Striking Algerian doctors vow to escalate protests

By Abdel Razek Abdallah

ALGIERS (AA) - Algerian doctors at government hospitals have vowed to escalate their protest activity after police forcibly dispersed a demonstration this week in capital Algiers.

In a Thursday statement, Algeria’s Resident Doctors Association said many of its members had stopped working as part of an ongoing strike to demand better work conditions.

On Wednesday, hundreds of doctors staged a protest in Algiers that was eventually broken up by police. Several demonstrators were hurt in the melee and a number of doctors detained.

The Movement of Society for Peace, Algeria’s largest Islamic party, for its part, blasted the “unjustified” police response to the doctors’ demonstration.

“The use of force constitutes proof of the government's inability to rectify the economic and social problems caused by its misguided policies,” the party declared in a Thursday statement.