Not in Algeria, apparenly

Adam Nossiter and Timothy Williams have an article in The New York Times about the end of the Algerian revolution (so far):

Riot police officers stifled a protest in Algeria’s capital on Saturday by hundreds of people voicing the same demands for change that have helped topple two of the region’s autocratic governments over the last month. Gathering in the central 1 May Square, demonstrators in Algiers chanted “Bouteflika out!”, referring to President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who has ruled Algeria with a tough hand since 1999, maintaining power through elections that opposition figures say were rigged. The rally’s organizers said thousands had taken part, but news agencies and the government here gave vastly differing figures, from a few dozen to thousands.
Witnesses said thousands of riot police officers with clubs had blocked the demonstrators from carrying out a planned march in the center of the whitewashed seaside capital, which was otherwise tense and deserted on Saturday. By late afternoon, with the last of the demonstrators gone, the square was still sealed off by police officers, and dozens of armored police vehicles remained in the neighborhood.
It was unclear on Saturday what, if any, long-term implications the protest would have for Mr. Bouteflika’s government; outbursts of civil unrest have been frequent here for decades. But the large-scale deployment of the police and recent concessions— Mr. Bouteflika has promised to lift a longstanding state of emergency here— show the government is wary of the contagion of unrest in neighboring countries.
Many demonstrators were arrested Saturday, although there were also conflicting numbers for those detained.
The government news agency minimized the “unauthorized” demonstration’s significance, quoting the police as saying that only 250 had taken part. But one of the organizers, Said Sadi of the opposition Rally for Culture and Democracy, said that Saturday’s event was a “great success” and that it would not be the last such demonstration. “When you mobilize 30,000 police in the capital, that’s a sign of weakness, not strength,” he said. The figure could not be independently verified. But witnesses suggested the police had far outnumbered the protesters.
“There was a march of police, not demonstrators,” said a civil servant, standing near the square late Saturday afternoon. He refused to give his name, citing security concerns. “The marchers had asked to conduct a peaceful march and it was refused. This is how power here acts.”
With the police still out in force, knots of men watched them silently from doorways in the chill dusk. Among them were suggestions that persistent grievances— large-scale unemployment, reports of government corruption, and heavy-handed police tactics— had not been mitigated by the demonstration’s suppression.
“They can’t kill us because we are already dead,” said Bilal Boudamous, 29, who said he was out of work. “At thirty we are unemployed, we live with our parents, and we have no future.” Glancing over at the helmeted police officers, he said: “They are there to stifle us, to prevent us from doing anything.” He had tried to take part in the march, he said, but had been beaten back by officers wielding truncheons.
Others said with resignation that harsh police interventions were nothing new, even though with all the regional ferment circumstances had changed. “It’s always been like this,” said another civil servant, who gave his name as Mourad. “We are used to this. It’s not easy to change a whole system. Algeria is not Egypt or Tunisia.”
On Friday, several people were wounded outside the office of the main opposition group by security forces as they were celebrating the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt after antigovernment protests there.
Three weeks earlier, demonstrations in neighboring Tunisia led to the ouster of that country’s autocratic ruler, Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, and set off a wave of antigovernment protests across the region.
In Algeria, several antigovernment protests broke out in early January, including some in which demonstrators clashed with members of the security forces. Those protests began after prices rose sharply for flour, sugar, and other food staples. In 2009, there were riots in Algiers over high unemployment and housing shortages.
Algeria’s government has operated under a state of emergency for nearly two decades. Its battle with Islamic militants reached a peak in a brutal civil war in the 1990s, in which as many as 200,000 people were killed. That conflict began after the military-backed government canceled elections that an Islamist party appeared poised to win.
In Yemen on Saturday, a small antigovernment protest in the capital, Sana, quickly drew several thousand supporters before they were attacked by pro-government forces, witnesses said. The protests began when a group of Sana'a University students gathered in front of the campus, writing banners in support of the Egyptian uprising, said Faysal al-Namsha, an opposition supporter who was there. When the crowd grew to 3,000 people, Mr. Namsha said, men in plain clothes believed to be security forces attacked the demonstrators with clubs and sabers. The students later marched toward Tahrir Square, where supporters of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, some carrying his picture, attacked them again.
At least two people were slightly injured and seventeen were detained by the police, human rights activists said. The opposition there, an eclectic group of parties dominated by Islamists, has been organizing street demonstrations every Thursday for at least four weeks. Opposition members vowed Saturday to continue the protests, which they are calling “the coffee revolution,” in honor of Yemen’s famous export.
Several Arab leaders also made their first public comments on the revolt in Egypt, a day after mass demonstrations forced Mr. Mubarak to resign.
Saudi Arabia, which has been outspoken in its defense of Mr. Mubarak, said it welcomed a “peaceful transition of power” in Egypt, and expressed “hope in the efforts of the Egyptian armed forces to restore peace, stability, and tranquillity,” the Saudi news agency reported. The Saudi monarchy had previously criticized the protesters, denouncing what it described as foreign meddling in Egypt’s affairs.
In Bahrain, the newspaper al-Watan quoted a government statement as saying that the kingdom was interested in developing its relationship with Egypt and was confident in the ability of the Egyptians to establish security and stability. King Hamad Bin Isa al-Khalifa of Bahrain, who is facing street protests planned for Monday, decided Friday to give the equivalent of $2,560 to each Bahraini family. He is expected to announce reforms soon.
In Tunis, the cradle of the revolution, hundreds turned out Friday and again on Saturday to celebrate Mr. Mubarak’s ouster. Many said they hoped Algeria would be the next to fall.
On Friday evening, young people in Tunis sang an Algerian soccer chant: “One-two-three, Algerie!”

Rico says any country where young men are "thirty, unemployed, living with their parents, and have no future” is ripe for an uprising...