Algerian police cracked down on pro-democracy protests and journalists set to cover them on Friday, as the country continues to feel pressure from protests led by the movement Hirak, also known as the Revolution of Smiles.
The AFP reported several people were detained, including one of their photographers, who was released after spending eight hours in detention.
The government blamed protesters for not declaring the organizers of the protests and the “start and finish times, the itinerary, and the slogans.” The interior ministry, which just announced the new rules, said failure to abide by them will lead to punishment.
“Failure to comply with these procedures will result in violating the law and the constitution, which denies the legitimacy of the march, and it will be necessary to deal with it on this basis,” the ministry said.
Al Jazeera reported that the Hirak movement doesn’t have a figurehead, and the country would presumably tie the names of the organizers with having leadership roles.
“They are seeking reasons to justify any decision to ban marches,” Ahmed Badili, a protester, told Reuters.
Khaled Drareni, the correspondent for TV5 Monde, the French-language channel, was also reportedly detained.
The AFP reported that Drareni is the founder of the Casbah Tribune online news site, who was previously incarcerated for almost a year and became a symbol for press freedom. Reporters Without Borders identified Algeria as one of the worst countries in the world when it comes to press freedom.
It now ranks 146 out of 180 countries in the category, a drop of 27 places since 2015, an AFP report noted. The country has even clashed with international news agencies, including France 24, and threatened to withdraw the broadcaster.
Lock Up, Shut Down
The National Committee for the Liberation of Detainees (CNLD) prisoners’ rights group said about 70 individuals have been imprisoned over ties to the Hirak movement.
The AFP reported that protests broke out in Oran, Bejaia, and Tizi Ouzou. Protesters marched and chanted, “A civil not a military state!”
As we reported in our 29 October 2019 article, “ALGERIA: WHO’S SMILING NOW?,” Algeria was rocked by protests following the decision by then-President Abdelaziz Bouteflika to run for a fifth term. His regime was accused of having taken control of revenues from the country’s natural resources and used them to pay off political cronies and financial supporters.
It was then that the Hirak movement began. Bouteflika, who was ailing at the time, was forced to step down, but the demonstrations continued… until the COVID War broke out and demonstrations were banned until they broke out again in March. (See our 23 March article, “ALGERIANS: BACK THE STREETS.”)
TOP TREND FOR 2021: “YOUTH REVOLUTION”: As we had forecast in December 2020, in 2021, the uprisings and revolutions that were sweeping the world before the COVID War will accelerate dramatically, as billions of people sink deeper into economic despair.
In response, governments will again attempt to use the COVID War as a “legal” justification to prohibit protests. But, as Gerald Celente says, “When people lose everything and have nothing left to lose, they lose it.” And lose it, they will. Thus, we maintain our forecast that protests will escalate into civil wars, and civil wars will spread to regional wars.
Also, as citizens by the millions flee their nations for neighboring safe havens, especially Europe, anti-immigration populist movements will accelerate, with new political parties, some youth-driven, overthrowing establishment parties.
