The protest movement of the regime in Algeria, which is in its 33rd week, had a particularly violent day on Tuesday.
The student protest, held every Tuesday, was severely repressed by the police, which prevented protesters from marching through the streets of the capital. This is the first time that the student demonstration was blocked.
As soon as the procession was shaken in the morning, the riot police charged the demonstrators and made dozens of arrests.
The event then turned into a manhunt. Pursued in the streets of downtown Algiers, students tried to gather in several places, to no avail. They ended up regrouping at the University of Algiers-Center, where they chanted slogans against the presidential elections planned for December 12th.
At the end of the day, arrested students and citizens were released, with the exception of a student who will appear before the judge on Wednesday.
Algerian public radio journalists denounce “the resurgence of censorship”
The day before the demonstration, the National Committee for the Release of Detainees (CNLD) published the list of prisoners of conscience since the beginning of the movement on 22 February.
According to the count of this organization, there would be 81 people detained in Algerian prisons, among them political activists, become over the weeks leading figures in the protest movement.
On the same day, a group of these detainees announced that they were going on a hunger strike to protest the detention of Lakhdar Bouregâa, 86, a veteran of the war of liberation (1954-1962), whose arrest raised general indignation.
Tuesday was also marked by a statement by Algerian public radio journalists denouncing the resurgence of censorship in the treatment of news.
The editors of the communiqué stressed that it was their duty to inform […] and accompany this movement in its evolution. Without access to fair and impartial information, there is no public service, they added.
Public radio journalists have decided that any instructions prohibiting the processing of information must be signed by the director of information of the channel or the general management. The public has the right to know who denies him access to information, they warned.
A political stalemate
The majority of the population and the diet seem to be moving in parallel ways. On the one hand, the regime wants to impose forced presidential elections on December 12, on the other side the population rejects this deadline and calls for the end of the regime that has ruled the country for more than half a century .
The decision to hold an election by the chief of staff, Gaïd Salah, who holds power in Algeria after the resignation of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, has not convinced the population.
No elections with the gangs [name given by the protesters to the regime], or Bye bye Gaid Salah, no election this year, chants protesters every Friday since the announcement of the date of the presidential elections.
Several candidates have declared themselves, including two former prime ministers.
