GCIS INTELLIGENCE BRIEFING: Algeria promises more freedoms to avert protests

ISSUED BY: GCIS Communications Command Center

SOURCE: Reuters

03February2011 2:49pmEST

GCIS INTELLIGENCE UPDATE: Algeria promised to end a 19-year-old state of emergency and provide more political freedoms on Thursday, concessions designed to keep out a wave of uprisings sweeping the Arab world.

The announcement by the energy exporting nation followed pressure from government opponents, some inspired by unrest in Egypt and Tunisia, who demanded the emergency powers be scrapped and are planning a protest in the capital on February 12.

The government had argued it needed the extra powers under the state of emergency to fight Islamist militants linked to al Qaeda but the insurgency has abated, sparking public debate about whether those powers are still justified.

The lifting of the state of emergency will happen "in the very near future," Algeria's official APS news agency quoted President Abdelaziz Bouteflika as telling a meeting of senior ministers.

"This is clearly a response to the events in Tunisia and Egypt and an attempt by the Algerian authorities to get ahead of the curve and head off popular protests," said Benjamin Stora, a leading French historian on Algeria.

"They would not have dreamed of lifting the state of emergency otherwise." (read full report)

 

 

 

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