Welcome for freed Algerian Berbers

Berbers have been protesting for a year

The Algerian Human Rights League has welcomed a presidential amnesty, pardoning ethnic-Berber demonstrators.

Dozens of ethnic Berber activists were released from prison in Algeria on Monday.

The BBC's Mohamed Arezki Himeur in Algiers says hundreds of people celebrated outside the courts and prisons in the main towns of the Berber-dominated region of Kabylie.

Berbers in Algeria

20% of the population

Demand recognition for Tamazight language

Feel economically marginalised

Dozens killed in a year of protests

Influential village head and young protesters were arrested during and after riots last year.

The league said the they should not have faced what it termed repressive measures because they were only expressing rightful grievances about unemployment, corruption and poor local management.

Berbers have long campaigned for their Tamazight language to be given official status and say they have been economically marginalised by the Arabic-speaking majority.

Protesters in the Kabylie capital, Tizi Ouzou, last week called for the release of those detained.

They were accused of inciting public unrest, arson and destroying public property.

A statement from the president's office said the amnesty was intended to restore "peace in hearts and minds".

Original inhabitants

The pardon covers both those convicted of crimes during the unrest and those still awaiting trial.

Last year's riots were sparked by the death in police custody of a young Berber activist.

This sparked months of riots and protests, in which local activists say that 117 people were killed by the security forces.

Parliamentary elections were boycotted in Kabylie

Berber leaders called for a boycott of parliamentary elections earlier this year and turnout was just 3% in Kabylie.

Our correspondent says the amnesty is an attempt to avoid another boycott of local elections, due on 10 October.

Berbers are the original inhabitants of north Africa but only around 20% of the population now speaks Tamazight.

This was recently raised to the status of a national language but Mohamed Arezki Himeur says the Berbers want it be given equal status to Arabic.

They also want the para-military gendarmes to be withdrawn from Kabylie and for those responsible for the suppression of the protests to be taken to court.