[Ennahar] Chanting "free and democratic Algeria", "the people want the fall of the regime," some 200 people on Saturday braved heavy police deployment in central Algiers to protest, according to a journalists from the AFP.Like last Saturday when a march to the call of the National Coordination for Change and Democracy (NCCD) was blocked, buses with coppers in helmets, armed with batons and shields, and armored vehicles took up positions in several locations in central Algiers.
All roads leading to the May 1 Square were blocked and arranged metal barriers on the site itself prevented the arrival of demonstrators.
Many of them, red cards in hand, were stuck in the street adjacent Belouizdad trying in vain to force the security cordon set up by the police for several hours.
On the square itself, a protester sexagenarian fainted and was quickly evacuated by firefighters, according to an AFP correspondent.
The police were stationed at almost every meter, a device similar to that expected last week as demonstrators had responded to the call of the NCCD.
The protesters were expected to walk from 11.00 am (10:00 GMT) a distance defined to the Martyrs' Square, about four miles away.
"It is expected that many Algerians join the march to tell the system they have a right to march in their capital," said shortly before the AFP Moumene Khalil, a member of the Algerian League for the Defense of Human Rights (LADDH), member of the NCCD, without wishing to advance on attendance figures.
Fodil Boumal, a founder of the Coordination, lashed out again the authorities.
"We need a definitive break with this regime embodied since 1999 by the authority itself composed of military and civilian forces, including President Abdelaziz Bouteflika," he told AFP.
"The government must leave in its two terms: military and civilian, which is the most corrupt," he said, indicating that the march of "today represents the continuity of action on February 12. It includes the same objectives: to act between Algerians of all persuasions to end this regime."
The coalition of parties, civil society members and independent trade unions was established on January 21 in the wake of deadly riots earlier this year in Algeria that killed 5 people and injured over 800.