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Algeria: Between Government Aggression And The Welfare Of Its People
By Sahar Kassaimah
10/05/2001
Amid Algeria's exhaustion from nearly ten years of civil war, its government has increased violence in the country by opening a new combat front with the Berbers in its northern region. The fatal shooting of a high school student recently sparked additional conflict, worsening already tense relations.
Violence was fueled in the northeastern region of Kabylie just days after Mohamed Geurmah was shot dead in a police station in Beni Douala near Tizi Ouzou, and as three other teens were arrested for protesting against the government. The authorities are saying that Geurmah was not murdered, but was killed by rounds from a machine gun that fired after slipping from the hands of gendarme. But area residents have rejected this official explanation, insisting that he was murdered.
Although authorities promised that the officer responsible for Geurmah's death will face a court martial, the shooting has provoked heightened condemnation by Berbers of the crippling unemployment, housing shortages and poverty they face, and against the country's military-backed government - despite appeals by the opposition to calm the bloodshed.
Tens of thousands of protestors took to the streets in angry demonstrations, with battles between youth protestors and police occurring around Tizi Ouzou, located 62 miles east of Algiers, and Bejaia, 112 miles further east. Tension was also reported high in the towns of Sidi aich, El Kseur, Tazmalt, Seddouk, and Timezrit.
After rioters attacked public buildings with rocks, the country's businesses, schools, and shops were all closed down, leaving its cities completely paralyzed. Officials have not yet confirmed the number of dead, but news reports have placed it at around 80 rioters, primarily youth. The daily El Watan reported that since April 18th, 80 people have been killed and hundreds injured.
The Quotidien d'Oran newspaper reported that "Abderezzak, The Para," an activist member of Hassan Hattab's Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) based in the northeast and Kabylie highlands, led the rebels. In Algiers, the capital, dozens of students demonstrated in solidarity with the Berbers, chanting, "We are all involved; we are all Algerians."
In response to criticism, the government said that it had no choice but to open fire on the protestors whom they claimed were out of control. "In all the cases resulting in loss of human life, the members of the security services were concerned and forced to preserve the safety of people, and properly faced with demonstrators who were out of control," said Interior Minister Yazid Zerhouni in a statement. He then accused "extremists" of inciting the riots.
Meanwhile, in his address to the nation, President Abdelaziz Bouteflika promised "dialogue and tolerance," and an official investigation into the clashes, and accused both internal and external forces of provoking the conflict. He was not successful in convincing the Berbers to calm down. Although Zerhouni has described the situation as "highly improved" since Bouteflika's address, disappointed youth took to the streets of Bejaia again, saying that his proposal was "superfluous and useless."
Zerhouni also stated that the national commission charged with the investigation would have complete freedom, adding, "We trust in our people to find the truth." Nevertheless, the opposition Socialist Forces Front (FFS), a leading pro-Berber party, has demanded that the European Union (EU) send a team to Algeria to investigate, saying that it will seek a special U.N. envoy to press authorities to apply democracy in its dealings.
In addition, the FFS called off a planned rally, warning "the circles of power are seeking to take advantage of riots to transform them into a bloodbath." Also, the Rally for Culture and Democracy (RCD), a secular party supported by the Berbers with two ministers in Bouteflika's coalition government, withdrew from the government, taking its ministers out in protest over recent events. This has added to the pressure Bouteflika is facing, and analysts say he has been affected more by the RCD's withdrawal than with threats against the survival of the government.
"A government that fires on the people does not deserve to be supported and should not receive backing from democrats," commented Said Sadi, a famous human rights activist. And Rafic Hassani, RCD Secretary General, told the
Le Parisian newspaper, "We condemn the repressive treatment by the government, and we are drawing political conclusions from this." The RCD, however, has also been criticized for engaging in violence independent of defending Berber rights.
The French media blames the current Berber unrest on social problems, primarily unemployment and corruption. The left-of-center newspaper
Liberation said, "This is the revolt of a radicalized youth with nothing to lose - crushed by misery and without hope."
The right-wing daily France-Soir wrote, "The surge of anger among the young people of Kabylie is the result of years of hardship and segregation that they refuse to put up with any longer."
In Paris, a silent rally was organized outside the Algerian embassy on April 30th to denounce the violence and complain to the United Nations about recent "extra judiciary and arbitrary executions" of Berbers.
In addition, an organization based in Paris accused the Algerian government of flouting international law during its crackdown on the Berber protestors. "The authorities have reacted in a totally disproportionate manner," the International Federation of Human Rights Leagues (FIDH) announced in a statement. "The army has fired live rounds at the crowd and arbitrarily arrested protestors, mainly the young…. The fact that the Berber protests are mainly motivated by economic and social demands leads one to fear that they could spread to the whole of the country, which is everywhere blighted by misery."
But what is the real reason behind the Berber protests?
Undoubtedly, it would be a far reach on the part of the Algerian government to try to relate them to Algerian Islamists. Far more advantageous would be an effort on its part to determine the true reasons for Berber dissension, and to search for genuine solutions to the social problems they face, rather than to merely attempt to stifle their revolts.
Although Berbers, who claim to be the original inhabitants of North Africa, have been among the Islamists' most vocal opponents, they are as strongly opposed to what they feel is the repression of their language and culture by secular authorities. Although their goals and objectives are potentially harmful to Islam and the Islamists (as well as to the whole of Algeria), they still represent a segment of the nation that is suffering from the same problems as are most Algerians.
The violence in Algeria is simply symptomatic of the real problems facing the country, rather than their cause. Some internal violence can be anticipated, given the country's current levels of poverty and unemployment, and class divisions. Algerian youth are not able to find jobs that allow them to adequately meet their needs or get married. To a large degree, they feel worthless.
Furthermore, Algerian citizens were expecting Bouteflika to bring the country out of crisis, as he promised. Instead, its social problems and unrest are on the rise.
The questions faced now by the nation are: How can the conflict between the government and the Berbers be resolved? How will the civil war between police and Islamists (already responsible for the death of 100,000 persons since 1992) come to an end? Will Algeria be able to end the agony facing its 30 million citizens, or will it simply disappear by Bouteflika being removed from office?
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