Municipality guards defy interior minister and vow to carry on their protest movement
The municipality guards have decided to spend their second night in a row outdoor, at the “martyrs’ squareâ€, downtown Algiers, pending the response of the Algerian president Abdelaziz Bouteflika to their grievances ignoring, thus the interior minister‘s threats against the protesters.
- Among the requests raised by the protesters to the head of state concerns the cancellation of the striking off notifications received by the protesters from their relevant department.
- The protesters have indicated that they spent their night outdoor but noting is compared to “ the suffering in the forests, rivers and mountains during years of relentless fight against terrorists jointly with the military forces”.
- Talking on behalf of the protesters, Hakim and Ali have asserted that “there wasn’t anything new concerning the contact with the presidential staff”, they further added ” We didn’t receive any feedback since our return from the presidential palace and we are expecting to have news from the police officers stationed here at the martyrs’ square”.
- For his part, the interior minister Dahou Oueld Kablia has indicated that the overwhelming majority of the protesters have accepted the measures undertaken to settle their situation since 11 grievances in 14 were resolved, noting that the reluctant protesters will be discharged from this security corps.
- The interior minister has framed the protests “inacceptable” and vowed to vehemently retaliate “ We will discharge them ( municipality guards) and all the military and civil security forces consider the protests as an act of disobedience”.
- Reacting to the minister’s threats, some protesters have declared to Echourok they don’t pay credit to Oueld kabila’s threats” We will continue our sit-in here in Algiers until the fulfilment of all our legitimate grievances” , they said.