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Date: Feb 15, 2011
Source: The Daily Star
Algeria's state of emergency to end within days: foreign minister

By Agence France Presse (AFP)

Tuesday, February 15, 2011


PARIS: The 19-year-old state of emergency in Algeria will end within days, Foreign Minister Mourad Medelci said Monday, brushing off concerns that recent protests in the country could escalate as in Tunisia and Egypt.
A state of emergency has been in force in Algeria since 1992 and the government has come under pressure from opponents, inspired by uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia, to ditch emergency laws.
Several hundred protesters took to the streets Saturday in the capital Algiers. Opposition groups said they would demonstrate every weekend until the government is changed.


“In the coming days, we will talk about [the state of emergency] as if it was a thing of the past,” Medelci told the French radio station Europe 1 in an interview.
“That means that in Algeria we will have a return to a state of law that allows complete freedom of expression, within the limits of the law,” he said.
Recent protests had been organized by minority groups with limited support, the minister said, adding that there was no risk of a government overthrow as in neighboring Tunisia.


However, he suggested the government may be willing to make concessions, stressing that “the decision to change the government lies with the president who will assess the possibility, as he has done in the past, to make adjustments, as he has done in the past.”
“Algeria is not Tunisia. Algeria is not Egypt,” he added.

 

The resignation Friday of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and last month’s overthrow of Tunisia’s leader, have led many to ask which country could be next in the Arab world.
Widespread unrest in Algeria could have implications for the world economy since it is a major oil and gas exporter, but many analysts have said an Egyptian-style revolt is unlikely because the government can use its energy wealth to placate protesters.


Discontent with joblessness, poor housing conditions and high food prices sparked rioting in early January across the country. There is so far no sign that this is coalescing into a political movement.
France Monday welcomed as a “step in the right direction” the Algerian government’s promise of political concessions, including a pledge to lift a two-decade state of emergency, Foreign Ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said.


But he called on the Algerian state to allow anti-government protests to take place freely and without violence.
“What is important in our eyes is that freedom of expression is respected and that the demonstrations are able to take place freely and without violence,” he said.


Nearly 30,000 police prevented some 2,000 protesters marching the four kilometers from May 1 Square to Martyrs Square Saturday.
The U.S. and Germany called Sunday for restraint from the Algerian authorities. – Reuters, AFP

 



 
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