|
Angry riots shake Algeria
28/05/2008 21:06 - (SA)
Hamid Ould Ahmed and William Maclean
Algiers - Helmeted police fired tear gas
at stone-throwing rioters for a third straight day in Algeria's
second city of Oran on Wednesday, residents said.
Dozens of youths ransacked shops and set fire to rubbish in
central streets in what residents said was the worst public
disturbance in years in the usually tranquil Mediterranean port
city of one million.
The immediate trigger was public anger over the relegation
on Monday of the western town's soccer team Mouloudia Oran to
the north African country's second division.
Possible underlying causes
But some newspaper commentators suggested the underlying
cause was growing discontent over unemployment, lack of housing
and what critics call an unresponsive political elite. More than
70% of Algerians under 30 are unemployed.
Wednesday's sporadic clashes were not as intense as those of
Monday and Tuesday, when hundreds of rioters smashed bank
branches and shops and fought running skirmishes with the police
in which more than 100 people were wounded.
Violent, unemployed youths
But they shared a feature of protests that have erupted in
dozens of other towns in recent months over deteriorating
economic and social conditions - the enthusiastic and often
violent participation of unemployed youths.
The latest unrest followed a string of illegal strikes over
pay by members of independent trade unions that shut down parts
of the public sector temporarily.
Earlier this month the government had to send hundreds of
police and gendarmes to Berriane town south of Algiers to end
three nights of clashes between Arabs and minority Berbers in
which two people were killed and hundreds left homeless.
|
