Berbers throughout the world will this weekend be remembering the crushing of the "Berber Spring” in Algeria in 1980 and the dead of the "Black Spring” of 2001. "The Berbers are still waiting for the recognition of their language and culture. But to the present day the governments of the Arab national states in north Africa are refusing this ethnic group the same rights as those of the Arabs”, criticised the Africa consultant of the Society for Threatened Peoples STP (Gesellschaft für bedrohte Völker GfbV), Ulrich Delius, on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the crushing of the peaceful protest demonstration of the indigenous people (20th April).

In the spring of 1980 Berbers following demonstrations against their suppression occupied the university, the hospital and some factories in Tizi-Ouzou, the capital of the chief settlement area of Kabylia in the north of Algeria. Police and soldiers stormed the building on 20th April. This was the beginning of a huge military operation and a wave of arrests of leading Berber representatives, the like of which had not been seen before.

On 18th April 2001 132 members of the ethnic minority were shot at peaceful Berber demonstrations in Kabylia. "Not a single policeman or soldier has to this day been brought to justice for these murders”, reported Delius. "Leading Algerian politicians who were responsible for the murders still enjoy the greatest recognition internationally in spite of the massacre. It is on account of the large deposits of oil and natural gas in the north-African country that the German government and the European Union ignore the continuing impunity in Algeria.”

The Algerian government did make some concessions as a result of the protests and in 1995 opened an office for the promotion of the Amazigh and in 2002 declared the Berber language Tamazigh a "national language” In addition radio and TV broadcasts in Tamazight were permitted in Algeria and Morocco. However the recognition of the Amazigh that their language be treated as an "official language” beside Arabic was still refused.

"Many reforms are just cosmetic surgery. In the background Algeria and Morocco are continuing a policy of Arabicisation”, said Delius. So Tamazight has little chance of being accepted at school and university. Many Berbers see their culture and identity to be in acute danger. The Berbers call themselves "Amazigh ” (free people). The Berber tribes settled in the region before the submission of north Africa to the Arabs in the 8th century. More than 30 million Masirs live today in the states of north Africa. In Morocco they make up half the population, in Algeria they number more than ten million and hundreds of thousands live as migrant workers in France.

Ulrich Delius will be glad to provide further information at asien@gfbv.de.