ALGERIA: HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF BERBERS GO ON MARCH DEMANDING REMOVAL OF PARAMILITARY GENDARMES

Record ID: 574574

  • Title: ALGERIA: HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF BERBERS GO ON MARCH DEMANDING REMOVAL OF PARAMILITARY GENDARMES
  • Date: 23rd May 2001
  • Summary: TIZI OUZOU, ALGERIA (MAY 21, 2001) (REUTERS) 1. MV CHILDREN MARCHING; SCU MEN MARCHING HOLDING PICTURES OF DECEASED (3 SHOTS) 0.22 2. MV PROTESTERS SINGING AND CARRYING BANNERS (14 SHOTS) 1.42 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 7th June 2001 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: TIZI OUZOU, ALGERIA
  • Country: Algeria
  • Reuters ID: LVA3M2Z3T9PA48EARSNGDDFCJR30
  • Story Text: Hundreds of thousands of Berbers marched in Tizi
    Ouzou, Algeria's main Berber-speaking city, to demand the
    withdrawal of paramilitary gendarmes blamed for killing scores
    of rioters in April and May.

    Farmers and women from mountain villages in colourful
    traditional robes joined city-dwellers to march on the
    regional governor's offices on Monday (May 21).

    It was Algeria's biggest street protest in years,
    witnesses said.

    Police and gendarmes kept a low profile as demonstrators
    chanted "Terrorist gendarmes out of our region."
    There were no immediate reports of violence or arrests.

    Organisers put the crowd at more than one million.

    Independent reporters estimated about half a million. One
    independent journalistsaid it was safe to say it was the
    biggest street demonstration since October 1991, referring to
    a huge Berber-dominated rally in Algiers ten years ago,
    The crowds called on the Algerian government to pull the
    gendarmes out of Kabylie region which comprises Tizi Ouzou and
    Bejaia provinces east of Algiers.

    The march was the latest in a series of demonstrations in
    Bejaia and Tizi Ouzou since the killings of at least 42 people
    in riots late in April and early in May in Kabylie.

    The riots, fanned by deep social and economic frustrations
    among Berber youths, erupted after the death of a teenager in
    custody at a gendarmerie barracks on April 18.

    The government has admitted that security forces killed 42
    people in the riots.

    Independent newspapers said as many as 80 were killed.


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