ALGIERS, 17 January 2005 — A leader of Algeria’s Berber minority said yesterday he believed a new peace plan would finally end years of unrest in the Kabylie region, but that details still needed to be ironed out. Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia brokered an accord with tribal leaders late on Saturday, which includes recognizing their language and investing in the long neglected northeastern region where most of them live.

“We’re optimistic. Today there is an agreement which is a base for both sides to work together,” said Berber negotiator Belaid Abrika. “This agreement allows us to move from a confrontation stage to a partnership one,” he told a news conference.

Abrika said the government and tribal leaders had agreed the El-Kseur platform, which sets out 15 conditions for peace and stability, but that a joint commission would now work out how to put it into practice. The government has already met several of the demands, including sacking officials elected in the Kabylie region in 2002 in polls Berbers largely boycotted. It has also freed Berber militants held in prisons.

Abrika said the details of how Tamazight would be made an official language alongside Arabic were not specifically addressed. “We didn’t raise this question. We discussed the platform as a whole,” he said. A year ago talks broke down when the government demanded the Tamazight question be put before a national referendum — a condition tribal leaders opposed. Another key part of the plan is to boost financial aid to Kabylie where years of economic neglect have led to high unemployment.

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 the original inhabitants of North Africa before the Arab invasion in the 7th century. Algeria’s Berbers, who make up a fifth of the country’s 32 million people, complain of discrimination by the Arab majority.

Unrest has been fanned by decades of mistrust between the ethnic minority and the government in the capital Algiers. Berbers have often protested through civil disturbances, including election boycotts, strikes and clashes with police.

President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, re-elected last year, has made the Berber question part of his “national reconciliation” drive to bring stability to the oil-rich country weakened by more than a decade of a separate Islamic militant uprising. The unrest in Kabylie has made it difficult for the authorities to clamp down on hundreds of Islamic rebels based there. Most belong to the Al-Qaeda-aligned Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) who stage frequent deadly attacks.

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 hard-liners. Now it’s possible to see hope of a definitive solution to the dissidence created by the events of Spring 2001.”

The Liberte daily newspaper 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 east of Algiers, in one of the two Kabylie provinces which are home to many Berbers.