Monday, February 28, 2011

Prevented the first manifestation of the lifting of emergency rule in Algiers

Samir KnayazArgel. .- Even when it has not attracted large masses, just a hundred people, "the first demonstration to demand regime change in Algiers after the lifting of emergency rule was prevented by force by hundreds of riot police. Convened by the opposition party Rally for Culture and Democracy (RCD) of Said Sadi, the march was from the Place des Martyrs in Algiers, at the foot of the old Kasbah, passing in front of the seats of Parliament and Senate, and end about four miles away, in May First Square, renamed "Place de la Concorde Civil." The RCD thought to organize your event without impairments as the state of emergency, which banned such protests was lifted on Thursday by decision of the president, Bouteflika Abdelziz after 19 years, but it was not the case.

As in every similar initiative from the opposition, the authorities launched before dawn, an important safety device in the center of the capital and the Martyrs' Square to block the protesters. Several hundred policemen in plain clothes and uniform riot police have been deployed, supported by dozens of trucks equipped with water cannons and transport vans, while a police helicopter flew over the area constantly.

Equipped with batons and shields, members of the riot police have taken up positions around the square and erected barricades of iron, thus blocking the passage to the height of the adjacent streets. The first attempts to cluster of protesters were immediately aborted, the police quickly intervened to disperse them and drive them toward the exit of the square.

Even journalists and press photographers were pushed and police were ordered to "leave the streets." Sadi's arrival, accompanied by Ali Yahia Abdenur, honorary president of the Algerian League for the Defence of Human Rights (LADDH), as well as some members of the RCD, returned to give voice to the protesters.

They brandished numerous slogans hostile to the central power in Algiers, such as "the people want the fall of the regime", "Bouteflika get out" or "free and democratic Algeria" and when the police intervened again to disperse the protesters shouted "murderer power" . Among the jostling police RCD deputy, Mohamed Khendak, was wounded and evacuated by ambulance towards the hospital Mustafa Bacha university.

Climbed on the roof of a police suv, Sadi addressed the protesters and said the protests will continue every Saturday to mobilize the largest possible number of Algerians in order to "bring down the regime." For his part, Ali Yahia Abdenur told reporters that the government tries to reduce the price of consumer goods in order to "calm social unrest." "Even if you lift a state of emergency and even if there is a change of government, continue to manifest until the end of this regime," said the lawyer, 91.

The protesters were faced with a group of about fifty young men, almost teenagers, who shouted slogans and held signs in favor of Bouteflika. His presence at the scene of the demonstration was tolerated by the police at first and then were dispersed with kindness. Political parties and RCD have kept the call for demonstrations every Saturday in Algiers, but civil society organizations that integrate also the National Coordinator for Change and Democracy (NCCD) disassociated themselves from the call today.

These organizations, including independent trade unions and the LADDH as well as associations of women, who had called for the two demonstrations on Saturday, decided earlier this week not to participate in them and now more work "on the ground in the sensitization society. "

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