Washington, DC — Demonstrators clashed again with police on Tuesday in several towns and villages in the Berber-speaking region of Kabylia in northeastern Algeria. Reports from Azazga, 110 kilometres east of the capital Algiers,say demonstrators threw stones at security forces who fired tear gas grenades to break up the protest.

There are also reports of clashes in Aokas, 250 kilometres east of Algiers, and in other neighboring towns.

The latest unrest came a day after more than half a million people marched through the streets of the local capital Tizi Ouzou in honour of scores of people reported killed in clashes with police since the trouble first began last April. The marchers called for those responsible for the deaths to be brought to justice and for the withdrawal from the region of gendarmes, accused by local people of abuse of authority and extortion.

The disturbances in Kabylia first broke out on April 19 when a young Berber man was killed while in police detention after his arrest during a march to commemorate the 21st anniversary of the Berber Spring. Thousands of Berbers took to the streets of Kabylia and the capital Algiers in April 1980 to demand official recognition for the Berber language and culture.

The Berbers, North Africa's original inhabitants, are thought to number at least one third of the overall population of Algeria. Although many leaders of the national liberation movement which fought for Algeria's independence from France in 1962 were from Kabylia, many Algerians say that successive governments have failed to give the Berber language and culture adequate recognition.