Renewed riots broke out Saturday in Algeria's northeastern Kabylie region, where tens of thousands of people took to the streets, though the opposition cancelled protest marches for fear of bloodshed.
Witnesses said mainly youthful demonstrators hurling stones clashed with riot police using teargas in the main Kabylie towns of Tizi Ouzou and Bejaia, but no casualties were immediately reported.
Late Friday, the opposition Socialist Forces Front (FFS) called off a rally because its leaders had heard there could be more violence after at least 16 people died in clashes sparked by reports of police brutality.
The party said it had received "a large number of serious and corroborating reports" that "the circles of power are seeking to take advantage" of marches "to transform them into a bloodbath" on Saturday.
Trouble erupted in Bejaia on Saturday after people initially turned out for a peaceful demonstration in the town center, witnesses said. Police maintained a discreet presence until a lorry was set on fire just outside a police post and the security forces went into action.
In Tizi Ouzou, clashes began early Saturday morning, an AFP correspondent said. Witnesses said protestors were passing round handkerchiefs soaked in vinegar to cope with clouds of teargas.
Saturday's trouble led shopkeepers to draw down their shutters, while many roadsigns and streetlamps were defaced or smashed by protestors.
Tizi Ouzou is regarded as the capital of Algeria's Berber people, who were in the north African country long before it was invaded by the Arabs.
The Berbers prefer to go by the name of the Imazighen, make up about a third of Algeria's population and are strongly attached to their own culture. They also want their language, Tamazight, put on a par with Arabic.
However, their main concerns at present are social, arising from mass unemployment and housing shortages.
Violence was triggered during the week after a teenager in police custody was shot dead last Sunday, and three other youths were manhandled for shouting anti-government slogans at police.
According to the interior ministry, 16 people have been killed, 52 demonstrators have been wounded and 284 members of the security forces were injured.
However, witnesses and press reports said the death toll was at least 20, while several hundred people have been injured.
The Kabylie region has since the early 1980s been a hotbed of militant activity for a democratic, multiparty state. Unrest was also reported Saturday in small towns such as Mekla and Larbaa N'Ait Irathen.
Interior Minister Yazid Zerhouni has said that "in all the cases resulting in loss of human life, the members of the security services were cornered and forced to preserve the safety of people and property faced with demonstrators who were out of control."
The FFS is strongly rooted in the region, and was the only party apart from the now outlawed Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) and the once all-powerful National Liberation Front (FLN) to win seats in the first round of general elections held in December 1991.
The certainty that the FIS would sweep the board in the second round a month later led to military intervention to call off the poll. Subsequent violence by Islamic insurgents has claimed at least 100,000 lives.
Berber activists are as strongly opposed to Muslim fundamentalist leaders as they are to what they see as the repression of their language and culture by the secular authorities.
The main political rival to the FFS, the Rally for Culture and Democracy (RCD), denied rumors Saturday that it had called for separate rallies in Bejaia and Tizi-Ouzou.
The unrest has coincided with the 21st anniversary of the "Berber Spring" of 1980, when authorities cracked down on demonstrations in Kabylie demanding formal recognition of the Berber language and culture. -- ALGIERS (AFP)
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
