Bouteflika Is Not (Hosni) Mubarak"
Algiers (ANTARA News/AFP) - Algerian police and pro-government activists on Saturday foiled another attempt by opposition protesters to march in the capital Algiers to demand regime change.

A faction of the National Coordination for Change and Democracy (CNCD) had called the protest in three different parts of the city for 11:00 am (1000 GMT) in defiance of an official ban on demonstrating in Algiers.

But several dozen demonstrators found themselves quickly surrounded by police.

Counter-demonstrators carrying photos of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika chanted "Bouteflika Is Not (Hosni) Mubarak" -- the Egyptian president forced out by a popular uprising on February 18.

They chased and roughed up the anti-government protestors.

The counter-demonstrators, mostly young people, then turned on Said Sadi, a member of the CNCD and the head of the small opposition Rally for Culture and Democracy (RCD), saying they would "lynch" him, according to an eyewitness.

Sadi fled the scene after shouting: "We will continue to march regardless of the steps the regime takes to prevent us."

Saturday`s foiled protest was the sixth attempt since January 22.

The would-be demonstrators initially faced lightly equipped police but officers wearing helmets and carrying clubs and tear gas arrived to seal off the area and disperse the protest.

Sadi told AFP by telephone that his attackers had "knifed him, but it wasn`t serious." Police told AFP they had received no complaint.

The CNCD denounced what it said was the complicity between police and pro-regime supporters against the protesters, who included women. They had been openly threatened with knives, a statement passed to AFP said.

In the Hussein Dey district, opposite the courthouse, around 10

demonstrators arrived an hour before the planned march, among them two RCD deputies.

They were joined by Ali Yahia Abdennour, 90 year-old honorary president of the Algerian Human Rights Defence League (LADDH), but they were isolated by security agents.

West of Algiers, at Ain Benian, barriers were set up Saturday morning to prevent pedestrian access. Armoured vehicles and a large detachment of police kept the area under observation, though witnesses said nothing took place.(*)

Editor: Jafar M Sidik
Copyright © ANTARA 2011