Thursday, March 24, 2011

ALGIERS: Rioting in a working-class area of Algiers over the demolition of illegally built shacks left 22 people hurt, 21 of them police officers, a top civil protection official said Wednesday.

Rioting over housing is fairly common in Algeria, but Wednesday’s clashes were unusually violent and took place at a time when Algerian authorities are wary of any sign of contagion from the unrest elsewhere in the Arab world.
“We recorded only one person injured among the civilians and 21 police officers, too” in the Climat de France housing estate, in the district of Oued Koreich, after the clashes at dawn, said the official, who did not want to be identified.

The estate, which has a population of 5,000, is near Bab el-Oued, home to the protest movement in Algeria.
At least one protester was hurt, a 16-year-old boy Mohammad was hit in the eye by a rubber bullet, according to his brother Hamid. Speaking to AFP by telephone, Hamid said his brother had been taken to a hospital and was undergoing surgery.

Another witness, aged 60, said that he had seen “at least 70 people wounded and taken to hospitals [nearby] by individuals.” But there was no confirmation by other witnesses of this total.

One witness, Samir, said earlier that “at least 500 police officers with arms and clubs” had been in the neighborhood for several hours.

“They are using blank rounds, rubber bullets and tear gas against the demonstrators,” he said.
Reporters on the spot said the protesters replied with iron bars and stones.
According to Samir, those taking part in the protests, most of them young, “have no work, no wealth, though the country is immensely wealthy.”

The newspaper Al-Watan said at least five vehicles had been set on fire, including a police truck attacked by young people.
Some 200 corrugated iron shacks, put up some months ago in the absence of other housing, were due to be torn down in three areas of Climat de France.

Since the beginning  of this year there have been daily demonstrations that followed protests against the cost of living which took the lives of five people and wounded 800.
The Algerian authorities subsequently announced a series of measures to meet the demands, including more housing. – AFP, Reuters