ALGIERS, Algeria: Algeria has announced the lifting of 19-years old state emergency on Friday however protest marches are still banned in the capital.
However, some see the move as a mere tactic to placate charged masses.
The Algerian League for the Defense of Human Rights called it a “ruse aimed at fooling international opinion at a time when Arab regimes are under pressure.”
The decision comes amid a flurry of strikes and protests, was clearly a gesture aimed at restoring a measure of calm demanded by opposition parties and civil society.
However, the lifting of the state of emergency was only a partial victory. Interior Minister Dahou Ould Kabila announced earlier Thursday that protest marches would continue to be banned in the capital.
“The moment does not appear to have arrived to authorize marches in Algiers as it remains a target for terrorists,” he said in an Algerian radio interview.
“Mobilizing police will drain them from other sensitive points in the city of Algiers,” he said. “Algiers is targeted by leaders of terrorist groups (because) it gives them media impact.”
The state of emergency was ordered in February 1992 by an army decision to cancel the nation’s first multiparty elections to thwart a expected victory by a now-banned Muslim fundamentalist party. The president at the time, Chadli Bendjedid, was removed and replaced by a High Council made up mainly of generals.
Lifting the emergency signals that Algeria is stable and safe while referring to its “national tragedy,” the battle against Islamist insurgents that claimed an estimated 200,000 lives including security forces, Islamists and civilians caught in the middle.
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