Lounes MatoubAlgeria 
Lounes Matoub was a Berber singer-songwriter who wrote lyrics mocking the Islamists in Algeria. It is widely thought that the Islamists - not the government - were behind his killing at a fake roadblock in 1998. His death came only a few days before a new law came into effect, making Arabic the only official language. Berber speakers like Matoub argued that this was a government attempt to appease fundamentalists and which Berbers should fight. In his music and his politics, Matoub was strongly anti-Arab and pro-Berber. Young Berbers now see him as a martyr and as a symbol of their continuing struggle for cultural rights Matoub was ambushed and shot several times by govenment gendarmes in October 1988. In September 1994, the GIA, an Islamist terrorist group in Algeria, kidnapped and held him for 15 days. Over quarter of a million people demonstrated, demanding his release. In June 1998, he returned home from France and two weeks later, he was ambushed.
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