Jazairana

Lebanon at peace - the Security Council says so, so it must be true (?)

2006-08-13T14:37:00.000-07:00

Today, Algerian newspapers react to the not quite ceasefire in Lebanon. El Khabar's cartoonist (left) sees a simple message: "Now that the Arab regimes have revealed their loyalty to Israel... The future is for the Arab resistance." (The bin is labelled "Dustbin of History".) The paper's headline has "Olmert government sends 30,000 troops into southern Lebanon: 51 Israeli soldiers killed and 48 injured in fierce combat with Hezbollah, helicopter downed and several Merkava tanks destroyed."

Ech Chourouk go for "Ech Chourouk visits Nasrallah's house: The Israeli spy planes were above us... 'Come on guys, get inside, get inside, there's planes in the sky...' We hid under a tree for a little, because the Emka spy planes are blind - they don't see in the shade". The front-page editorial next to it is entitled "The war is not over!"

El Watan has "Large-scale Israeli offensive in southern Lebanon: The massacre continues. Despite the unanimous Security Council call for a ceasefire Friday night, Israel continues its aggression, spreading its ground offensive to the maximum. Putting Olmert's Wednesday decision into effect, the Israeli command have effectively tripled the number of Israeli soldiers on Lebanese soil...

Liberte goes for "The Lebanon war finished at 6 this evening with 1,145 deaths. Near-East: Until next time... The sixth Arab-Israeli war finished in confusion, with both camps claiming victory. Neither American strategic plans nor Israeli military domination prevailed."

EU fears Algerian-Russian gas alliance

2006-08-10T10:39:00.000-07:00

And on the subject of oil and gas... Bear in mind: "40% of EU gas imports originate from Russia (30% Algeria, 25% Norway)". The Gazprom-Sonatrach deal, along with continued turmoil in the Middle East raising prices, could help keep Algeria's foreign currency revenues high for years to come.

Gulf Times, Stratfor.

PS: It seems Algeria has something else to offer in the deal: LNG technology.

Algeria's oil and gas

2006-08-08T14:24:00.000-07:00

Some handy maps of Algeria's main source of revenue:
* Where Algeria's petrochemical deposits are;
* Where the pipelines run;
* and, perhaps most interestingly, which companies are involved.

For the top buyers of Algeria's oil and gas as of 2004 (other products make up only about 2.3% of Algeria's exports, so they're negligible in this), see this table: USA, then Italy, France, Spain, then the Netherlands and Canada. (If you added the EU up, of course, it would be significantly ahead of the US.)

And if you were wondering who the heck all those companies are, I checked where they're based:

AGIP - Italy
ALEPCO - Libya + Algeria
Amerada Hess - US
Anadarko - US
BHP - Australia & UK
CNPC - China
FCP - Canada
GDF - France
Gulf Keystone - independent (UK, UAE, US, Kuwait)
Medex - France
Petrocanada - Canada
Petronas - Malaysia
PIDC - Pakistan
Repsol YPF - Spain & Argentina
Rosneft - Russia
SINOPEC - China
Statoil - Norway
Total - France
Numhyd - Tunisia + Algeria

Constitution change; Cheb Khaled calls for jihad; bombs defused; illegal immigrants saved

2006-08-05T14:15:00.000-07:00

Constitutional amendment updates: A month after Bouteflika announced his plans to revise the constitution, Boualem Bessaieh, the president of the Constitutional Council, has been put by Bouteflika in charge of the Constitution Revision Commission. He was described by Liberte's source as "a faithful old friend of the President of the Republic in whom he places unreserved confidence."

Ech Chourouk's headline: 'Nasrallah shames Arab rulers' connivance: "Be men, if only for a day". Israel bombs north of Beirut and attacks Christian areas.' Two editorials are devoted to praising Chavez and attacking the Saudis, respectively. Keep this up much longer, and I'm gonna start suspecting them of having turned socialist :) A rather sardonic brief article announces that Cheb Khaled, the "King of Rai", has urged "that the road should be opened for youths to go to Lebanon and engage in jihad against the Israeli aggression".

Bomb in Bordj-el-Bahri injures two policemen; two other bombs defused in Boumerdes.

Coast guard in Arzew save 11 illegal immigrants from death when the overcrowded fishing boat they were attempting to reach to Spain in sank.

More Algerian headlines: Lebanon, Qaddafi, Iran

2006-08-03T16:30:00.000-07:00

Lebanon is still on the front page of all the main Algerian newspapers, obviously:

El Khabar speaks to the Lebanese Red Cross: Lebanon experiencing unparalleled humanitarian disaster
Ech Chourouk: The resistance respond to Israeli allegation with 300 rockets, and are fighting on five fronts
El Watan: Renewal of Hezbollah attacks: Rockets rain on Israel
Liberte: Israeli intelligence involved in the war: When Mossad hunts Hezbollah.

In other news, Liberte report that Qaddafi was behind the recent Tuareg rebellion in Mali, as part of some kind of strategy to promote a "Great Saharan" Tuareg state, and took advantage of the death of Hadj Akhamokh and subsequent succession disputes to do so. I seem to remember similar reports a while back from Ech Chourouk, but who knows.

El Watan reports the establishment of the Iranian Trade Center in Algiers (Cheraga).

Blair

2006-08-03T15:46:00.000-07:00

Nothing to do with Algeria, but I just noticed that Tony Blair appears to live in a different universe than the rest of us:

...there are many reasons for long-term optimism. Across the Middle East, there is a process of modernisation as well as reaction. It is unnoticed but it is there: in the UAE, in Bahrain, in Kuwait, in Qatar. In Egypt, there is debate about the speed of change but not about its direction [sic!.] In Libya and Algeria, there is both greater stability and a gradual but significant opening up.

Ali Belhadj briefly rearrested

2006-08-03T02:36:00.000-07:00

Ali Belhadj got arrested for demonstrating in front of the American Embassy with banners saying "Oh rulers of the Arabs, close the embassies of Zionist terrorism" and "Stop the flow of oil to Bush's bloodthirsty government, and kick the petrol companies out of the land of the 1.5 million martyrs." He allegedly received a sympathetic reception from the police, who agreed with him on the Lebanon issue (his opinions are scarcely controversial on this point, after all!) but were legally required to prevent unauthorised demonstrations. He was released later that day, and placed under close security observation. Ashara Al Awsat, Angry Arab.

Lakhdar Brahimi and Yusuf Qaradawi

2006-07-30T13:44:00.000-07:00

The Moor Next Door, who I'm fairly sure is this blog's only reader (are there any others?), has expressed interest in Lakhdar Brahimi, so here's some of what he has to say on the Lebanon crisis:

Lakdar Brahimi to El Khabar: Hezbollah has earned the honor of the resistance to the occupation.

Why, in your opinion, has the UN Security Council delayed meeting on the explosive situation in Lebanon, and remained incapable of reaching a ceasefire? I think the reason has become well-known: the active world powers - specifically, the US and, to a lesser extent, Britain - do not want an immediate cease-fire in Lebanon to be reached.

This means that Israel is waging war with US authorization... I don't think it's precisely like that, but Washington does not hide its bias towards Israel and has expressed that frankly more than once; for this reason, the Americans look at the Middle East's problems in a narrow Israeli perspective.

[...]Do they think that sending international forces into Lebanon is a guarantee for healing the crisis, given that Israel has targeted UN forces before? The US talks of the need to go to the roots of the crisis, not its results or its surface. I think this idea is very reasonable, and right on - but what are the roots of the problem? Yesterday the British PM said, in a joint conference with the American President, that the immediate cause of the current crisis might be the kidnapping of the two Israeli soldiers, and he also recognised that the root of the problem is Palestine. So if the point of his words was to solve the roots of the problems of the Middle East, or concern for the lost rights of the Palestinian people, then we welcome this development totally. But the international forces that they speak of, the UN secretary general already asked for them in Gaza a while ago, and his request found no echo...

There are those who observe that Israel is currently seeking the implementation of UN Resolution 1559. Israel has no right nor duty to implement resolution 1559, for it is not among the states that respect UN resolutions. Moreover, the resolution has two halves, one demanding that Syria leave Lebanon - which has happened - though I, as a person who had a small role in the Taif Agreement, express my regret that the Syrians did not implement the agreement by their own free will many years ago. But the second half relates to assisting the Lebanese state to spread its sovereignty over all Lebanese land, which plainly says that the militias and in particular Hezbollah cannot continue to bear arms and form a state within a state. This will not compromise its position and role, for it is a respected political party with wide representation, and a member of the Lebanese government. Furthermore, it must be ensured that the state be the only force with the right to use weapons. The Lebanese sides have begun engaging with the issue, and it is to be hoped that they will continue along this road.

[...]If you were the UN Secretary-General, what solutions would you suggest to the two warring sides? First thing would be a ceasefire, which is a widespread idea at the moment, then an exchange of prisoners - there are Lebanese imprisoned by Israel for 25 years, but their plight does not attract the attention of the West, which sheds tears for Israeli captives. Third, that Israel should leave the Shebaa Farms, and fourth, in my view, we must turn to the mother of all these problems, Palestine, for this issue poisons the atmosphere of the region, and if we don't find a solution for it it will lead to worse problems in the future in other countries of the region. And on the occasion of what is currently going on in Iraq, I would like to address a few words to Arabs and Muslims: Can we dream that the popular solidarity we witness in the Lebanese crisis will continue, and shut the door in the face of the sectarian division (fitna) lit between Sunni and Shia in Iraq, for it is division that has become the source of fighting and massacres more than resistance against the occupation, and it is necessary to contain the disaster that we witness in Iraq so that it does not spread beyond its borders and spread throughout areas with Sunnis and Shias.

In other news, El-Khabar noted that Qaradawi confirms that supporting Hezbollah is the duty of every Muslim", rejecting the fatwa of the Saudi shaykh Bin Jibreen who decided that it was forbidden to support Hezbollah because they were Shia (yes, precisely and only because they were Shia.)

History repeats itself: Israel attacks UN observers in Lebanon

2006-07-27T06:31:00.000-07:00

Nothing to do with Algeria, but, if you were surprised by Israel's recent attack on UN observers in Lebanon, it has its precedents:

The UN quickly discovered [in 1980] that the Israelis were physically present at Haddad's artillery positions during bombardments, presumably to help the militiamen with their coordinates. Cynicism replaced pride. 'I got a call from an Israeli officer over the radio,' a Dutch officer in Haris told me. 'He wanted to warn me that the Christians were likely to fire in our direction. He wanted me to know that it wouldn't be Israel's fault, because they were trying to warn us. The Israeli came on the radio, made his excuses and shouted: "The Christians are going to fire in about six seconds - five - four - three - two - one." And a couple of seconds later, shells started landing behind the United Nations lines. How was he so accurate? He wanted me to know he was next to the artillery battery. He was doing the shooting.' (Robert Fisk, Pity the Nation: Lebanon at War, Oxford University Press 1990, p. 151).

Oh, and obviously more recently the Qana Massacre.

Headlines today

2006-07-26T16:02:00.000-07:00

To give a broad idea of what the Algerian press is saying, I decided to try and translate the headlines for all four of the newspapers I usually look at. It proved harder than I expected, and the odd error is probably still there, but one thing is obvious: Lebanon still leads, overwhelmingly, although the suspension of the education strike is a distant second.

Ech Chourouk: Israel counts its dead in the land offensive: A legendary stand by the men of the Resistance. Ech Chourouk correspondent accompanies Hezbollah fighters to the depths of the southern area.

El Watan:

Hezbollah opposes a fierce resistance to the Israeli army: Israel counts its dead. 13 Israeli soldiers were killed yesterday in violent conbat in Southern Lebanon, including 3 officers and a second-in-command of the 51st batallion of the elite Golani infantry regiment.
Two scandals at the Oran and Algiers courts: Supreme Court censured. Two scandals have just hit the Oran and Algiers courts. The former censured a Supreme Court judgement related to the BCIA affair; the latter gathered a chambre d'accusation on a Friday, in the lawyers' absence, to order a prison warrant on the very day that the accused would have left prison.
Summer 2006: The clubbers take back the night. In the summer heat, the night owls don't hide themselves to sleep, but to go out. These are the nightclubbers.

Liberte:

The Palestinian president visits Algeria: Mahmoud Abbas calls on Algeria. Abu Mazen received by the highest State authorities for a series of consultations on the Mideast situation.
Shaykh Naim Qasim, Vice-Secretary General of Hezbollah, to Liberte: "Rice makes gesticulation about Lebanon" (sorry, not sure about that idiom)
University: CNES suspends its strike
The FAF reestablishes the Algerian Super-Cup: A grand MCA-JSK match for November 1

El Khabar:

Following agreement on the movement of persons, new easings for visa applicants for Britain from August
Human Rights Watch, doctors, and experts confirm: Israel is bombarding civilians with internationally prohibited weapons. Israeli massacre in Nabatiyeh, 16 rockets on Haifa; Lakhdar Brahimi: America is not suitable to be an intermediary
Mohamed Alioui, El-Khabar guest: Agricultural support has become profiteering, and self-sufficiency will not be realized. The Grains Bureau is practising a policy of extortion on the farmers.
Solidarity with the Lebanese and Palestinian people: Belkhadem refuses assembly in People's House and moves it to Harcha Hall
University professors fail to set a length for the suspension of the strike: Baccalaureat and basic education correctors await raises
Ministry of Religious Affairs reveals: New Hajj procedures, no change to costs, and lottery [for hajj trips] at the end of the week

God help Lebanon

2006-07-20T13:55:00.000-07:00

(I tried to publish this last week - so some links may be outdated - but for some reason it didn't show up. An extra link confirming the obvious: RND, FLN, PT, MSP unite in expressing their solidarity with Lebanon and Palestine.)

Do I even need to provide links? Israel is bombing civilian targets all over Lebanon, and all Algeria is currently watching photos of wounded children, fleeing refugees, and nice cities looking rather like Algiers being bombed - oh, and Bush and Blair effectively encouraging all this. A particularly dumb (and Israeli-sourced) meme circulating among the wingnuts online is that the Arab world is fed up with Hizbollah. For the record, I'm just back from Algeria, and everyone I met there is rooting for them. As far as most people I met are concerned, kidnapping an Israeli soldier (quite apart from the fact that numerous Lebanese prisoners were already in Israeli jails) was entirely justified by the Israeli attacks on Gaza... and even if it weren't, it still wouldn't even begin to justify what the Israelis are doing now. The Saudis' attacks on Hezbollah were seen as reflecting very badly, not on Hezbollah, but on the Saudi monarchy, whose shameless indifference to others' suffering was revealed. Hezbollah's counter-attacks were greeted with sceptical support (as in: hope they work, but wouldn't count on it.) From rather better informed bloggers, I gather it's much the same elsewhere. I rather suspect these events will take some of the edge of the anti-Shiism that has been becoming more prominent in the Arab world lately.

Referendum on Algeria constitution change before end of year, says Bouteflika

2006-07-04T14:37:00.000-07:00

Reuters: Algeria plans to hold a referendum by the end of 2006 on changing the constitution, President Abdelaziz Bouteflika said on Tuesday. (For specifics of this change, see previous posts.)

2 soldiers, 2 guards killed, 1 kidnapping ends safely: Algeria security news

2006-06-28T16:48:00.000-07:00

El Khabar, Ech Chourouk: Two soldiers and a communal guard killed at Bordj el-Kaid in Skikda, and a third soldier injured, in a GSPC attack on an army base. El Khabar says the attackers were dressed in army uniforms, and had kalashnikovs.

Ech Chourouk: A communal guard killed in Bouira, near Ouled Bouchia.

On a different note, Liberte reports the kidnapping of one Amine Yaker at a false roadblock in the wilaya of Tizi-Ouzou, ended with the payment of a large ransom for his safe return.

13 newborns die in hospital at Hussein Dey

2006-06-28T16:36:00.000-07:00

Ech Chourouk, El Khabar, and Liberte lead with the news that more than 7 newborn babies (Liberte says 7, Ech Chourouk 12, El Khabar 13) have died in less than 24 hours at Parnet hospital in Hussein Dey (Algiers). The cause is not yet entirely clear, but "sources indicate" that some sort of virus swept the delivery room. God help their poor parents.

Algerian waters being overfished by foreign vessels

2006-06-27T13:53:00.000-07:00

El Watan says Algeria's water are being dangerously overfished, with shrimp and lobsters, formerly common, disappearing. In addition to the obvious (and big) problem of pollution, they blame large-scale industrial fishing by, in particular, Spanish vessels, using narrow-mesh nets that kill immature fish and protected species. Apparently, these pay 500,000 dinars for an annual permit to fish in Algerian territorial waters, and make it back in days. It also reports that quotas on how many fish of a given species can legally be caught are in practice not enforced, and that promised government subsidies intended to help Algerian fishermen are not being disbursed, or are being wasted on leisure boat owners.

Bomb in Sidi-Daoud, 19 GSPC fighters killed in Annaba, 1 captured in Sbaghnia: Algeria security news

2006-06-27T13:15:00.000-07:00

Ech Chourouk (p. 4):

Bomb targeting a passing truckful of soldiers explodes in Sidi-Daoud, about 50 km east of Boumerdes; fortunately for the soldiers, it exploded a few seconds before the truck reached it.

A guerrilla is captured in Sbaghnia, on the Blida-Medea border 30 km east of Hammam Melouane, in the course of a military sweep of the area; his band is reported to be the one responsible for killing 5 farmers recently.

Reuters: Earlier, in an army raid on GSPC bases in Annaba, government forces killed 19 rebels.

Bouteflika to announce amendment July 5

2006-06-26T02:42:00.000-07:00

Liberte says: Bouteflika will announce his decision to amend the constitution on July 5 (Algeria's Independence Day), dicussed previously. Watch this space...

RND still firmly behind constitution change

2006-06-24T01:43:00.000-07:00

El Watan: Ex-PM Ouyahia further demonstrates his undying loyalty to the President, saying of amending the constitution that "if it's at the initiative of the president of the Republic, I support it."

Thenia hospital to be rebuilt?

2006-06-24T01:28:00.000-07:00

Have the Thenia demonstrations had an effect? Liberte talks about the saga of Thenia hospital. Apparently, Saudi Arabia gave a subsidised loan to rebuild it, requiring that the contract be advertised in Asharq Al Awsat. Only two bids were received for the contract, from a Turkish company called Atlas Civil Engineering and an American one called Acheton (Ashton?) International LLC. Atlas won the bid, but then the Ministry of Finance decided that the contract should be shared between the two companies, limited currency transfer to 25% of the contract, and demanded a discount of 5 million dinars. The company was presumably not pleased, and the whole project was subjected to indefinite delays - until now, when the Boumerdes director of health claims everything is sorted out with Atlas and construction should begin any day now. Well, we'll see...

GSPC activities in Algeria, Iraq network

2006-06-24T00:53:00.000-07:00

Liberte, El Watan, Ech Chourouk (p. 2), El Khabar (EN): RPG-wielding GSPC ambush soldiers in M’tchitcha in the Ahnif area, 45 km east of Bouira on Thursday night. 7 soldiers killed, and 7 more injured, including one communal guard.

Earlier this week, notes Liberte, seven soldiers were killed at Lakhdaria, and four in Djelfa. It adds that in the wilaya of Boumerdes there have so far been 284 surrenders and more than 125 freed under the Peace and Reconciliation Charter, and names the "emir" of Boumerdes as one Abdelhamid Saâdaoui.

Ech Chourouk, quoting a GSPC press release promising "a hot summer", gives the total toll for the past 12 months as more than 36 soldiers, customs officers, and communal guards, in Ghazerouane, Bouaidel (Bouira), Thenia, Baghlia, Dellys, Bouberak (Boumerdes), Tifirassine (Batna), Slamna (Tizi-Ouzou), Mouqournou (Medea), Ras el-Ma (Sidi Bel Abbes), Beni-Mahboub (Jijel), Bouk'hil (Biskra), Hammam Righa (Ain Defla), Sidi-Mekraz (Chlef).

In related non-GSPC news, Ech Chourouk says that, according to "reliable sources", a Salafist network in Tiaret and Tlemcen helping volunteers to go fight in Iraq has been broken up, with more than 15 arrests, shortly after a guy from Tiaret blew himself up in Iraq.

Some of the world's oldest jewelry found in Algeria

2006-06-23T04:29:00.000-07:00

Science, BBC, EurekAlert: Scientists date shell jewelry from Oued Djebbana at between 35,000 and 90,000 years old, dating to the middle Paleolithic. The perforated shells were probably used in a necklace or bracelet. The shells are of a marine species, Nassarius gibulosus, but were found more than 200 km from the sea, suggesting the existence of long-distance trade networks, perhaps comparable to those of pre-colonial Australia.

Update: Or were they quite simply money?

More Algeria security news

2006-06-19T05:06:00.000-07:00

La Nouvelle Republique: Three communal guard members killed in explosion at the village of Slatna near Tizi-Ouzou. Elsewhere, Adlani Mouloud, the head of the BMPJ (judicial police mobile brigade) at Baghlia near Dellys, was killed during a police operation.

More exam errors

2006-06-19T04:59:00.000-07:00

El Khabar's headline is pretty funny: "Another Mistake Discovered in Physics Paper: Bureau confirms that there is not a mistake in every single subject."

Gendarmerie to return to Tizi-Ouzou

2006-06-17T10:25:00.000-07:00

Ech Chourouk (p. 3): Hocine Mazouz, governor of Tizi-Ouzou, announces that the gendarmerie will return to all stations in the wilaya, following a petition signed by 90,000 people asking for their return. The withdrawal of the gendarmerie was a key demand of the arouch movement, who are not pleased; they have reiterated their demand for "a complete, final withdrawal" of all units of the gendarmerie and punishment of gendarmes involved in events of the "Black Spring".

More on amendment of Algerian Constitution

2006-06-17T09:46:00.000-07:00

Ech Chourouk (p. 3), El Watan, El Khabar (EN): More newspapers report on the proposed constitutional changes. El Khabar basically quotes Belkhadem denying generalities without specifics; according to El Watan, "the former single party wants to reinstall a long-overturned political system".

Ech Chourouk quotes Belkhadem as saying that, contrary to some reports, article 158 (which allows the president to be tried in case of high treason) will not be changed (although article 74, of course, will), and that "the President is free to accept or reject the FLN's proposals for constitutional reform", as well as suggesting a reexamination of articles 160, 162, and 170 to allow more oversight over the elected assemblies' expenditure. As for the legislative branch, he proposes the elimination of the administrative chamber of the court and subordinating the Council of State to the administrative branch (ie the president). Otherwise, it confirms the report in Liberte.

In summary: under these proposals, the president will gain even more explicit power over both the other branches of government than he already has, and will be allowed to run for office indefinitely often. It's lucky Bouteflika is such a trustworthy person, isn't it?

Two killed near Tipasa in Algeria

2006-06-17T09:21:00.000-07:00

El Watan, Ech Chorouk, El Khabar (EN): Two people, a civilian and a customs officer, were killed and decapitated in the village of Bayou between Aghbal and Gouraya on the night of the 14th June 2006. The civilian was the brother of a current GSPC guerrilla. According to Ech Chourouk, a police investigation is currently attempting to determine whether this crime was committed by the GSPC or was motivated by personal rivalries; according to El Watan, not only was this crime committed by terrorists (they don't mention the GSPC by name), but the civilian's brother was among his assailants.

Algerian constitutional amendment: Belkhadem presents the proposal

2006-06-16T15:55:00.000-07:00

Liberte: Prime Minister Belkhadem presents his proposals for amending the constitution. The principal points were:

* No limit to presidential mandates - the president will be able to be reelected indefinitely, rather than, as now, being limited to two terms. But he insists that "this isn't a president-for-life".
* A post of vice-president - named by the President.
* Prime minister to replace post of head of government - prime minister to be designated by the President.
* Various promises about the right to demonstrate, equality of chances, freedom of religion, etc.

The overall upshot is rather obvious, I would think. If you spot an online copy of the full proposals, tell me.

Bombs at Skikda, Sidi-Bel-Abbes

2006-06-16T14:58:00.000-07:00

Liberte: 1 soldier killed and another hurt in a bomb explosion during a sweep of the mountains around Ras el Ma, 100 km south of Sidi Bel Abbes; GSPC reported active around Tefessour, Taoudmout, and Oued Taourira. 2 soldiers hurt in bomb explosion at Bourihane, 2 km from Ain Zouit west of Skikda; about 12 guerrillas from a cell called "El Feth El Moubine" reported active in the area.

Tunisia in Egyptian eyes

2006-06-15T03:43:00.000-07:00

No direct Algeria link, but I like this post Tunisian thoughts, and many (though not all) of the attitudes described would certainly be recognizable in Algeria too. I thought this quote was particularly memorable:

A Café, sitting with Hagar, a graphic designer and her dad is a one of the powerful elite ruling the country “I’ve been to Beirut, I didn’t like it, I generally don’t like the East, your countries are so dirty and not organized, honestly I prefer Paris.” She then added “you have lots of veiled girls as well and I totally resent the veil and how you treat women in the East.” … so I go “but Hagar, regardless of whether you resent veil or not, women in the East and specifically Egypt have the freedom to choose to wear it or not but here you don’t” … she goes angrily “who said we need them to choose, Tunisian are not qualified to choose yet, they go only by the stick and that’s how they should be treated”!

Corruption investigation in El Tarf

2006-06-15T03:27:00.000-07:00

El Khabar, El Watan: Governor of El Tarf is claimed to have received a "loan" of 10 million dinars from an investor, which he refused to pay back. Investigators have found a number of anomalies in the accounts and management of various government projects, including road repair and the building of a new port at El Kala. El Watan reports that an elected official, M. Belaid, who had attempted to blow the whistle on the situation two years ago had his house demolished and got sued for slander.

Several mistakes in Bac paper

2006-06-15T03:05:00.000-07:00

El Khabar, Ech Chourouk, Liberte: "Minor" mistakes were detected in the Mathematics, Mechanical Engineering, and Accountancy baccalaureate papers; all students taking those will gain two marks as a result. The Algiers Union of Students' Parents deplored "for the nth time, the carelessness with which Baccalaureate exam papers are prepared."

More Algeria security news

2006-06-15T02:35:00.000-07:00

El Watan, Jeune Independant: Two GSPC members killed on Tuesday night in fighting around Ait Boudoukhane, in Chaabet el-Ameur 35 km southeast of Boumerdes. One turned out to be a native of Chaabet el-Ameur who had gone to the hills some weeks ago; the other was unidentified.

Ech Chourouk, El Watan: One Yahia Hassan, emir of the last guerrillas in Sidi Bel-Abbas, has surrendered. Ech Chourouk gives his group's name as something like "Protectors of the Salafist Preaching of Combat", while El Watan just says GSPC. Ech Chourouk also says that a "dangerous terrorist" that they had been looking for since 2001 was captured in Talebouant in Ghelizane. His initials are M. T., and he was born in 1980.

Benchicou released

2006-06-15T01:52:00.000-07:00

Reuters, El Khabar (EN), Liberte: Mohamed Benchicou, the former editor of independent newspaper Le Matin jailed in June 2004 on the charge of illegally transferring money abroad shortly after publishing a book entitled Bouteflika, an Algerian Fraud, has been released from El-Harrach prison in Algiers. Liberte described his appearance on release as "slightly pale, thinner, and very excited", adding that police violently pushed photographers away from the scene. Asked about the possibility of reviving Le Matin, he told El Khabar: "If the government calls off its tools of suppression among the tax services, justice, and police, we will be back shortly"; a one-off special edition of Le Matin came out yesterday to mark the occasion. Of his time in prison, he said "I was prevented from any correspondence directed to me the length of the two years I spent in prison; I was forbidden from private treatment; I stood before the investigative judge 44 times to answer questions about articles published by Le Matin; I spent my days and nights in undergound cells, in intense cold and dirt..."

After his release, Liberte records, he went to a sort of rally at the press house, attended by arouch (Kabyle activist) members, RAFD (Algerian Assembly of Democratic Women) members, the president of the LADDH (Algerian human rights organization), and journalists, as well as the previously jailed Moroccan journalist Ali Lmrabet. In his speech to them, he said "Algeria needs freedom, and the time has come to struggle for this freedom... I give you an appointment for other struggles and other springs." His next step will be to fight 29 other lawsuits filed against him, El Khabar notes, giving no details.

Human Rights Watch and the International Federation of Journalists announced that they welcomed his release.

More Algeria security news

2006-06-09T17:45:00.000-07:00

El Khabar: Six soldiers hurt in two explosions in the Biskra area. One hurt two soldiers combing the area at Ras El Miad, and one hurt four combing the area in the mountains of Tajmout. Also some attacks on police.

60% of Bac candidates are women

2006-06-09T17:37:00.000-07:00

El Watan, El Khabar: Of 560,000 students taking the Bac in Algeria this year, 59.49% are women; 98.31% are taking French as their second language (a crushing indictment of Algeria's school system); and 37% opted for the science track, followed by humanities at 35%.

(The Baccalaureat is the exams you take at the end of secondary school, analogous to A-levels in the UK or SATs in the US).

Algerian papers report on Zarqawi's death

2006-06-09T16:48:00.000-07:00

El Khabar's headline: "Commander of American forces in Iraq: Zarqawi was alive when the troops got there - Al-Qaida confirms his killing and his family receives condolences in Jordan / curfew and state of alert in Iraq"

Liberte's headline: "Murdered Algerian diplomats' families react to his death: 'Zarqawi is not a martyr'". They interviewed the wife of one of the diplomats, Mrs. Fatima Belaroussi, who says "I wish they had captured him and judged him - that they had tortured him until he revealed where he buried my husband's remains..."

Quotidien d'Oran has "Killed in a raid on Friday: what will the post-Zarqawi Iraq look like?"

Ech Chourouk reports that the GSPC has taken a leaf out of Zarqawi's book and posted online videos of them cutting the throat of a prison guard captured near Tizi-Ouzou, after filming his "confession" of misdeeds and passing sentence on him.

El Moudjahid reports "Zarqawi killed in a Jordanian-American operation - 34 dead in Baghdad attacks in 48 hrs".

Update - UK-Algeria talks on deportation of terror suspects

2006-06-09T05:03:00.000-07:00

My speculations were correct, and sooner than I had expected. In addition to the extradition treaty, they signed agreements on legal co-operation and movement of people. Few details are available yet (APS is uninformative).

Update: It looks like "Business in Africa" jumped the gun. According to Liberte, they didn't sign the agreement, they just agreed to it - the signing will take place in London, and Bouteflika will personally go there to sign it.

Algeria's role in CIA rendition flights?

2006-06-08T10:17:00.000-07:00

Ech Chourouk leads with the headline "Interior Ministry denies Marty report: Is Algeria a stopover for American secret services' transporting and transfer of terrorists?"

The allusion is to the Council of Europe's draft report on alleged CIA "secret detentions and unlawful inter-state transfers", which states that:

2.5.55. Our analysis of the rendition programme in the post-9/11 era allows us to infer that the transfer of other detainees on this rendition circuit must have entailed detainees being transferred out of Kabul to alternative detention facilities in different countries. Thus, drawing upon official flight data, the probable existence of secret detention facilities can be inferred in Algeria and, as we will see, in Romania.

The Interior Ministry called these claims "unfounded", adding that "Algeria has never once been a stopover for the transfer of prisoners accused of terrorism".

The CoE report also describes a case of six Algerians in Bosnia (four of them naturalized Bosnian citizens) being taken by the CIA to Guantanamo despite a court order mandating their release.

UK-Algeria talks on deportation of terror suspects?

2006-06-08T09:21:00.000-07:00

Kim Howells, UK Foreign Office Minister, is visiting Algeria, where "he will hold high level discussions with the Head of Government and the Foreign Minister." The topics of discussion were not mentioned, but are likely to include the proposal to sign a memorandum of understanding, similar to that recently signed with Libya, whereby Algeria would undertake not to, um, mistreat any people extradited from the UK to Algeria, thus allowing the UK to expel a number of people without technically falling foul of the Human Rights Act. A useful side-effect for Algeria is that it would probably be able to get Rafik Khalifa back, as Liberte speculates.

ICFTU criticises Algerian trade union law

2006-06-08T05:13:00.000-07:00

El Khabar (EN), ICFTU (full): The International Federation of Free Trade Unions issues a new report criticising Algeria's restrictions on trade union activity, and briefly summarising the legal issues. They also discuss the teachers' strike. Their summary of the situation is:

Freedom of association is often flouted in the public sector, and also in the private sector, where workers are subjected to many abuses. Defending their right to strike, teachers embarked on a serious struggle with the authorities.

Russia debt "cancellation" official

2006-06-08T05:07:00.000-07:00

As agreed during Putin's visit earlier this year, Russia has officially written off Algeria's $4.7 billion debt to it (ITAR-TASS; Algeria agreed to purchase a rather large amount of military equipment in return.

More Algerian national cultural patrimony identified

2006-06-04T05:25:00.000-07:00

Jeune Independant reports on cultural preservation efforts. Three "historic centers" to be preserved have been established - the Algiers Casbah, the Old City of Constantine, and the Mzab Valley - while the national commission on cultural goods recommended two other places, the Dellys Casbah and Old Tenes, to add to this list. To the two current cultural parks, the Tassili and the Ahaggar, it recommended adding Tindouf, Touat-Gourara-Tidikelt, and the Saharan Atlas. For archeological preservation, it set aside 40 million dinars for planning the protection of Timgad, Djemila, Qalaat Beni Hammad, and Tipasa, and another 10 million for the Algiers Casbah.

This verdict is potentially good news for the reconstruction of the severely earthquake-damaged Dellys Casbah, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

Ouyahia: We All Support A Third Term for Bouteflika

2006-06-03T15:19:00.000-07:00

El Khabar's headline (above) speaks for itself. Ouyahia's decisive words, spoken at a meeting with regional RND representatives in the party centre in Ben-Aknoun, put an end to the scurrilous rumor that he was fired for (reactionarily) thinking two terms was long enough:

He [Ouyahia] clarified that, if the intent of the amendment was to allow the President a third term, then "we all support that."

After all:

"I am personally proud to have had the honor to know Bouteflika for 20 years... and I feel proud to have been fortunate enough to enjoy Bouteflika's respect."

Meanwhile, Belkhadem has announced that draft suggestions on amending the constitution will be sent to President Bouteflika, "the only person with the power to define the way and the date of the constitution amendment", on 15 June.

In the interests of confusion, I note that El Watan, reporting on the same conference, says Ouyahia opposes the idea of changing the constitution. The quotes they provide, however, don't refer to the presidential term increase, and merely suggest a certain indifference: "The FLN has the right to consider and suggest proposals to amend it. But its proposal does not interest us."

On an irrelevant linguistic note, I notice that the El Khabar article - rather unusually - sporadically quotes Ouyahia in Darja: ''أنا جئت ورحت ووليت·· أعرف جيدا الطريق كيفاش أنجي وكيفاش أنروح''. ("I came, I went, and I came back... I well know the road of how to come and go.") I wonder why - did the author intend to make him look stupid, to make him seem down-to-earth, or simply to more accurately represent his speech?

1284 illegal immigrants arrested at Maghnia since Janary

2006-06-02T16:58:00.000-07:00

Liberte gives some idea of the scale of illegal immigration to Algeria - really, mainly, via Algeria to Europe, although some stay - in reporting that 1284 "clandestins" from 21 countries have been arrested just at Maghnia, on the Moroccan border, since the start of the year. Most were African, although, bizarrely, they also included Russians, Uzbeks, and Syrians. Stories on this issue seem to crop up every month or so.

HMS reservations on constitution change

2006-06-01T17:15:00.000-07:00

El Khabar, El Watan: HMS president Bouguerra Soltani expresses rather timid reservations about the ruling FLN's plan to change article 74 of Algeria's constitution to allow the president to be reelected more than once.

This is, of course, just another manifestation of HMS's irrational Islamist hostility to progress. After all, the more experienced a president is, the better he can govern the country, and we wouldn't want to have less experienced leaders than our fellow Arab League members, now would we?

Algerian education - less French (again)

2006-06-01T16:49:00.000-07:00

El Khabar, El Watan Liberte: Minister of Education confirms that private schools' main language of instruction has to be Arabic, and that they cannot set up CNED courses; this is primarily directed against French-medium schools, popular with the elite.

On a different note, French teaching will once again start at 3rd grade, after a brief period of attempting to start it in 2nd grade - various reasons were advanced, from the difficulty of mastering two unfamiliar written languages at once to Belkhadem's supposed support for Arabization.

Bombs, GSPC chiefs, and amnesty

2006-05-30T15:33:00.000-07:00

Liberte: Cellphone-activated bomb explodes near train station in the town center of Boumerdes, wounding two policemen and two passersby and provoking panic. A fake bomb had been placed 17 metres away, presumably in the hope of luring policemen to the area.

Meanwhile, El Watan claims that 50-odd GSPC chiefs have been eliminated in the past month, of whom the most important was Abbas "Selmane" Boubekeur, head of the Al Ansar Brigade, killed last Friday in the forests between Azazga and Yakouren. They also mention another Al Ansar Brigade emir, Boumis Redouane, of the forests of Bouberak and Mizrana near Dellys; "Abou Omeir" Houari Youcef, head of zone 6, including Skikda and the Babor mountains; and a GSPC mufti, Makhlouf Ammar "Abou Al Barrâa".

El Khabar notes that a total of 408 guerrillas have surrendered and received amnesty under the National Reconciliation Act; 125 of them had already been arrested.

Union chiefs arrested

2006-05-30T14:05:00.000-07:00

El Khabar (EN), Ech Chourouk, El Watan, Liberte: Three unionists from the National Higher Education Union (CNES), a split union of university teachers most of who have been on strike for higher salaries since May 13, have been arrested following a Ministry of Higher Education complaint that they were still striking despite a judicial decision banning the strike. Farid Cherbal, the deputy national coordinator, came before a judge at Harrach court in Algiers today; he was charged with inciting an illegal strike and disobeying a judicial decision. The gallery was filled with supporters from Bab ez-Zouar University and other institutes.

Khaled Bessila, CNES coordinator for Constantine's Mentouri University, was arrested on charges of disobeying a judicial decision, slander, and incitement to strike; he was sent back home at 2am this morning, but remains under judicial surveillance. Mustapha Mechab, regional coordinator for the west, was arrested by plainclothes policemen leaving his home in Sidi-bel-Abbes, after having been suspended from his post in the science faculty of Sidi-bel-Abbes University.

On May 10, the courts declared the strike illegal under law 14/90, which obliges every union to present a list of members which includes at least 20% of the company's permanent workers. (El Watan) The national committee of the union decided to end the strike on May 17th, obeying the judicial decision; they had removed Cherbal and Mechab from their posts (El Watan). However, a substantial proportion of the union refused to accept the verdict, nor the removal of Cherbal and Mechab, and has remained on strike. The local branches of CNES have condemned the arrest, while the national council remains silent.

The arrests were condemned by the FFS, El Islah, HMS (MSP), the Workers' Party, and the Socialist Workers' Party. El Islah representative Lakhdar Benkhalaf asked rhetorically: "Why are strikes organised by the central union [the UGTA, the sole officially recognized union] legal, while strikes organised by independent unions never are?"

If you have more free time than I do, the relevant Algerian laws should be available at LexAlgeria.

Tamazight (Berber) language teaching in Batna

2006-05-29T07:27:00.000-07:00

El Watan: About 40 teachers of Tamazight in the Aures attended a seminar set up by the HCA (High Commission for Amazighity). The Batna director of education announced that Tamazight classes had been set up in mountainous areas of the wilaya, and were being taken by 584 primary school students and 782 high school students in six high schools. In Batna, a wilaya with more than 377,000 people of school age (ONS 1998) where, according to the inspector Benaggoun, "90%" of people speak Tamazight, this tiny figure was blamed on budget shortages which prevented the hiring of enough teachers.

18,000 foreign workers in Algeria (mainly from China and Egypt)

2006-05-29T07:06:00.000-07:00

Ech Chourouk, Liberte: Minister of Employment and National Solidarity Djamel Ould-Abbes reports that there are 18,191 foreign workers in Algeria - in 1999, there were only 543. 45% of them are Chinese, 11% Egyptian, with another 3% from each of Italy, the Philippines, the US, and France. 65% of them are in Algiers, Ouargla, Oran, or Adrar. Both note that, under law n° 81-10 of July 1981 and presidential decree n° 03-251 (2003), foreign workers are entitled to the same rights as Algerians (including social security, unions, and schooling for their kids), while employers are obliged to ensure their repatriation when their contract becomes void. Ech Chourouk makes its position rather clear in its headline: "While millions of Algerian youths suffer unemployment, more than 18,000 foreign workers invade the Algerian labour market". However, Ould-Abbes states that the foreign workers are necessary to fill gaps in the labour market, given Algeria's current rapid (hydrocarbon-price-fuelled) growth.

Thenia demonstrators behind bars

2006-05-29T06:16:00.000-07:00

El Khabar, El Watan: 15 demonstrators at Thenia (Boumerdes, Algeria) have been placed under arrest in Harrach jail in Algiers, charged with destruction of other people's property, destruction of State property, infringement of a constituted body, arson, and infringement of public order. The people of Thenia have contacted lawyers, who described the arrest as "severe and unexpected". The streets of Thenia are now quiet, being full of anti-riot forces. The detainees include a 55-year-old English teacher and a person who lost his mother and four sisters in the earthquake, rendering him head of what remains of the family. A local interviewed by El Watan said that the town's anger had been building up for two years before its recent escalation.

The Friday demonstrations in Thenia took place when supporters left the stadium after the local football club lost its match with Lakhdaria. El Khabar says that the rioters destroyed telephone poles, burned the local cultural center and telephone booths, threw stones at the town hall, and blocked the road. As El Watan tells it, the demonstrators deny any connection with football, speaking instead of jobs, housing, development, and care for the earthquake victims; according to El Khabar, the initially football-related riots rapidly turned into political protests about the marginalized state of Thenia, arguably the town hardest hit by the 2003 earthquake, protesting delays in housing development and repairs. The town remains in a sad state, according to El Khabar: ruined buildings everywhere and garbage in the streets.

Thenia's mayor has told El Watan that he has gotten the message, and will do his best to calm down the inhabitants. Interviewed in El Watan, Ali Bendrici, governor of Boumerdes, insists that the earthquake victims of Thenia have not been forgotten, and are being taken care of. Specifically, he says that in Thenia 2654 of 2697 damaged houses have been taken care of, and 309 of "more than" 614 destroyed houses have received reconstruction aid, leaving only 300 in need of rehousing, of whom 164 have already been rehoused. He acknowledges, however, that reconstruction efforts at Bordj-Menaiel have gone badly, as a result of which the contractors have been changed.

(See also: Boumerdes residents tired of chalets)

Shoot-outs east of Boumerdes

2006-05-29T05:55:00.000-07:00

Liberte, El Watan: Police brigade kill Bounis Redouane (32), described by Liberte as head of the Mizrana "maquis", in a shoot-out in Sidi el-Medjni, just west of Dellys; two policement were lightly wounded. He had been at large since 1994 (Liberte) or for five years (El Watan). Meanwhile, either one or two guerrillas were killed by a special security unit from Algiers at Yakouren, while four escaped.

Boumerdes residents tired of "chalets"

2006-05-27T15:31:00.000-07:00

(The 2003 earthquake destroyed many homes in the Boumerdes area; their residents were moved as soon as possible from tents to "chalets", little mass-produced metal residences intended as medium-term accommodation for while houses got rebuilt or built.)

El Watan: Following demonstrations in Thenia this weekend, some 200 people living in the chalets, demonstrated in front of the town hall in Bordj-Menaiel, complaining about delays in providing accommodation and inadequate conditions, and saying the chalets have been doing duty for too many people too long. I suspect this has something to do with El Khabar's report that a bureaucrat was suspended for accepting a bribe of 8000 DA in Bordj-Menaiel for changing the name under which a chalet was registered.

Algeria's union head says higher pay coming

2006-05-27T15:25:00.000-07:00

El Watan, Liberte: Abdelmadjid Sidi Said, head of Algeria's main (only legal?) union, the UGTA, claims to have secured government agreement on the issue of raising salaries, and assures members that unpaid salaries will be taken care of by early June. He says Belkhadem is discussing the issue with them, and reiterates that the workers are entitled to more.

Joint Algerian-NATO navy maneuvers

2006-05-27T15:14:00.000-07:00

El Watan, Liberte: The Algerian ship El Kirch participated in a naval exercise called "Phœnix Express-06" with the American 6th Fleet. The NATO exercises, also involving Spanish, Turkish, Moroccan, and possibly Israeli ships, will continue until June 14th.

GSPC activities

2006-05-27T14:51:00.000-07:00

Ech Chourouk: Two municipal guards were killed and had their weapons stolen near the Ain en-Nsour Hospital in the Zakkar mountains of Miliana on Friday night.

El Khabar reports that, through its website, the GSPC claims responsibility for the killing of 13 customs officers on 7 April in El-Maniaa. Interior Minister Yazid Zerhouni specifically blamed the local "emir" Mokhtar Belmokhtar, nicknamed "Khaled Abou'l-Abbas".

Dialogue with the arouch?

2006-05-27T14:36:00.000-07:00

Ech Chourouk, El Watan, Liberte: The change of prime minister interrupted ongoing discussions between the government and the arouch; various newspapers are speculating as to the effect Belkhadem's appointment will have. El Watan suggests that Belkhadem will be much less willing to listen to the arouch than his predecessor, while Horizons notes that as FLN secretary-general Belkhadem denied the arouch's political legitimacy, arguing that, now that local elections have been successfully held in the Kabyle area, any negotiation should be with elected officials. On the other hand, Ech Chourouk suggests that the arouch are using the change to reopen discussion on the El-Kseur Platform, while Horizons reports they held a special meeting on Thursday to discuss the implications of the change of government. Can't say I feel any the wiser for reading all these articles, but this may make more sense later.

Ongoing Army sweep around Boumerdes

2006-05-26T15:15:00.000-07:00

Jeune Independent: A dozen people have been arrested east of Boumerdes for providing material support to the GSPC, including food, shelter, and building cache sites, while an army sweep there, which began fifteen days ago, is reported to have dismantled a GSPC network and found and destroyed a hundred bombs. One cache was found in Baloul, near Thenia.

15,000 workers demonstrate in Rouiba

2006-05-25T04:03:00.000-07:00

Ech Chourouk, El Khabar, Liberte, El Watan: 15,000 industrial workers from 80 factories, led by local UGTA union secretary M. Messaoudi, demonstrated in Rouiba over a 3-km march, demanding higher salaries, no privatization, and no closing of factories, and criticizing mismanagement. The demonstration was described by Liberte as the largest in Algeria since independence, while Ech Chourouk called it the second largest (after a demonstration in 1998.) Slogans included "No to Privatisation - Our Children Need to Live!", "No to Closing Factories - No to Starving Families", "We're fed up, [Minister of Trade] Temmar!"

Ouyahia out, Belkhadem succeeds him as PM

2006-05-24T16:24:00.000-07:00

APS, El Khabar, Al Jazeera: President Bouteflika has appointed Abdelaziz Belkhadem of the FLN as new prime minister, ending days of speculation. Ahmed Ouyahia (RND) resigned from his prime ministerial position shortly beforehand the same day.

Skirmish in Tigzirt

2006-05-24T07:33:00.000-07:00

El Watan: Army and guerrillas exchange fire at Tala Thesthane, 6 km south of Tigzirt. Apparently, the guerrillas had stolen somebody's truck in Mizrana; its owner was taken hostage, but freed safely. Nobody was killed or captured.

Aomar, Kadiria, and Lakhdaria's gas supply sabotaged

2006-05-24T07:18:00.000-07:00

El Watan: Gas network supplying the cities of Aomar, Kadiria, and Lakhdaria is sabotaged. The damage is expected to be repaired within 24 hours.

Too much sand, or too little

2006-05-23T06:44:00.000-07:00

El Khabar: Aizeb, a village near Mostaghanem (!), is being buried in sand by advancing dunes. They should try and negotiate a deal with the sand smugglers of Oued Aissi being tried this week - although I'm told only river sand is coarse enough for builders to use.

Bomb targeting bridge near Skikda defused

2006-05-22T07:18:00.000-07:00

Ech Chourouk: Security forces defuse a bomb primed to explode by remote control placed on a bridge on a road linking the villages of Hadj Ali and Chaabet Oum-ed-Dou in the municipality of El Ouedjla Bou Bellout in the mountains above Skikda. The army has been conducting a sweep of the eastern Skikda area lately, including the Sidi Mansour forest, the Djenane et-Teffah mountains, and the border with the wilaya of Jijel.

Algerian ports paralyzed by strike

2006-05-22T07:01:00.000-07:00

Ech Chourouk, El Khabar, El Watan: Algerian port workers' union strikes against the planned privatization of the ports, accusing the Minister of Transport of violating the agreement of April 10th that the dispute would be settled through mutual dialogue. Algiers port was totally immobilized, and the strike cost Oran port 10 million dinars; of ten Algerian ports, only Annaba remained operational, according to El Watan.

Treaty of Friendship between Algeria and Turkey

2006-05-22T06:41:00.000-07:00

Liberte says a Treaty of Friendship between Algeria and Turkey is to be signed today. Sounds sensible on the face of it - Turkey is Algeria's 8th largest export partner, and 9th largest import partner, and the two countries' political alignment is very similar - but I can't seem to find out what the treaty actually says.

(And yes, this fits nicely with the recent piece of tit-for-tat...)

Chinese to build trans-Algeria highway

2006-05-20T16:02:00.000-07:00

Two Chinese (Hong Kong-based) companies, CITIC and CRCC, are to build 528 km of a new east-west trans-Algeria highway (the rest will be built by a Japanese company). Chinese workers have become a common sight on construction projects around Algiers over the past three years, and this news led Ech Chourouk to some meditation on "the sleeping giant's awakening", complaining that whether Western or Oriental companies get the contracts it always seems like others end up spending Algeria's money.

Minister hits (yes, personally hits) journalist

2006-05-20T15:15:00.000-07:00

El Khabar, El Watan: Minister of Health Amar Tou hits and insults Liberte journalist Djemila Loukil in Oran on May 18, losing his temper over a question about medicine for AIDS patients. He denies it, the National Algerian Journalists' Union condemns it, and all the articles on Liberte about it seem to have disappeared or changed site.

Algeria news - May 12

2006-05-12T16:11:00.000-07:00

El Khabar - With the Paris club's acceptance of Algeria's offer to pay it off, Algeria's debt drops by over 50% to $7 billion, down from over $30 billion in 1995-7. Excellent news; one can but hope that they'll pay off the rest as well. But do they have a viable economic strategy for when oil is cheap, as well as when it's expensive? (though oil may never be cheap again...)

Liberte: Communal guard killed at fake roadblock at Chabet el Ameur, bomb aimed at pursuing troops kills civilian on roadside; ex-communal guard killed at Bordj-Menaiel; bomb injures two soldiers by Bouaydel near Ammal.

El Khabar: Regional branches of Pasteur Institute to be opened, creating 5000 jobs for doctors.

Liberte: A total of 51 km of cable stolen in the wilaya of Medea over 2005; and ~10% of energy produced is stolen. Well, that's one excuse for the abysmal electric system, anyway.

Algeria news - May 11

2006-05-11T03:09:00.000-07:00

Reuters - Paris Club accepts Algeria's offer to pay $8 billion of its debt in advance

El Khabar (EN), Liberte - 10 guerrillas killed in Seddat (Jijel) in the "Ghar el-Ghoula" cave alluded to yesterday. 1 guerrilla, "B. 'Abdallah' Haroun", surrenders in Jijel. His age was variously reported as 32 or 37, and his GSPC brigade's name as I`tisam or Taliban.

EN - Algeria's newspaper market almost evenly divided between Arabic and French: 48% of newspapers printed are in Arabic, 52% in French. The top Arabic one (and largest overall) is El Khabar; the top French one is Le Quotidien d'Oran.

El Khabar, El Moudjahid - Belkhadem announces FLN plan to change the constitution sometime in 2007 or so.

Algeria news - May 10

2006-05-10T03:36:00.000-07:00

* Ech-Chaab, El Watan: Algeria's request is being considered by the Paris club. Algeria has proposed to pay off its debt ahead of schedule with the windfall arising from recent high oil prices. Algeria's foreign currency reserve currently stand at $62 billion; its external debt is $15.5 billion, of which it wants to prepay $8 billion to the Paris club.
* El Watan: Demonstrations in Zemmouri, demanding more housing from the local authorities.
* El Watan: Sit-in at a factory in Oued Fodda, demanding the release of its manager, Mahdjoub Hafidh, who was imprisoned for refusing builders access to a plot of land which the local government says is public property and the factory says is its own property.
* Ech-Chaab, El Watan: Government soldiers retrieve weapons from a cave in Seddat (Jijel) - including 3 kalashnikovs. The cave is said to be a hideout for a GSPC group called Ibad ar-Rahman.
* El Khabar (EN): Mixed response to public service unions' strike call - averaging about 65%. The strike was yesterday.
* El Khabar - Algeria has among highest rates of girls' schooling in Arab world, with women accounting for 65% of Bac candidates and 51% of university students.