Algerian police thwarted a rally by thousands of prodemocracy supporters yesterday, breaking up the crowd into isolated groups to keep them from marching.
Police brandishing clubs, but no firearms, weaved their way through the crowd in central Algiers, tackling some protesters and keeping traffic flowing through the march route.
A demonstrating lawmaker was hospitalized after suffering a head wound when he fell after police kicked and hit him, colleagues said.
The gathering, organized by the Coordination for Democratic Change in Algeria, comes a week after a similar protest.
Authorities have promised to lift a 19-year-old state of emergency that outlaws public gatherings in the capital, Algiers, by the end of February.
Police at yesterday’s demonstrations appeared to outnumber protesters in each of the groups scattered in side streets around May 1 square, a major roundabout. They stood in solid lines to block protesters from main avenues. Trucks with water cannons were parked nearby.
Still, by breaking up the crowd, the police managed to turn the planned march into a chaotic rally of small groups.
“We want a change of the regime, not a change within the regime,’’ said the doyen of Algeria’s human rights advocates, Ali Yahia Abdenour.
Police brandishing clubs, but no firearms, weaved their way through the crowd in central Algiers, tackling some protesters and keeping traffic flowing through the march route.
A demonstrating lawmaker was hospitalized after suffering a head wound when he fell after police kicked and hit him, colleagues said.
The gathering, organized by the Coordination for Democratic Change in Algeria, comes a week after a similar protest.
Authorities have promised to lift a 19-year-old state of emergency that outlaws public gatherings in the capital, Algiers, by the end of February.
Police at yesterday’s demonstrations appeared to outnumber protesters in each of the groups scattered in side streets around May 1 square, a major roundabout. They stood in solid lines to block protesters from main avenues. Trucks with water cannons were parked nearby.
Still, by breaking up the crowd, the police managed to turn the planned march into a chaotic rally of small groups.
“We want a change of the regime, not a change within the regime,’’ said the doyen of Algeria’s human rights advocates, Ali Yahia Abdenour.
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