Angry Algerians blame government for quake response

BOUMERDES, Algeria -- Furious crowds hurled debris and insults at Algeria's president Saturday when he visited a town devastated by an earthquake, blaming the government for a death toll that rose to nearly 1,900 and shortages of food and water.

The anger came as Japanese rescue workers said they pulled a survivor from the rubble of a hotel on the Mediterranean coast at midnight Friday, more than two days after the quake hit.

The 6.8-magnitude earthquake flattened villages east of Algiers on Wednesday night. The government on Saturday said at least 1,875 people were killed and 7,691 people were injured.

President Abdelaziz Bouteflika tried to tour the quake-ravaged town of Boumerdes on Saturday, but angry crowds harangued him with shouts of "pouvoir assassin!" -- a common slogan roughly translated as "the authorities -- killers."

Police fought to hold back the crowd as Bouteflika drove away, with many people throwing chunks of rubble and other objects at his car and some kicking the cars in his motorcade. Bouteflika was not hurt.

The abuse directed at Bouteflika and other officials was a bold display of criticism against a military-backed government known to clamp down on dissent.

Amid the strife and destruction, Japanese aid workers on Saturday said they had some good news. After 3 1/2 hours of digging through the wrecked Adim Beach Resort at Zemmouri, they rescued a man who somehow had escaped injury.

"It was almost a miracle. He was unscathed," said Toshimitsu Ishigure, director of the Japanese Overseas Disaster Assistance. "He was able to breathe because he had a half-foot of space from a slab lying on top."

Hopes of finding further survivors, however, was evaporating. Ishigure said rescues became far less likely more than 72 hours after a quake, and British officials said Saturday they soon would withdraw rescue workers and replace them with relief and recovery experts.

The death toll was expected to rise as bodies are pulled from the rubble, and Hakim Mohand, of the Algerian civil protection unit, said it could reach 3,000.

The threat of disease was rising, they said, especially with temperatures rising to 104.

"Other risks such as infection must be tackled," Willie McMartin of Britain's International Rescue Corps told the Press Association news agency in Algeria. "There is an immediate need for disinfectant to be sprayed."

Townspeople across the quake zone accused the government of inadequately providing food, medicine and blankets. Some said government failure to rush mechanical diggers to affected areas delayed rescues and contributed to the death toll.

In Bordj Menaiel, a town of 20,000 people built largely by Algeria's former French colonial rulers, residents claimed the government had done nothing to help them.

Townspeople said the lack of necessities was exacerbating tensions between the ethnic Berbers who live here and Algeria's Arab-run government.

A 45-year-old entrepreneur who would only give his name as Rabah said he was among several hundred protesters when Interior Minister Nourredine Yazid Zerhouni toured the town Friday.

"He told us the damage could have been worse, that we should be patient. But how can we be patient when there are people, families under the rubble?" he said. "I am ready to go to prison, but I will not be ruled by this inhumane government."

Another man who would only identify himself as Rachid, a 39-year-old road building inspector, said the only heavy equipment they had was provided by private contractors.

"We are ready for war if need be," he said, almost shouting, throwing his fists into the air. Others shared his anger, denouncing the government in the harshest words.

"They can go to hell!" shouted one man.

But Bordj Menaiel's mayor, Abdallah Amara, insisted the crisis was nearly under control.

"The situation has almost been stabilized," he said from inside his office, where police kept people at a distance by erecting barriers.

He said authorities gave tents to the homeless, and other services were being restored.

Algerian civil protection units and volunteers, wearing white face masks, were still searching the rubble for survivors. Algeria's Le Matin newspaper said 200 of the town's residents were killed.

The situation was largely the same throughout the quake zone.

"This country was in crisis long before the earthquake ever hit," said one young surgeon who stood outside Ain Taya hospital with a group of doctors and nurses, and spoke on condition of anonymity.

"Now that I have time to think about it, it really seems like we were left alone to deal with this catastrophe."

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Associated Press writer Juliane von Reppert-Bismarck contributed to this report from Ain Taya, Algeria.