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Africa North

Protesters, police clash in Algiers

2011-02-12

Followup on the posts below. Lots of festivities in Algiers today, as CNN has figured out what we knew months ago: Algeria is a battleground between nasty Arab military thugs and nasty Arab Islamicist thugs.

Algiers, Algeria (CNN) -- Tensions erupted in another restive North African nation as security forces in Algeria on Saturday clashed with anti-government protesters who chanted, "Change the power."

Police detained about 100 protesters in the nation's capital of Algiers, according to the Algerian League for Human Rights. The league is one of the main opposition groups that organized the rallies -- unauthorized gatherings that came a day after embattled Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak stepped down.

More than 3,000 demonstrators, including activists, students, doctors, and parliament members, joined the rally but were blocked by more than 30,000 police officers, said league president Mustafa Boushashi.

Never a good idea to be outnumbered 10 to 1 by the coppers...

"The police attacked the demonstrators," Boushashi told CNN. "Many activists were beaten and over a hundred were taken into custody, including the parliament members from the Rally for Culture and Democracy Party."

Khalil AbdulMouminm, the league's general secretary, called the situation "very tense on the ground" and said police were preventing protesters from assembling, with authorities blocking all entrances to the capital.

"We want this rally to break the wall of fear in the first place," AbdulMouminm said. "And to trigger change in order to reach our legitimate demands, like lifting the emergency law after all these years, liberating media, freedom of political expression."

Posted by:Steve White

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