Village and tribal committees in Algeria's ethnic Berber community, based in the Kabylie region, are agreed on a joint platform of 15 demands they want met by the country's government.
The claims, set down on June 11 at El Kseur near Bejaia, were reaffirmed at a congress among Kabylie delegates on Thursday and Friday, when delegates also decided to hold marches in Algiers in coming weeks.
The platform was drawn up in the wake of weeks of a violent crackdown by the gendarmerie -- the police wing of the army -- on Berber unrest, in which some 80 people died and more than 2,000 were injured:
"1. The taking in charge by the State of all wounded people and the families of martyrs of repression
2. The trial by civilian courts of all those who ordered and perpetrated crimes and their dismissal from the security forces and the civil service
3. Martyr status for every victim and protection of all witnesses of the events in the crackdown.
4. The immediate departure from Kabylie of gendarmerie brigades and police reinforcements
5. The annulment of all legal proceedings against demonstrators
6. An immediate end to punitive expeditions against the population.
7. The dissolution of panels of inquiry set up by the authorities to probe the riots, the crackdown and the underlying causes of unrest.
8. The proclamation of Tamazight the Berber language as an official language, without conditions and without a referendum
9. A State that guarantees all socio-economic rights and all democratic freedoms
10. Against the policies of under-development, impoverishment and making beggars of the Algerian people
11. The placing under the effective authority of democratically elected bodies of all executive functions of the State as well as the security forces
12. A socio-economic emergency plan for Kabylie
13. Against "hogra" abuse of power and contempt for the people.
14. The granting of unemployment benefit worth 50 percent of the SNMG national guaranteed minimum wage to all job-seekers
15. The reorganization of school exams.
We demand a swift and public official response to this platform of claims."
President Abdelaziz Bouteflika's regime has to date said that the departure of gendarmes from Kabylie is "unacceptable" and that the official recognition of Tamazight would call for a revision of the constitution.
The head of state has, however, responded favorably to the question of exams by ordering that a new sitting of the school leavers' certificate exam will be held on September 8.
The authorities have also agreed to provide care for those wounded by security forces and to drop legal proceedings against demonstrators, while the government has also announced a three-year development plan which will cover all regions of Algeria, with a special budget allowance of 500 billion dinars ($6.85 billion).
No official response to the other demands has been forthcoming.
At their meeting last week at Bouira, 120 kilometres (85 miles) southeast of Algiers, tribal and village delegates declared that their platform was "not negotiable." -- ALGIERS (AFP)
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
