ALGIERS, May 19 (AFP) - Renewed riots erupted Sunday in Algeria's restless Berber region, scene of bloody clashes between youths and police last month over the death of a teenager in a police cell.
The official news agency APS reported that the worst of Sunday's disturbances in the Kabylie region occurred at the town of Seddouk that came to a standstill after demonstrators set up anti-police barricades.
Local inhabitants were quoted as saying four youngsters had been injured in clashes Saturday. Some 20,000 people meanwhile demonstrated peacefully in the Kabylie capital Tizi Ouzou in support of victims of clashes in April and early this month between police and Berber youths.
These claimed between 60 and 80 lives according to unofficial estimates.
The violence in Kabylie in northeast Algeria, home to the ethnic Berber minority, was the worst to hit Algeria since protests in October 1988 put an end to the single-party rule of the National Liberation Front (FLN).
Riots erupted after a youth was shot dead in police custody.
Long-standing and widespread unemployment and poverty have also fuelled the unrest. The Berber people are estimated to make up a third of Algeria's population and have long called for recognition of their culture and language. But the protest over the death in a cell turned into an expression of anger at pressing social problems such as unemployment and housing shortages.
Clashes occurred Sunday at Sidi Aich, Aokas and Amizour, according to reports. Locals reported that one person had been injured by a police gas grenade at Amizour.
In Tizi Ouzou, the peaceful mass protest organized by students rallied at the regional government headquarters then marched to the local courthouse, local inhabitants reported.
Organizers said they would make public a list of demands and called for a march on Monday in protest against the violent suppression of demonstrations. The violence followed a period of relative calm after Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika in a broadcast to the nation promised a civil commission of enquiry. This has not yet arrived in the region to begin investigations.
On Saturday the town of Bejaia was paralyzed by a general strike and a demonstration by 10,000. A group of Algerian deputies rejected a European Parliament resolution calling on the authorities to end violence in Kabylie, officials said Saturday.
Speaking to a delegation of European parliamentarians, the deputies expressed their "total rejection of all forms of foreign interference in Algeria's internal affairs."
Riot police broke up earlier protests at a cost of 42 lives, according to the interior ministry. But opposition parties, witnesses and press reports put the death toll at between 60 and 80. Hundreds were injured.
