[Bloody clashes betwee Berber protesters
and police continue in Algeria. Read
photo caption below.]

Four Killed in Algerian Protests

ALGIERS, Algeria (AP) - Authorities on Friday raised the death toll in a massive protest by demonstrators demanding greater democracy, saying four people were killed during the rioting a day earlier.

Journalists estimated that up to 1 million people took part in Thursday's ``march for democracy.''

The dead were all hit by a bus fleeing a depot that had been set on fire, said Col. Mohamed Boukhetouche, who is responsible for civil order. He said 365 people were injured in the unrest, including 36 police officers.

The dead included two journalists, whose deaths were reported Thursday by the Interior Ministry, and two others, who died from injuries sustained when they were hit by the bus. The colonel did not reveal their identities.

The march was to demand justice and more freedom from the military-backed government after weeks of riots in the Berber region of Kabyle that left at least 52 people dead.

The Berbers, who claim to be the original inhabitants of North Africa, have had tense relations with Algiers for decades as they press their demand for official recognition of their language, Tamazight.

On Friday, a Muslim holy day, calm returned to Algiers, with few signs of the rampages by youths that left main downtown arteries strewn with wreckage. Burned cars were removed overnight, street lamps replaced and signs put back in place.

Riot police fired tear gas and water cannon Thursday when protesters tried to break through a barricade to march to the presidential palace.

Interior Ministry official Mohamed Guendil denied reports that police fired live bullets at the protesters. In an unusual statement, the Algerian Embassy in Paris reiterated that no live bullets had been fired.

The statement, which underscored the volatile nature of the situation, called on French media to ensure ``the respect for truth and objectivity'' in their coverage. Some media implied that the victims had been shot to death.

The police shooting in April and May of dozens of protesters in the Kabyle region, 60 miles east of Algiers, spurred anger, transforming a regional issue into national discontent.

The Berber riots were triggered by the April 18 death of a teen-ager in a Kabyle police station. Since then, there have been numerous demonstrations in Kabyle and in Algiers, with at least 200,000 people marching through the capital on May 31.

This week, rioting spread to the Aures region further east. Newspapers said 24 people were injured Wednesday, some by police gunfire, in Ain Fekroun, 330 miles east of Algiers.

The violence was the latest outbreak in this North African nation, which has been battling an Islamic insurgency for nine years. More than 100,000 people have been killed since the start of the insurgency in 1992. The insurgency is not directly related to the recent riots.
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PHOTO CAPTION

Cars burn on the motorway after they were set alight by angry youths from Algeria's Berber-speaking Kabylie region, after clashes with riot police during a demonstration in Algiers, June 14, 2001. Two Algerian journalists were run over by a bus and killed in Algiers when an anti-government march by ethnic minority Berbers erupted into violence, injuring about 400 demonstrators. Hundreds of thousands of protesters gathered in Algiers for a "march for democracy" anti-government march against a bloody police crackdown of riots in the Berber region of Kabylie, east of Algiers, in the past two months. REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra
- Jun 14 3:21 PM ET
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