Forty Algerian workers have committed suicide after losing jobs

Spokeswoman for the Algerian Labor Party, Lweisa Hanoun, has asserted that some forty Algerian workers have committed suicide after they lost their jobs as a result of being fired or of the closure of factories.

In an interview published on Tuesday by the Algerian French daily Domain L' Algerie, said Hanoun the government is responsible for the suicides, describing the government's policy as "killing." She added that the government "socially kills men and youths who refused to end as beggars," noting that through pursuing such a policy the government intends to "liquidate part of the population."

Meanwhile, the Algerian press said on Tuesday that employees of two big hotels that are proceeding towards privatization had threatened during the two past days to set fire to the two hotels, whereas workers at the post offices who have been on strike for 10 days after thousands of them were fired, had also threatened collective suicide.

Since the beginning of the International Monetary Fund restructuring plan, approved by Algeria in 1994 to liberalize the Algerian economy, some 300,000 sacking cases were reported in more than 1,000 local companies and another 300 national companies, dependent on the state.