Monday, February 14, 2011

Algerian opposition groups said Sunday they would call a demonstration in the capital every Saturday until the government is changed, while hundreds of stone-throwing demonstrators also clashed with police in the eastern Algerian city of Annaba.

The announcement by the opposition came a day after hundreds defied a police ban and protested in Algiers. But thousands of riot police blocked a planned march through the city.
The coalition of civil society groups, some trade unionists and an opposition party which organized Saturday’s rally decided to repeat the rally every Saturday and try to recruit more supporters to their cause.

“We will continue to march until the regime steps down. Each Saturday we will maintain the pressure,” said Mohsen Belabes, a spokesman for the RCD opposition party.
The next rally will be held Feb. 19, said Mustepha Bouchahi of National Coordination for Change and Democracy, an umbrella group of opposition parties, civil society movements and unofficial unions.

The authorities deployed around 30,000 riot police across Algiers to smother demonstrations Saturday, anxious to stop a wave of opposition inspired by events in Egypt and Tunisia.
Demonstrations also took place in cities across the country, galvanizing hopes of the opposition for change but also drawing European criticism of the government’s heavy-handed response.

Small groups of demonstrators angry at President Abdelaziz Bouteflika gathered in May 1 Square in the center of Algiers shouting “Bouteflika out!” They waved newspaper front pages reporting Friday’s overthrow of Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak.
Scuffles between the security forces and protesters broke out even before the march began, and there were many arrests, witnesses said.

“These people braved the ban to demonstrate peacefully,” Bouchahi said Sunday, following a meeting by the umbrella group, which “condemned the brutal behavior of the security forces.”

The crackdown did not appear to stop another demonstration in Annaba Sunday, where four police officers were slightly injured during clashes outside the local government headquarters.

The skirmish broke out after thousands of people responded to an ad in the local paper announcing job vacancies at the city hall. When it turned out no jobs were on offer, members of the group started throwing stones at police.
The media offered a mixed review of Saturday’s rallies, with the pro-reform daily Liberte leading with the headline: “Change is on its way.”

The government El Moudjahid also reported on the Algiers rally on its front page, but dismissed it as only a “weak echo” of events in Egypt and Tunisia.

Public demonstrations have been banned in Algeria under a state of emergency put in place in 1992 but are allowed on a case-by-case basis outside the capital.
The national union of journalists condemned what it said was a violent crackdown on journalists covering Saturday’s demonstrations.
Bouchahi, who also heads the Algerian League for the Defense of Human Rights, said 300 people had been arrested in Algiers, the western city of Oran and Annaba. But both the opposition and authorities said all those arrested were later freed.

From Brussels, European Parliament head Jerzy Buzek demanded that Algerian authorities “shun violence and respect their citizens’ right to peaceful demonstration.” He also slammed the state of emergency as “unjustifiable.”
The U.S. State Department Sunday called on security forces to show “restraint” during ongoing protests there, and said the rights of the Algerian people “must be respected.”

Widespread discontent with joblessness, poor housing and high food prices sparked rioting in early January across the country. But there is so far no sign that this dissatisfaction is coalescing into a political movement. – Agencies