ALGIERS - The Algerian government in Algeria has reached an agreement with tribal leaders from the restive Kabylie region, where hostility to Algiers authorities erupted into bloody unrest in 2001, Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia said.
Speaking late on Saturday, Ouyahia said agreement had been reached on the so-called El-Kseur platform, which includes economic demands and recognition of the language spoken by the ethnic Berbers who live mainly in the northeastern Kabylie region.
"We agreed to implement together the El-Kseur platform," said Ouyahia, after a deal whose content remains kept largely under wraps by officials but has been welcomed by a wide spectrum of the north African country's private press.
The Berbers are an indigenous people in the north of the continent who live in several countries and have protested particularly in Algeria about economic and cultural marginalisation by largely Arabic-speaking governments.
The sole detail released in Algiers was that the government and Berbers will "set up a joint commission to follow up and implement the El-Kseur platform by the state in accordance with the constitution and laws of the republic."
The demands were first put forward - as a "non-negotiable platform" - in June 2001 by Kabylie's tribal heads, known as aarchs, who met in the village of El-Kseur, after weeks of bloody riots and clashes between local youths and the security forces.
A latest round of talks began after Ouyahia on January 4 invited the aarchs, who represent tribal councils, to "resume the dialogue that has already begun in order to reach an overall accord on implementing the El-Kseur platform."
Difficult talks between Berber leaders and the mainly Arab government in Algiers began in January last year, but fell apart a month later because the Berbers did not obtain recognition of their language as an official one. More unrest broke out in the region last year.
The platform of economic demands - more finance from central government and help in job creation - and cultural ones, meaning the state's recognition of a language and of Berber traditions and music, arose after unrest over the death in April 2001 of a teenager who had been arrested by gendarmes near Tizi Ouzou, the main town in the region.
Parliament in 2002 passed a law making Tamazight a national language but the government has insisted that if it is to become an official one alongside Arabic, a referendum will be needed.
Newspapers welcomed news of an agreement. La Nouvelle Republique said "trust seems to be restored... after a period of lack of communication sustained by some hardliners. Now it's possible to see hope of a definitive solution to the dissidence created by the events of Spring 2001."
Security forces then violently put down the uprising, which claimed at least 100 lives and left dozens of people injured.
Berber people, turning to traditional leaders, found a idol especially among the young in aarch spokesman Belaid Abrika, whose reputation grew with his intransigence.
Liberte daily warned that the "worrying indifference" over Kabylie would be a problem "if political action isn't matched by steps in the public interest."
"It's certainly a good thing Abrika has learned to hold discussions, but why press home a radical stance for so long?"
Tizi Ouzou lies some 110 kilometers (65 miles) east of Algiers, in one of the two Kabylie provinces which are home to many Berbers. In Algeria, they make up about eight million out of a population of 32 million.
Other demands made at El-Kseur included an end to all legal action against the aarchs and protesters, and the revocation of the status of some of the people elected in local councils and parliamentary elections in 2002.
Berbers largely boycotted the polls, because many contended that they were rigged in advance and fraudulent. They argue that the marginalisation of their region is an insult to a history that long predates the dominant Arab culture that came to north Africa with Islam.
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