3 - 9 May 2001
Issue No.532
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Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 3 - 9 May 2001 Issue No.532 |
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Berber fallout
IN THE first political fallout from the Berber unrest in Algeria's troubled Kabyle region, the Rally for Culture and Democracy (RCD), a small but influential Berber party, withdrew its two ministers from the coalition government of President Abdel-Aziz Bouteflika. RCD party chief Said Saadi said on Tuesday that the bloodshed in the Kabyle region amounted to "a tragedy," adding that "security forces never stopped firing live bullets at demonstrators."New skirmishes broke out between police and protesters on Tuesday. On the same day, the interior minister issued a statement confirming 42 people killed and 572 injured in riots over the weekend in the northeastern Berber heartland, after police shot dead a youth in custody, Reuters reported. Witnesses and press reports put the death toll at 80. President Bouteflika promised an independent commission of inquiry into what he called "serious events." (see p.7)
Iran poll
MORE than 30 hopefuls, including one woman, have already registered to run in Iran's 8 June presidential elections, but popular incumbent President Mohamed Khatami has yet to announce whether he will seek another four-year term. Junior civil servant Farah Khorsavi, one of the first to sign up after registration opened yesterday has been described by the Islamic Republic News Agency as "liberal minded". She is one of only a handful of Iranian women to ever nominate themselves to run for president.Other hopefuls included Mohsen Sazgara, a reformist publisher who was among the pioneers of the reform movement that began after Khatami's 1997 elections. Reformists say the elections would be a referendum on which way the Islamic Republic should go, more than 22 years after the 1979 revolution. Registration is expected to close on Sunday.
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