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| Africa North |
| Algeria takes steps to maintain calm |
| 2011-01-22 |
| [Maghrebia] An atmosphere of precarious calm has taken hold in Algeria. As the country is keeping a close eye on the unfolding developments in neighbouring Tunisia, authorities seek to maintain peace on the social front and prepare for any possible return to rioting. Calls for more demonstrations, however, continued unabated. The opposition demanded greater political reforms, including freedom of expression and the lifting of the state of emergency that has been in force since the early 1990s. In spite of a ban imposed by the local authorities in the wake of the Algeria unrest, the Rally for Culture and Democracy (RCD) is preparing to hold a demonstration on Saturday. The party stressed that the protesters at the Algiers march would call for the release of detainees, the lifting of the state of emergency, the restoration of personal and collective freedoms and the dissolution of the assemblies. The party is not alone in seeking a break with the past. Last week, a group of academics, journalists and rights activists launched a national petition, calling for "determination to reject the inevitability of this national crisis" and "the advent of truly democratic government succession". "Algeria has not paid the tragic price of tens of thousands of victims in a civil war to live forever under an autocratic regime which kills freedom, producing deadlock, death and regression. Let us salute the magnificent struggle by the Tunisian people and support it to move towards the rule of law," the petition said. The Movement for the Society of Peace (MSP), which is part of the presidential alliance, is preparing a national conference to study the recent riots and cases of self-immolation, as well as the Tunisian Revolution and its implications for the Arab world. In addition, President Abdelaziz Bouteflika called for detailed reports on attempted self-immolations and the protests. Bouteflika also asked to be informed of events as they happen and instructed the government to take urgent steps to counter social distress. In the meantime, rumours of increased censorship have spread in the country due to mobile phone service and internet interruptions, which, according to Algérie Télécom communications chief Abdelhakim Meziani, are "nothing more than the effect of work to replace equipment as part of service improvements". "To talk of censorship or attempts to muzzle freedom of expression on the net is an exaggeration, I feel," he said. "Quite the contrary; our aim is to perfect internet access for all users, through constant improvements to our services," he explained, saying that his company has just increased its international bandwidth by 10 gigabits, taking it to 46 gigabits. For his part, Anouar Net chief Sadi Gouasmia said, "We don't engage in any kind of control or filtering and, to make it perfectly clear, we are under no orders to impose any kind of controls on our network." Still, the tension is palpable. The General Union of Algerian Workers (UGTA), for example, at a Tuesday meeting asked the Algiers unions to set up "monitoring" committees to "prevent any deviations that could affect the works of the unions at demonstrations". |
| Posted by:Fred |