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Al-Ahram Weekly 1 - 7 July 1999 Issue No. 436 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 1 - 7 July 1999 Issue No. 436
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Profile Features Special Interview Travel Living Sports Time Out Chronicles People Cartoons Letters Bouteflika bent on peace
Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika is seeking broad support for a peace accord with rebels to try to end seven years of violence. He will organise a referendum on the deal in July and has pledged to quit if the bill does not survive the plebiscite, well-placed sources told Algeria's daily La Tribune on Tuesday.
Bouteflika, who was elected in April, said in a speech on Saturday he will call for a vote on the peace move, but did not give a date. La Tribune's report has not been confirmed by the government.
A council of ministers, chaired by Bouteflika, is due to meet soon to adopt a draft law on the peace deal, officials said. The government will then submit the draft law to a parliamentary vote. The outcome is a foregone conclusion because pro-government parties hold a large majority in the 380-seat legislative body. However Bouteflika seems eager to win wide public support for his peace move. "Whatever the results of the parliamentary vote, a referendum will be held to give the people a chance to express their willingness," he said on Saturday. Analysts said if Bouteflika wins majority support in the referendum he will be able to marginalise possible opposition from hardliners in the military and in the anti-Islamic opposition camp. Bouteflika, striving to keep up the momentum of his peace deal with Islamist militants, plans to set free thousands of them on 5 July, the country's Independence Day.
The amnesty draft law, named "the National Harmony Law", and the planned release of detainees are Bouteflika's response to the Islamic Salvation Army (AIS)'s decision early in June to end its guerrilla war against the state. The AIS, the armed wing of the outlawed Islamic Salvation Front (FIS), has also pledged to fight alongside the government forces against radical rebels who rejected peace talks with the authorities and vowed to pursue violence.
Bouteflika, elected in a one-man race after his rivals pulled out complaining of vote-rigging, said his priority is to restore peace in Algeria. "I will make peace, I will make peace, I will make peace," he insisted in Saturday's speech. The proposed law stops short of a total amnesty. It is aimed at people who had provided shelter or funds to armed extremists, not at those guilty of "blood crimes or rape". The number of detained sympathisers is unknown, but estimates in the press put it at between 10,000 and 20,000.
The proposal is apparently part of a secret accord reached between the AIS and the military. It has been denounced by the Armed Islamic Group (GIA) and another hardline Islamist movement, the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC).
Both groups have been blamed for deadly attacks perpetrated in Algeria since the AIS announced that it was renouncing violence more than two years ago.
In his Saturday speech Bouteflika acknowledged for the first time the veracity of current estimates by Western observers of the victims of the bloody violence in Algeria since 1992 when the army intervened to cancel the results of the first round of parliament elections which FIS was poised to win. Bouteflika said more than 100,000 people had been killed. Authorities had previously put the death toll at around 30,000, mentioning only the losses among security forces and civilians.
The conflict, Bouteflika said, has also resulted in an additional one million victims, an apparent reference to the people who have been wounded or lost homes and relatives.
