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Algeria Court Judge Killed, Ten Others Die in Riots
ALGIERS, June 20 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Algerian Supreme Court judge, Abdelhamid Hedda, was shot dead Wednesday when unidentified gunmen open fired at a roadblock in the northeastern section of the country, an official source told news agencies Wednesday.
Hedda died in a hail of bullets Tuesday night as he tried to flee from the roadblock, set up near Seriana in the Batna region 430 kilometers (270 miles) east of Algiers, in his car,AFP news agency reported.
The same source added that the armed attackers stopped and robbed several cars before making their getaway.
Meanwhile another 10 people have died in rioting centered in Algeria's ethnic Berber region, press reports said Wednesday, as a defiant President Abdelaziz Bouteflika vowed to hold on to power and signaled that a crackdown on unrest may be imminent, AFP news agency reported.
Dozens of people were injured in the latest violence, newspapers said.
The daily newspaper l'Expression said Wednesday that two policemen were shot dead Tuesday near the towns of Ouzellaguen and Akbou, near the Kabylie city of Bejaia, about 250 kilometers (150 miles) east of Algiers.
The paper said the officers were believed to have been shot by a radical a group called the Salafist Group for Predication and Combat (GSPC), which has declared its support for the political unrest in Kabylie, news agencies said.
The Liberte newspaper said a third police officer had been killed in the main Kabylie city of Tizi Ouzou, 110 kilometers (68 miles) east of Algiers, while a paramilitary gendarme died at Azazga, in the same region.
Another paper, El Khabar, said two other gendarmes were killed in rioting at Bordj Mira, in the region of Bejaia. They were killed on Monday.
Nine demonstrators have been killed since the beginning of the week, four of them on Tuesday, the reports said.
At least one protester was killed Tuesday in Akbou and another in Larbaa Nath-Irathen, both towns near Tizi Ouzou.
Some 30 people were injured in rioting in Bouira, 120 kilometers (70 miles) east of Algiers, and at least 50 people were hurt in other towns in the region.
In other parts of eastern Algeria, a 13-year-old demonstrator was reportedly killed at Ain Mlila, near Oum El-Bouaghi, 550 kilometers (330 miles) southeast of the capital, and another protester died at Ain Touta, in the nearby Aures region.
The protests, sparked by the police killing of a Berber youth on April 18, began as an appeal for more recognition of Berber cultural rights, but have quickly encompassed broader demands for better social conditions, increased employment and cheaper housing, and have spread beyond the borders of Kabylie.
Earlier on Tuesday, Bouteflika, in an impassioned speech to a rally in southern Algeria, admitted "Algeria is in crisis," but said he was willing to start talks to find a peaceful solution.
"I am not a captain who abandons a sinking ship -- I am here, I am staying, in line with the will of the people who elected me," Bouteflika told the rally in Tamanrasset.
The speech came against a backdrop of ongoing riots against his regime that have killed up to 90 people in the past two months, according to unofficial figures.
The speech also came after nearly a million people joined a Berber-led anti-government march last week in Algiers, which turned riotous and bloody, and presented the biggest challenge yet to Bouteflika's leadership.
The demonstration prompted a government announcement on Monday that it was banning marches in Algiers, a move that would open the way for military troops to move against protestors.
The rioting has taken a heavy toll on police and paramilitary gendarmes, with eight being killed since Monday, according to press reports.
The army under Bouteflika continues to draw criticism from human rights campaigners for alleged executions and for failing to prevent massacres.
Abdelaziz Bouteflika was elected in April 1999 on a promise to restore national harmony and end years of bloodshed. The one-time foreign minister released thousands of armed activists from prison and won national backing for a civil concord offering amnesty to armed so-called Islamists. Hundreds of rebels have taken up the offer but the violence has continued.
Algeria, a gateway between Africa and Europe, has been battered by violence over the past half-century and remains at war with itself. More than a million Algerians were killed in the fight for independence from France in 1962 and an estimated 100,000 have died in the current power struggle, according to the BBC online service.
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