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Algeria: Half A Million March In Kabylie
TIZI OUZOU, Algeria, May 21 (News Agencies) - More than half a million people, many wearing black, marched in the Kabylie capital of Tizi Ouzou on Monday in honor of dozens who died in a police crackdown in the ethnic Berber region.
During the demonstration, the largest since riots broke out over the killing of a youth in police custody on April 18th, the entire region was paralyzed by a general strike as discontent simmered over perceived government apathy towards the plight of the impoverished Berber minority.
Those joining the march, which lasted more than three hours, chanted slogans and carried posters denouncing the police crackdown against a wave of riots across Kabylie from April 22nd to May 6th.
Political parties and the independent press say between 60 and 80 people were killed, mostly by police fire, while the official death toll stands at 42 from running battles between protesters and police.
Witnesses described Monday's demonstration variously as "a flood of people", a "never-ending surge" and an event "never before seen in the city", and said villagers from across the region had supported it.
After the demonstration was over, riot police fired tear gas on a group of youths throwing stones at the city's police headquarters. The youths dispersed, then taunted police again and triggered more tear gas in their direction.
Organizers urged the demonstrators to refuse to cooperate with investigations into the killings launched by President Abdelaziz Bouteflika and by parliament.
They also called for the boycott of all official ceremonies as well as an international youth and student festival slated for Algiers in August.
They demanded that members of the security forces who had committed killings and "excesses" be prosecuted, and that all police and paramilitary units immediately withdraw.
Among those marching were the parents and relatives of Massinissa Guermah, the high school student killed in the police station in April, carrying a giant portrait of the youth in the Kabylie colors of black and yellow.
Also Monday, some 200 lawyers marched in their robes in Bejaia, a major Kabylie city some 250 kilometers (155 miles) east of Algiers.
The lawyers distributed a statement denouncing police excesses and human rights violations during the unrest and announcing the formation of a "lawyers collective" offering free legal representation.
The official media have insisted on depicting the discontent as linked to the Berbers' age-old campaign for recognition of their language and culture.
While these demands persist, the new wave of unrest has focused on police impunity and economic discrimination against the Berbers, who make up more than 15% of Algeria's population of some 30 million.
"They're still feeding us words and empty promises, while we are waiting for concrete actions and courageous decisions, if only to calm the youth of Kabylie, who are desperate and ready for anything," said a teacher in Amizour.
The influential independent daily El Watan said last Thursday that, "no noteworthy decision has come from the government or the presidency to calm down the revolt of the insurgents against arbitrariness and the people's destitution."
The mass-circulation daily Liberte said that Kabylie "has starkly revealed the disarray and incompetence of an impotent political hierarchy in the face of a crisis."
New unrest hit the region on Sunday, in the towns of Amizour, Sidi Aich, Aokas and Seddouk, while some 20,000 students demonstrated peacefully in Tizi Ouzou.
Protesting youths torched public property, prompting fears that police barricades and tear gas would reappear following two weeks of relative calm.
In Seddouk, youths set up roadblocks, threw stones and petrol bombs at security forces and torched a public building, witnesses and press reports said Monday.
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