Gendarmes quit riot-hit Berber region

The paramilitary force is being replaced by ordinary police

Algerian paramilitary police units have begun pulling out of key towns in the troubled eastern Berber region of Kabylie.

The withdrawal is a long-standing demand of Berber activists, who accuse the gendarmes of brutally suppressing protests.

Rioting was sparked in the region last April following the death of a young man in police custody.

Since then there have been almost daily clashes involving Berbers seeking social and political change.

Correspondents say the withdrawal was apparently aimed at easing political tension ahead of elections in two months' time.

However, rioting has continued in parts of Kabylie and a youth was reported killed.

Jubilation

Crowds cheered in the regional centre of Tizi Ouzou - 110 kilometres (70 miles) east of Algiers - as paramilitary police began withdrawing on Sunday, the French news agency AFP said.

Berbers were offered a concession on language by President Bouteflika

Hundreds of young Algerians gathered outside the paramilitary police headquarters chanting "We won!" and "Long live Kabylie!" as local forces arrived to replace the gendarmes.

However, Algerian newspapers reported that rioting continued unabated in the region.

A 15-year-old boy was said to have died in the town of Bejaia after being struck by a tear gas canister.

"Tactical move"

The Algerian news agency APS said the troop movement which started in Tizi Ouzou and Bejaia would continue in the coming days.

"The redeployment, which concerned seven brigades - including four in Tizi Ouzou - is part of a new security plan", it said.

The impoverished region has seen almost daily clashes since last April

According to local newspapers, the gendarmerie brigades, made up of between 12 and 30 men, would be replaced by police units.

There has been no official comment so far.

However, the withdrawal has been dismissed by some Berber protesters as a tactical move by the authorities in the run-up to parliamentary elections due in May.

The Kabylie protest movement has called for a boycott of elections and has threatened to disrupt them.

Like much of Algeria, the region suffers from high unemployment - particularly among the young - and a shortage of housing.

Apart from the withdrawal of the gendarmes, Berbers are seeking fundamental social and political change.

But they say recent promises by the government, including recognition of the Berber language Tamazight, are not enough.

The BBC North Africa correspondent Stephanie Irvine says that what the Berbers essentially want is an end to the dominance of the Algerian political system by the military and a return to genuine civilian rule.