TIZI OUZOU: Rioting broke out yesterday when Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika took his re-election campaign to this flashpoint city in the restive Kabylie region, homeland of the nation’s Berber minority.
In the most serious incident since official campaigning for the April 8 vote began on March 18, protesters clashed with security forces outside a cultural centre where Bouteflika held a campaign rally under heavy security.
The protesters’ presence forced Bouteflika to leave the venue from a hidden exit, witnesses said, adding that the president’s car had been stoned as he arrived in the city.
Police fired teargas and used water cannon to disperse the protesters, most of them local youths.
Barricades had been set up on some of the main streets in the city centre and in the Genets neighbourhood, a hotbed of anti-government sentiment.
Bouteflika, 67, travels widely around the north African country, and has stepped up his visits in recent months. – AFP


photo:An old woman swings her bag at riot police yesterday in Tizi Ouzou, the main city of Algeria’s volatile Berber region of Kabylie. – Reuters
Last update on: 1-4-2004