wednesday, Liberte reported that some 50 insurgents were killed in a military offensive over the past week around Mount Djorf, near Tebessa, 600 kilometers (370 miles) east of Algiers. The paper said the operation was the biggest undertaken against Islamic rebels in the region.

The Islamic uprising was triggered when the army canceled elections in 1992 that a Muslim fundamentalist party looked set to win.

The riots in Kabyle were not related to the uprising and the Berbers are vocal opponents of political Islam. However, widespread unemployment, corruption and a tattered economy are widely seen as a reason for the meteoric rise of the now-banned Islamic Salvation Front, whose near-electoral success triggered Algeria's crisis nearly a decade ago.

By ABDELLAH CHEBALLAH Associated Press Writer

Copyright 2001 Associated Press, All rights reserved

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Berber riots: turning point in Algerian politics

ALGIERS, May 2 (AFP) - Angry young Berbers were set for new demonstrations Thursday as a leading Algerian Socialist appealed to the world community to stop a new bloodbath following clashes that have claimed up to 80 lives.

Nearly a fortnight of unrest with bloody clashes between students and riot police was sparked by the death of a Berber teenager in police custody.

Algeria's leading socialist Hocine Ait-Ahmed appealed to United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, President George W. Bush and the European Union to prevent renewed bloodshed by warning Algeria's leaders not to use force again.

Hocine Ait Ahmed's appeal came as his Socialist Forces Front (FFS) prepared to hold a peace march in the Algerian capital.

More ominously, after a sullen lull, the volatile Kabylie region -- home to the proud Berber ethnic group -- threatened to blow up again with the promise of a students' "grand march" through the town of Bejaia.

Ait Ahmed appealed from Lausanne in Switzerland to the international community to "prevent the irreparable," urging it to warn Algeria's government, military and police commanders "against summary and massive use of weapons of war."

Kabylie remained tense after deadly riots and a decision by an ethnic Berber party to quit the Algerian government, perhaps marking a turning point in the country's political future.

The Berber unrest adds to Algeria's already long-standing security problem of armed Muslim extremists seeking to topple the regime by bloodshed and mayhem.

The country has been in the throes of Islamic insurgency since 1992, when the army prevented the now-outlawed extremist Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) from taking power by calling off a second round of general elections.

Two Kabylie-based pro-Berber parties have thrown their weight behind the demands of Berber protestors.

Said Sadi, leader of the Rally for Culture and Democracy (RCD), on Tuesday pulled two ministers out of the government, accusing President Abdelaziz Bouteflika of choosing to "save the regime at the expense of the people."

The protests were sparked by the death in police cells, but rapidly turned into an attack on all symbols of central authority in Kabylie.

The Berber people are estimated to form a third of Algeria's population and have long demanded recognition of their culture and language. In the latest protests, they have also expressed anger over pressing social problems such as unemployment and housing shortages.

Riot police broke up the protests at a cost of 42 lives, according to the interior ministry, but opposition parties, witnesses and press reports put the death toll at between 60 and 80. Hundreds have been injured.

From exile in Lausanne on Wednesday, FFS leader Hocine Ait Ahmed warned the regime against a "bloodbath".

"In the face of this peaceful demonstration by Algerian youth, we watch with anxiety the establishment of a disproportionate police and military force, aimed not at keeping the peace intelligently, but on the contrary at terrorising and discouraging protestors at first, then repressing them in a bloodbath."

Ahead of Thursday's peace march, the FFS -- which also has its roots in Kabylie -- accused the authorities in Algiers of "having knowingly transformed peaceful demonstrations into riots to justify the unjustifiable: using live bullets and preparing the ground for hardline intervention."

President Bouteflika promised on Monday to set up a free and open commission to investigate the causes of the unrest.

But he proposed no concrete measures.

The Berber unrest now compounds Bouteflika's long-term problem of a campaign of bloody insurgency of Muslim extremists.

That ongoing crisis was only too vividly illustrated by Wednesday reports that some 50 Islamic extremists had been killed in an Algerian army sweep against insurgents in response to an ambush in which 40 governmente troops died.

In contrast to the Muslim extremists, the majority of the Berber community is largely secular and certainly sharply opposed to Islamic fanaticism.

France on Wednesday denounced the police crackdown on riots in Kabylie and urged the Algerian government to launch a political dialogue.

"We cannot remain silent in the face of such events and in light of the violence used to crush" the demonstrators, Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine told the National Assembly. "It is through political dialogue that solutions can be found to this serious and heart-rending problem."

Algeria achieved independence from France after a war of independence in the 1950s and 1960s.

In Bejaia residents were trying to pick up the pieces on Wednesday. The police -- special target of the hate wave in Kabylie -- carefully guarded public buildings as students prepared for their "grand march" on Thursday. And the general public stiffened itself for more violence.

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Algerian Socialist leader appeals to world over Berber strife

GENEVA, May 2 (AFP) - Algeria's leading socialist appealed urgently to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, President George W. Bush and the European Union to prevent further bloodshed among Algeria's volatile Berber community.
Hocine Ait Ahmed's appeal came as his Socialist Forces Front (FFS) prepared to hold a peace march in the Algerian capital, and -- more ominously -- Berber students prepared to hold further demonstrations, likewise on Thursday. Ait Ahmed appealed from Lausanne in Switzerland to the international community to "prevent the irreparable," asking it to warn Algeria's government, military and police commanders "against summary and massive use of weapons of war."

An estimated 60-80 people have died during bloody clashes between Berbers and riot police sparked by the death of a Berber teenager in police custody. The protests escalated into an outburst of pent-up hostility to central authority over social and cultural grievances.

Ait Ahmed also addressed his appeal to NATO Secretary-General Lord Robertson, the UN human rights high commissioner Mary Robertson and the European Union's foreign policy coordinator Javier Solana.

Warning against a "bloodbath" on Thursday, he said:

"In the face of this peaceful demonstration by Algerian youth, we watch with anxiety the establishment of a disproportionate police and military force, aimed not at keeping the peace intelligently, but on the contrary at terrorising and discouraging protestors at first, then repressing them in a bloodbath."

Police -- special target of the hate wave in Kabylie -- carefully guarded public buildings in Kabylie Wednesday as students prepared for a "grand march" on Thursday in the town of Bejaia.

The violence has occurred in the Kabylie region, home to ethnic Berbers, a large minority which has felt discriminated against by the Algerian regime long before the tragedy in the police cell.

The Berbers have long-standing grievances over what they consider to be cultural and political discrimination.

Widespread unemployment and poverty have fuelled the unrest.

A promise by Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika to investigate the violent security crackdown in Kabylie has so far failed to appease Berbers.

Ait Ahmed said that, far from restoring confidence, and giving new hope, Bouteflika in his national address Monday had "exacerbated the discontent and radicalisation of the population."

Ahead of Thursday's peace march, the FFS -- which has its roots in Kabylie -- accused the authorities in Algiers of "having knowingly transformed peaceful demonstrations into riots to justify the unjustifiable: using live bullets and preparing the ground for hardline intervention."

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Algeria's Berber region slowly returning to normal

ALGIERS, May 2 (Reuters) - Algeria's troubled Berber region was quiet but tense on Wednesday following week-long riots sparked by the killing of a student that have left more than 40 people dead.

Tizi Ouzou, the main city in Kabylie province in the north-east, was eerily calm with most shops closed, a handful of cafes open, streets mainly deserted and no visible police presence, unlike in previous days, a Reuters photographer said.

In Bejaia, the second main Berber city, municipality workers were clearing the streets of rocks, burnt tyres and felled trees, residents reached by telephone said.

The government said 42 people were killed, including one para-military gendarme, in the riots sparked by the shooting of a teenage student by security forces two weeks ago.

A total of 572 people were injured, including 384 members of the security forces. The Algerian media have reported up to 80 people were shot dead by riot police.

Students and other young people, still simmering with anger over a violent police crackdown in the past few days, told reporters they wanted to organise a march to the capital Algiers, 90 km (55 miles) away.

In the capital, police prevented hundreds of students from the University of Algiers from staging a peaceful protest march.

President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has promised an independent commission of inquiry into the events, in the face of criticism from independent media.

"President Bouteflika, like his predecessors, made a historic blunder," the daily El Watan wrote in an editorial.

"He did not have the political courage...to say he would take the initiative and give the Tamazight language national and official status," it said.

ISLAMIC INSURGENCY CONTINUES

Berber militants have long demanded recognition of Tamazight, which they speak, as an official language. However residents in traditionally restive Kabylie said the unprecedented unrest went far beyond the question of regional identity and culture, but included wider social demands like access to jobs and better housing.

El Watan also criticised the Algerian leader, who has been in office for two years, for addressing the nation on Monday night in classical Arabic rather than the local Algerian dialect "that everybody understands".

"The impact (of the speech) was lost, above all on young rioters and their parents," it added.

Algeria's main opposition Socialist Front Forces (FFS), which is well represented in Kabylie, called for a peaceful march on Thursday in Algiers.

But party officials expected the demonstration to be banned under a state of emergency which has been in force in the North African country for the past nine years, and which severely curtails political activity.

An Islamic insurgency in the country since 1992 has left more than 100,000 people dead, the majority of them civilians.

It has continued unabated despite an amnesty offer from Bouteflika and a more recent pledge to crush it with an iron fist.

The media reported on Wednesday that more than 50 Islamic rebels had been killed by troops in the past few days during a military offensive near the city of Tebessa, about 650 km (400 miles) east of the capital.

The operation was triggered by an ambush last week by rebels in which more than 40 government soldiers were reported killed. The information could not be independently confirmed.

((Algiers newsroom, +213-21 639152 fax +213 21 639151))

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Berber capital in Algeria tense after devastating riots

by Amer Ouali

TIZI OUZOU, Algeria, May 2 (AFP) - Tizi Ouzou, metropolis of Algeria's restless Berber minority, was trying to get itself together Wednesday after days of clashes between youths and police which left a trail of death and destruction.

Tension still hung in the air as police patrolled the streets. Some shops had reopened, but factories, public services and schools remained closed. Riots in the town, and throughout the Kabylie region, were sparked by the shooting death on April 22 of a teenager in police custory.

Tizi Ouzou is the capital of Kabylie, home to ethnic Berbers, a non-Islamic minority which has felt discriminated against by the Algerian regime long before the tragedy in the police cell.

No violence was reported Wednesday. But tempers remained high. Twenty-six year-old street trader Nassim was bursting with indignation: "I've been trying to sell my things on the market but the police keep driving us off."

On Monday night, Algeria's President Abdelaziz Bourteflika promised an enquiry into the causes of the disturbances.

But Assim, his street trade ruined, said dismissively: "Bouteflika doesn't understand a thing about the revolt. He promised an enquiry commission -- as though we didn't all know the causes already."

The worst of the fighting in Kabylie -- causing up to 80 dead according to reports -- appeared to have died down for the moment Wednesday. But Tizi Ouzou had suffered an extra dose the day before when youths went on the rampage again.

Townspeople had already done quite a bit of clearing up by Tuesday morning. Barricades, rubble and rubbish had been removed, restoring some semblance of normality.

It was May Day. Nevertheless shops were open, buses were running and the ubiquitous cigarette sellers had piled up their wares in the streets again.

But just before mid-day, it was back to war.

At a signal, a youth ripped down a traffic signal and used it to block the road while agitators drummed up support among young bystanders.

Shop shutters quickly rattled down and shoppers dashed off the streets.

Dozens of demonstrators bore down on police headquarters, showering it with stones and trying to rip down window gratings as gendarmes beat a hasty retreat into the safety of the building.

Then attackers smashed down a door. The police, now desperate, replied with tear gas in such quantities that the entire town felt as though it were suffocating.

In Bejaia, another main Kabylie town, residents were also trying to pick up the pieces on Wednesday after what some called a long nightmare.

The House of Culture is no more than ruin. The post office, the state bank and the social security office all bear heavy marks of the youthful wave of rage. All of them are public edifices representing authority as exercised from the capital Algiers.

Police -- special target of the hate wave in Kabylie -- carefully guarded public buildings as students prepared for a "grand march" on Thursday. And the general public stiffened itself for more violence.

The Berbers have long-standing grievances over what they consider to be cultural and political discrimination.

Widespread unemployment and poverty have fuelled the unrest.

Many of the young demonstrators in Bejaia hail from poor communities on the periphery of the town, where entire families huddle in one room.

Bouteflika's promise to investigate the violent security crackdown in Kabylie has so far failed to appease Berbers, even though some are prepared to see something positive in the fact that the head of state has taken the trouble to appear on TV.

"It's the first time a head of state has ever spoken specially to Kabylie," said one old man, adjusting the white traditional robe worn specially to celebrate May 1, day of the worker.

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France denounces crackdown in Algeria, urges dialogue

PARIS, May 2 (AFP) - France on Wednesday denounced a bloody police crackdown on riots in Algeria's ethnic Berber region of Kabylie and urged the government to launch a political dialogue in the wake of the violence.
"We cannot remain silent in the face of such events and in light of the violence used to crush" the demonstrators, Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine told the National Assembly. "It is through political dialogue that solutions can be found to this serious and heart-wrenching problem."

Vedrine's comments came following a police crackdown on demonstrators in the Kabylie region which, the minister said, left some 60 young people dead.

Vedrine said he hoped a commission of enquiry promised by Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika would help the country overcome the latest violence.

The rioting was the worst to hit Algeria since protests in October 1988 put an end to the single-party rule of the National Liberation Front (FLN).

It erupted on April 18 after police shot dead a youth in custody.

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Berber region of Algeria picks up pieces after riots




ALGIERS, May 2 (AFP) - Police remained on the streets among Algeria's Berber ethnic minority Wednesday as townspeople tried pick up the pieces after nearly a fortnight of angry violence sparked by the death of a youth in police custody.
There were no immediate reports of renewed clashes.

But in Tizi Ouzou, capital of the mainly Berber region of Kabylie, tension still hung in the air. Some shops had reopened, but factories, public services and schools remained closed, local residents reported.

Security forces maintained a discreet presence. But they were particularly watchful at public buildings -- seen by angry locals as hated symbols of Algerian state power, and sometimes heavily damaged in the disturbances.

Latest press reports have put the death toll among demonstrators at between 60 and to 80 in clashes between demonstrators and riot police.

The authorities estimate that 42 people, including one police officer, have been killed.

The mainly Berber region of Kabylie became a flashpoint of youth unrest on April 18 after a teenager was shot dead in a police cell.

The Berbers, a non-Islamic group, have longstanding grievances over what they consider is cultural and political discrimination.

In the town of Bejaia, residents cautiously tried to resume the normal pace of life. Shops were open, but transport bore visible traces of the violence.

Demonstrators' barricades had been removed, but burnt-out cars and swept-up rubble recalled what had happened.

The mountainous region of Kabylie is traditionally a hotbed of opposition in Algeria, already reeling from nearly a decade of civil war launched by Islamic extremists.

The Berbers make up about a third of Algeria's population, and many resent the imposition of the Arabic language and culture.

Widespread unemployment and poverty have added to a sense of grievance.

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