Algeria: March 16, 2002

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Unrest continues in Berber areas, but has been less violent. Demonstrations are less violent and the police go out of their way to avoid killing any demonstrators. The government is trying to talk their way past Berber complaints. For example, Berber is to become an official language, along with Arabic. But the basic problem is that the government is corrupt, inept and undemocratic. And those problems are not likely to be fixed any time soon. The current 1960s revolutionaries (and their families) that have run the nation for the last four decades don't want to give up power.