Algerians rally to support Hirak movement
KHERRATA: Thousands of people demonstrated on Tuesday in the Algerian town of Kherrata to voice support for the Hirak protest movement that ousted Algeria’s president in 2019 before the COVID-19 crisis forced it off the streets last year.
Demonstrators brandished Algerian and Berber flags and shouted slogans against the military and current President Abdelmadjid Tebboune in the rally in Kherrata, 200km east of the capital Algiers.
More than 5,000 protesters chanted: “A civilian state, not a military state” and “The gang must go” as they waved Algerian flags.
Tuesday’s protest was held to mark the second anniversary of the start of demonstrations in 2019, before spreading across the country.
It was in Kherrata, east of the capital Algiers that major protests first broke out on Feb.16, 2019, against Bouteflika’s bid for a fith term. The following week, mass rallies spread to Algiers and across the country in a months-long movement to demand sweeping reforms.
“We came to revive the Hirak that was stopped for health reasons. They didn’t stop us. We stopped because we care for our people. Today coronavirus is over and we will get the Hirak back,” said Nassima, a protester.
“It is a revolutionary process for a very precise goal, which is the departure of the regime, the whole regime with all its components,” said Hamid, a protester.
Tuesday’s rally was attended by prominent Hirak figures including Karim Tabbou, who was given a one-year suspended sentence in December for “undermining national security.” Around 70 people are currently in prison over links with the Hirak movement or other peaceful opposition political activity, according to the CNLD prisoners’ support group.
The Hirak movement demanded a complete removal of Algeria’s entrenched political elite and continued to mobilise tens of thousands of protesters every week even ater Bouteflika stepped down from the presidency.
His successor, Abdelmadjid Tebboube, elected in December 2019 in a vote that Hirak supporters dismissed as a charade, has publicly praised the movement while seeking to move past it with limited concessions including tweaks to the constitution.
While the protest movement has no clear leadership, its supporters have repeatedly discussed online how to rekindle its presence on the streets as an active force to press for change.