Monday, February 22nd, 2021. It is the second anniversary of the hirak. It is less than 10 am and Algiers is blue and gray. An impressive police force crisscrosses the capital. A chopper makes a noise in the sky. Uninterrupted rain has been falling since morning. With the P for “police” and the P for “rain”, we tell ourselves that this is not a day to go out. Yet there is emphatic talk of a return of the hirak.
Crossing the rue Didouche Mourad, as far as the Place Audin and the Grande-Poste, there is not the slightest hint of “unarmed assembly”, as the judicial formula says. Police vans everywhere. Agents, in uniform or in civilian clothes, are scattered around every corner. The crackling of walkie-talkies, the sirens of police cars rushing past, reinforce this impression of a city under siege. Algiers is like a state of siege.
We cut through the Mustapha hospital to reach May 1 (ex-Field of maneuvers). Along the way, we meet Mustapha Atoui, president of the National Association for the Fight against Corruption, accompanied by another activist.
The two activists were returning from Le Ruisseau where they had taken part in one of the first demonstrations of the day. “We were about 200 people. We have been preparing this action for three months. We preferred to avoid the city center and start our walk from Le Ruisseau. We managed to make our voice heard. There were people honking their horns.
But the police intervened and there were quite a few arrests, “Mustapha Atoui testifies. On social networks, we warned of arrests on the side of Hamma. We will also learn that Fethi Gheres of the MDS was arrested at the Grande Poste.
Other news spoke of groups of demonstrators coming from Bab El Oued and the Place des Martyrs. We turn back. Direction: the Grande-Poste. We cut through the Réda Houhou market (ex-Clauzel) to reach Place Audin. The clock in the square indicates exactly 12:10. Clamors rise at this precise moment.
Riot control cords are deployed quickly, while cries are heard. To our immense surprise, the young people, around a hundred at the start, who had arrived from Bab El Oued, managed to occupy a section of Place Audin, near Les Capucines café.
The crowd begins to grow, occupies the roadway. A completely unforeseen scenario in view of the repression noted earlier. This is disturbingly reminiscent of the scenario of February 22, 2019: that day too, in the morning, all the streets were cordoned off, the first demonstrators arrested, but in the afternoon, in front of the stormy tide of the slingers, the coercive dikes ended up giving in. Yesterday we saw the perimeter of Place Audin filling up quickly.
The angry crowd chanted: “Dawla madania, machi askaria” (For civil status, not military rule), “Listiqlal, ’istiqlal!” (Independence), “Lebled bledna we endirou raïna” (This country is ours and we will do what we want).
The demonstrators continue to flock, hammering: “Ma djinache bech nehtaflou, djina bech terahlou” (We did not come to party, we came to chase you). We also heard: “My kan islami, my kan ilmani, kayen issaba tesreq aÿnani” (There is no Islamist or layman, there is just a band of bandits who steal in broad daylight).
We note the presence of Mohamed Tadjadit, the fiery poet of La Casbah, among the demonstrators. We take this opportunity to collect his impressions: “The government claims to celebrate the second anniversary of the hirak.
He wants to get it back. But we didn’t come to feast, we came to tell them to go! ” he asserts. For the ex-convict of conscience, there is no doubt that “the hirak is still alive, he never gave up. This second anniversary is an opportunity for us to affirm our determination to release them. Listen to the slogans, they are not party slogans.
People are angry ”. Mohamed says he is in favor of organizing the movement. However, he challenges the status of “representative of the hirak”, except “if the people decide”. “I submit to the will of the people. The last word is his. I am a man of the field, I am not made to organize the marches. But organization is bound to be a good thing, “he argues.
Soon, Place Audin was crowded with people. A tide of people swept over rue Didouche until they came up against another, more hermetic security cordon formed at the level of the L’Algéria cinema. The demonstrators chant the entire repertoire of songs and slogans of the hirak: “Klitou lebled ya esseraquine” (you plundered the country, band of thieves), “Ya Ali Amar, bladi fi danger, enkemlou fiha the Battle of Algiers” (Ali , my country is in danger, we will continue the Battle of Algiers), “Ahna ouled Amirouche, reverse ma nouellouche” (We are the children of Amirouche, we do not reverse), “We enkemlou fiha ghir besselmiya, we ennehou el askar mel Mouradia “(We will continue our fight peacefully and we will kill the soldiers of the palace of El Mouradia” …
In the process, we could hear the unmissable La Casa d´El Mouradia. Goosebumps. On one of the signs held up, this scathing message: “Inner hands want change. The hirak is not plotting against his country. ” Another wrote: “The system’s roadmap is deadlocked.”
One lady sums up the movement’s demands as follows: “The objectives of the hirak: a rule of law, democracy and the independence of the judiciary.” The admirable Amina Haddad proclaimed for her part: “This is a hirak, not a” talahum “(cohesion, note). ENTV & Co, don’t lie. No to the falsification of history. ”
The crowd is transfigured. The magic of the hirak has returned. Even the rain has stopped. A strong emotion can be read on the faces, elated by this long awaited reunion. Brotherly hugs. Some burst into tears. “I was waiting for this moment on hot coals. I missed it so much, “blurted out a seasoned Hirakist. “I’m so happy.
It’s extraordinary !” exults Lyès, a young thirty-year-old, before telling us: “2019 remains the best year of my life!” Some people were already meeting for today, Tuesday, repeating this slogan: “Ghadwa maâ etalaba” (tomorrow with the students).
In the minds of the demonstrators we met yesterday, the return of the hirak is now underway, making an immediate appointment for next Friday. “Of course I’ll be out on Friday. It was about time, “said Abdelkader, in his sixties, a telecoms executive, before adding:” The authorities did what they wanted. The hirak must resume. It’s the only space we have to say our word. ”
Mustapha Benfodil
