Algeria - 763 cops wounded, 1100 demonstrators arrested and three dead

El Watan

10 January 2011 - Three deaths among the protesters, more than 800 wounded, including 763 policemen and over 1,100 arrests. Among the detained include many minors. That is the conclusion of the heavy and gruesome popular protest movement that is devastating, since 5 January, about twenty wilayas.
Anticipating a possible challenge to the official toll, Daho Ould Kablia, the Minister of Interior and Local Government, took the lead and already refuted any figures which might be provided by independent organizations.
"Regarding the number of dead and wounded, all other information peddled by foreign media or Algerian is false and alarmist and that it should give no credit," had struck the minister in an interview yesterday the state news agency, APS.
Maitre Mustapha Bouchachi said that apart from the balance sheet released by the government, the Algerian League for the Defence of Human Rights (LADDH) does not have any other figures. "We know there were many arrests. Yesterday and the day before yesterday, many young protestors were brought before the courts. But for now, we could not obtain enough information, or access to records of youths arrested, let alone state the grounds for prosecution. " Saturday night on Canal Algeria, the Minister of Interior instructed the young demonstrators violently, authors of "criminal acts". The next day, Daho Ould Kablia on a false paternalistic and sympathetic tone, repeats the same about reducing the protest movement and protesters, considered to be marginal. Mobs that are, according to Mr. Ould Kablia that "the most radical youth (...)".