Algeria was braced Tuesday for yet more violence after 30 people were injured when youths and riot police went head to head for a second day in the eastern town of Khenchela, in the latest bout of civil unrest to hit the north African country.
The youths, who began rioting on Sunday, picked up late Monday where they had left off for a few hours, ransacking public buildings and setting the town hall partly on fire, residents said.
Police responded by spraying tear gas, but youths fought back with stones. More than 30 people including several policemen were injured, according to eyewitnesses.
The riots in Khenchela, in the heart of the Aures mountains, started late Sunday after a girl was "harassed" by a soldier, the official news agency APS said.
Manhandled by youths protecting the girl, the soldier went off to find colleagues who confronted the young people, leading to the riots, witnesses said.
The soldier was taken before a military court and the local government chief, or wali, met the young people to inform them of this on Monday, APS said.
The unrest follows a wave of violence in nearby Kabylie, a region further north where ethnic Berbers have denounced police repression and longstanding discrimination against their culture and language.
Dozens of Kabylie rioters were killed in a police crackdown.
The gendarmerie, which was blamed for unleashing violence in Kabylie after a youth was shot dead in a police cell in April, quickly denied any role in the Khenchela unrest.
"There was not a single arrest or the least altercation between gendarmes and civilians and youths in Khenchela. We have nothing to do with this affair," Smail Hallab, head of communications for the national police told AFP.
The riots in the town occurred as elementary and high school exams were taking place.
Police beefed up security around schools, which led to concern from some parents.
"It's good to reinforce security at schools, but students can't concentrate on their exams when tear gas is being sprayed," one father said.
Scuffles involving riot police and football fans were reported Monday at Skikda, 500 kilometres (300 miles) east of Algiers, after incidents at a football match.
Algeria, which has faced nearly a decade of war waged by Islamic fundamentalists, has been gripped by mounting civil, political and military unrest since April.
On Thursday, hundreds of demonstrators in Algiers defied riot police, who roughed up an opposition leader to enforce a ban on a march by sympathizers with the ethnic Berbers.
Police manhandled Said Sadi, the leader of the Rally for Culture and Democracy (RCD), while demonstrators yelled anti-government slogans.
Another Berber protest is expected to go ahead in Algiers on Thursday.
Berber discontent is rooted in longstanding grievances over perceived discrimination but has mushroomed into far broader resentment over unemployment, lack of adequate housing and the role of the paramilitary police in Kabylie -- ALGIERS (AFP)
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
