Bouteflika's woes

Algerian President Abdel-Aziz Bouteflika adopted a conciliatory tone to end bloody clashes in the Berber region. Nasr El-Kaffas writes from Algiers
After more than a week of deadly street fighting in Algeria, President Abdel-Aziz Bouteflika said on Monday that an investigation would be opened into the bloody clashes between security forces and ethnic Berbers that have left at least 60 dead. In his first remarks since the outbreak of violence, a solemn-faced Bouteflika appeared on television, appealing for calm and pledging that a "free and open investigation" would be conducted.
"A national commission of inquiry will be created to investigate the events of the last few days," Bouteflika said during his 15-minute speech, without specifying when the inquiry would begin. Civilians will be appointed to the commission, he promised.
The Berbers of the Kabyle region, east of Algiers, had demanded an investigation of the rioting that started after an 18-year-old student was shot dead on 18 April. The young student tried to escape from a policeman following his arrest. Police said the officer's gun went off accidentally but news of the death triggered riots across the mountainous region. The dead young man was among hundreds marking the anniversary of the 1980 "Berber spring", when authorities cracked down on demonstrations in the Kabyle region demanding formal recognition of the Berber language and culture.
The situation deteriorated further as riots spread to other Algerian cities, including the capital, Algiers. Hundreds of university students protested at the downtown University of Algiers, chanting slogans including "the army -- the murderers." A tight police cordon prevented them from leaving campus.
In an attempt to calm the tension, Interior Minister Noureddine Zerhouni immediately travelled to the troubled region. He praised the security forces' "restraint" in suppressing the riots and said live ammunition had been used only "as a last resort."
An uneasy calm returned to the Berber region on Monday, though there are reports of sporadic clashes between protesters and police. Witnesses said Tizi Ouzou, a city of 600,000 people, remained paralysed. Businesses were closed as stone-throwing rioters fought running battles with police firing tear gas. A semblance of calm was eventually established, leaving the city's streets strewn with debris, burned tyres and felled trees.
In Bejaia, further east, tension eased somewhat, allowing shops to reopen, but the town appears ravaged by war. Many government buildings there have been ransacked or torched.
Observers note that the protests have become a vehicle for the region's youth to condemn crippling poverty, unemployment and government policies in the Berber region. "I understand their worries and their concerns, faced with a tomorrow without hope," Bouteflika said, referring to Berber youth. "We are going to work toward a future that takes into account their aspirations."
He stressed, however, that demands for greater recognition of the Berber language (Tamazighi) and culture required a revision of the constitution, hinting at the possibility of a long-demanded referendum on the matter.
As the rioting spread and the death toll mounted, anger was directed at Bouteflika, criticised for failing to rein in security forces. Many in Kabyle have accused authorities of fuelling the violence to serve their own ends. Interior Minister Zerhouni, speaking at a news conference in Tizi Ouzou late on Sunday, said the young rioters were "manipulated by terrorist infiltrators." The claim is tenuous, however, especially in light of the well-known animosity between Berbers and Islamists. Residents of the Kabyle region accuse Islamists of seeking to impose an Arab identity on them, while they insist on maintaining their own culture and language.
The Front for Socialist Forces (FFS), a leading pro-Berber party, called on Monday for the European Union to send a team to Algeria to investigate the rioting. The party also asked UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to send a special envoy to pressure authorities into moving towards democracy.
The riots have increased pressure on the president, with Said Saadi, head of the Rally for Culture and Democracy, another pro-Berber party, threatening to pull his party's two ministers from the government. "Personally, I would say that it is impossible to remain in a government that fires real bullets at its own people," Saadi said.
Algerian newspapers have recently described the president as increasingly fragile and at odds with the military establishment -- the real power in Algeria since it gained independence from France in 1962. Elected in 1999, Bouteflika put forward a peace plan to end the ongoing Islamist insurgency that claimed the lives of more than 100,000 people since it began nearly 10 years ago. Yet the violence continues and the conflict in the Berber region could only add to Bouteflika's troubles.
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