Police have again clashed with protesters in Algeria's restive Kabylie region, scene of bloody anti-government street riots in recent weeks, newspapers said on Monday.
Two young Berbers were slightly wounded by tear gas canisters during skirmishes on Saturday night in the small town of Azazga, about 135 km (85 miles) east of Algiers, El Watan newspaper reported.
The incidents occurred when hundreds of young people paying tribute to the victims of the riots lit candles and burned tyres around the gendarmerie barracks and threw stones at riot police cordoning off the building.
Officials said 42 people were killed in the riots but unofficial reports put the toll at more than 60.
Residents reached by telephone said the atmosphere remained tense in Berber-speaking Tizi-Ouzou and Bejaia provinces following the security forces' crackdown on demonstrations sparked by the shooting in custody of a teenager by paramilitary gendarmes on April 18.
Interior Minister Yazid Zerhouni said the riots caused damage worth more than 500 million dinars ($6.5 million), El Khabar daily reported.
President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has set up a commission of inquiry, led by a prominent Berber lawyer, but the move has been derided by the independent media and opposition parties.
OPPOSITION CALLS FOR DIALOGUE
Political analysts questioned the credibility of the commission, arguing similar moves over the past decade had failed to shed light on several muddled issues.
"These commissions will not reveal the truth and people expect nothing from them...who really knows the truth on the assassination of President Boudiaf?" asked senator and Berber activist Mokrane Ait Larbi.
He was referring to the 1992 killing of President Mohamed Boudiaf, allegedly by a former security forces officer. According to some reports, Boudiaf was the victim of a plot by the powerful military establishment.
The country's main opposition party, the Socialist Forces Front (FFS), said it had sent a memorandum about the unrest to Bouteflika and to those it called the "real decision-makers", Chief of Staff Mohamed Lamari and the head of the military intelligence service, Mohamed Lamine Mediene, known as "Tewfik".
An FFS spokesman, Samir Bouakouir, told reporters the document called for the lifting of the state of emergency, in force since 1992 to combat the Islamic insurgency, and the recognition of the Berber language "Tamazight" as a national and official language.
The party also called for a dialogue with the country's political forces to pave the way for a "democratic transition" in the country -- ALGIERS (Reuters)
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
