Algeria: students protest for the 25th week, despite the holidays

Algiers (AFP)

Hundreds of students demonstrated Tuesday, for the 25th week in a row in Algiers, despite the university holidays and in the middle of a strong police deployment, tirelessly demanding regime change and democracy.

In the middle of August, when the university institutions were closed, the procession was less dense than usual, but the demonstrators promised to "keep up the pressure" on power every Tuesday.

They continued to demand the departure of all actors in the "system" in power since the country's independence in 1962 and denied the army chief of staff, General Ahmed Gaïd Salah, who recently estimated that the "fundamental demands" of the unprecedented protest movement born on February 22 had been "completely satisfied".

"System clears!", "Free the prisoners of opinion", "Free and democratic Algeria", "the people want independence", chanted again the students, accompanied by teachers and private citizens, progressing without incidents in the streets of central Algiers.

They also rejected the dialogue proposed by the authorities and condemned Karim Younes, former president of the lower house and former minister, chosen to lead a "National Forum for Dialogue and Mediation", responsible for defining the terms of a presidential election. elect a successor to Abdelaziz Bouteflika, forced to resign on 2 April.

The "Hirak" (protest movement) refuses to hold the presidential election as long as the former senior executives of the Bouteflika presidency (1999-2019) - the interim president Abdelkader Bensalah or General Gaïd Salah - are in power.

"We have to continue the fight until the end, until Algeria is really free and democratic," Rania, 22, a student at the School of Public Works, told AFP.

Sabrina Kherbi, 19, a student at the National School of Statistics, intends to demonstrate "until a true independence, with freedom of expression and justice".

"The students have a long breath and they will continue (...) until their demands are met," said Hamid Mesbah, 20, a student at the University of Algiers.

© 2019 AFP