Algeria To End State Of Emergency Within Days

Algeria To End State Of Emergency Within Days

Algerian Foreign Minister, Mourad Medelci has said the country's 19 -year-old state of emergency will end within days.

He brushed off concerns that recent protests in the country could escalate as in Tunisia and Egypt .

A state of emergency has been in force in Algeria since 1992 and the government has come under pressure from opponents, inspired by uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia , to ditch emergency laws.

Several hundred protesters took to the streets in the capital Algiers and opposition groups said they would demonstrate every weekend until the government is changed.

No Egypt-like protest

“In the coming days, we will talk about the state of emergency as if it was a thing of the past,'' Medelci said in an interview.

“That means that in Algeria we will have a return to a state of law that allows complete freedom of expression, within the limits of the law,'' he said.

The minister said recent protests had been organised by minority groups with limited support and that there was no risk of a government overthrow as in neighbouring Tunisia .

Willing to concede

However, he suggested the government may be willing to make concessions.

“The decision to change the government lies with the president who will assess the possibility, to make adjustments, as he had done in the past. Algeria is not Tunisia or Egypt,'' he added.

The resignation on Friday of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and last month's overthrow of Tunisia's leader, have led many to ask which country could be next in the Arab world.

Discontent with joblessness, poor housing conditions and high food prices sparked rioting in early January across the country, but there is so far no sign that this is coalescing into a political movement.

Reuters/NAN/Margaret/Yinka