User:Sunny Times

Christian Berbers: increased persecution and repression in Kabylia (Algeria) The Kabylia (Algeria) Berber Christian minority has inaugurated the new year and decade by facing once again brutal repression and persecution. The Kabylian population was preparing the celebrations of the Amazigh (Berber) New Year on January 12, 2010 when officials prohibited Christian Kabylians to hold their religious event. Defying the interdiction, the Movement for the Autonomy of Kabylia (MAK) the leader of which is exiled in France called for a rally in Tizi Ouzou, Kabilia’s capital city, on January 12 to protest against the persecution they are the victims of. Dozens were arrested whose families are without any news since. Security forces fired rounds of rubber bullets and salvagely beat up participants. These events not only reflect the clear continuous rejection of the Berber identity (native population of the Maghreb North African region) but also the rising “Islamic fundamentalism” drift of the regime in place since the independence of the country in 1962. The vast country Sahara desert region has sheltered the Armed Islamic Group (GIA) now allied to Al-Qaida. Their most recent mischief was the hijacking of Air France flight 8969 on which the head of the MAK was travelling. Muzzled by the oil and natural gas riches of Algeria the international community and the media remain silent on a problem that is several decades old. January 13, 2010