Sunday, February 6, 2011

In Algeria, Bouteflika promised to stabilize prices of basic commodities and an end to emergency rule

President Abdelaziz Bouteflika pledged, Thursday, January 3, next to a lifting of the state of emergency in Algeria and has announced various measures to address the economic discontent of the civil society, in a storm in the Arab world protest. He also commented for the first time the riots of January 4 to 9 that killed 5 people and injured over 800.

He said "these overruns regrettable" and bowed to the memory of the victims, according to APS at the beginning of a Council of Ministers which has taken an exceptional importance of the measures announced. President Bouteflika is facing a flood of claims that have resulted in recent years, many spontaneous movements of angry citizens, whether against the lack of housing or poor quality of housing supplied to them, unemployment or the rising price.

He asked the acceleration of housing construction and ordered banks, 90% are public, facilitating home loans, but also measures to strengthen the price of essential commodities. He thus urged the government to "expand to include pulses, the scope of the operative stabilization of commodity prices." The Head of State also announced its determination to fight against corruption, regularly denounced by civil society.

"The mechanisms of prevention against these deviations have been strengthened," he said, and legislation relating to these evils is "very severe". President Bouteflika has also announced it would remove "in the very near future" state of emergency in force since nineteen years in the country to fight against Islamist violence that have claimed thousands of lives.

But he denied that this has never "obstructed political activity." The lifting of the state of emergency is one of the demands of the opposition and civil society came together in a New Coordination and announced a march in Algiers on February 12 in favor of democratization and of "system change" despite the ban announced by the authorities.

Mr. Bouteflika reiterated however that the marches were banned in the capital since a bloody demonstration of Kabylia in 2001, but not elsewhere. Another claim often repeated by the opposition political parties and NGOs: the right to speak on television and radio, which are public in Algeria when much of the press is private and free has also been heard by the authorities.

Bouteflika has called for the broadcast media provide fair coverage of parties and national recognition. "Television and radio must ensure coverage of activities of all parties and national organizations and their accredited fairly open their channels," he said. Since the outbreak happened in Tunisia and Egypt, the votes have increased in Algeria to seek greater openness and more democratic freedoms.

No comments:

Post a Comment