THE GUARDIAN: • 400 arrested as officers enforce no-protest ban in Algiers
• Up to 5,000 protesters rally in Yemeni capital of Sana'a
• Arab leaders make concessions to avoid repeat of EgyptAlgerian police have beaten back up to 2,000 demonstrators who tried to rally in central Algiers as aftershocks from the Egyptian revolution rumbled throughout the Middle East.
Demonstrations in Algiers quickly turned to running clashes with police who had been ordered by the government of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika to enforce a no-protest ban. Police took up positions throughout the central city hours after the tumultuous scenes in Cairo, which are likely to have significant ramifications across the region.
Even before President Hosni Mubarak left the Egyptian capital, the 12-year regime of Bouteflika had been considered to be under most threat from the popular uprisings now galvanising the Arab states. Wedged alongside Tunisia, where President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali was rolled 30 days ago and near Egypt, which fell on Friday, the unstable nation has many of the characteristics of both – a disenfranchised youth and rising prices of basic goods, such as sugar and cooking oil.
It also shares a large, pervasive security presence, authoritarian rule and a general sense that citizens are not benefiting from its wealth and resources.
Late in the afternoon, protesters briefly broke a cordon and officials say 400 were arrested by police – who vastly outnumbered them. Most were then released.
The demonstrations were organised, as they were in Yemen, nearly 4,000 miles away, where at least 5,000 people, mainly youths, rallied in the capital of Sana'a to call for Egypt-style reform. However they were swelled by spontaneous gatherings, which gave impetus to claims that other regimes may be nearing a tipping point.
In Sana'a, President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who took office around the same time as Mubarak and has enjoyed largely unchecked power ever since, called an emergency meeting of his security chiefs and senior ministers hours after the 82-year-old Egyptian leader left Cairo. >>> Martin Chulov in Beirut | Saturday, February 12, 2011
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