Algerian Civil War
Algerian Civil War الحرب الأهلية الجزائرية | ||||||||
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Military deployed in the streets of Algiers after the military coup against the Islamists, 12 January 1992 | ||||||||
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Belligerents | ||||||||
Government of Algeria Supported by: Egypt[1][2] Tunisia[1][2] France[2][3] European Union[3] South Africa[4] |
Armed Islamic Group (from 1993) Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (from 1998) Supported by: Al-Qaeda[6] | |||||||
Commanders and leaders | ||||||||
(Head of DRS) |
Abdelhak Layada (POW) Hassan Hattab | |||||||
Units involved | ||||||||
AIS (1994–99) MIA (until 1994) MEI (until 1994) FIDA (until 1996) MIPD (1996–97) LIDD (1997) |
Afghan Arabs Takfir wal-Hijra | |||||||
Strength | ||||||||
140,000 (1994)[13] 124,000 (in 2001) 100,000–300,000 local militia fighters[12] |
2,000 (1992) 40,000 (1994) 10,000 (1996)[14] | Unknown | ||||||
Casualties and losses | ||||||||
~150,000 total deaths[15] |
The Algerian Civil War (
The war has been referred to as 'the dirty war' (la sale guerre),[20] and saw extreme violence and brutality used against civilians.[21][22] Islamists targeted journalists, over 70 of whom were killed, and foreigners, over 100 of whom were killed,[23] although it is thought by many that security forces as well as Islamists were involved, as the government had infiltrated the insurgents.[24] Children were widely used, particularly by the rebel groups.[25] Total fatalities have been estimated at 44,000[26] to between 100,000 and 200,000.[27]
The conflict began in January 1992, when the new and enormously popular
They formed themselves into
After talks collapsed,
In 1999, following the election of Abdelaziz Bouteflika as president, violence declined as large numbers of insurgents "repented", taking advantage of a new amnesty law. The remnants of the GIA proper were hunted down over the next two years, and had practically disappeared by 2002, with the exception of a splinter group called the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC),[Note 1] which announced its support for Al-Qaeda in October 2003 and continued fighting an insurgency that would eventually spread to other countries in the region.[29][30]
History
Background
Social conditions that led to dissatisfaction with the FLN government, and interest in jihad against it include: a population explosion in the 1960s and 70s that outstripped the stagnant economy's ability to supply jobs, housing, food and urban infrastructure to massive numbers of young in the urban areas;
Another Islamist, Mustafa Bouyali, a "gifted inflammatory preacher" and veteran of the Algerian independence struggle, called for the application of the sharia and creating of an Islamic state by jihad. After persecution by the security services in 1982 he founded the underground Mouvement Islamique Armé (MIA), "a loose association of tiny groups", with himself as amir. His group carried out a series of "bold attacks" against the regime and was able to continue its fight for five years before Bouyali was killed in February 1987.[36]
Also in the 1980s, several hundred youth left Algeria for camps of Peshawar to fight jihad in Afghanistan. As Algeria was a close ally of the jihadists enemy the Soviet Union, these jihadists tended to consider the Afghan jihad a "prelude" to jihad against the Algerian FLN state.[37] After the Marxist government in Afghanistan fell, many of the Salafist-Jihadis returned to Algeria and supported the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) and later the GIA insurgents.[37]
During and after the 1988 October Riots Islamists "set about building bridges to the young urban poor". Evidence of their effectiveness was that the riots "petered out" after meetings between the President Chadli Bendjedid and Islamists Ali Benhadj and members of the Muslim Brotherhood.[38]
The
In December 1989 Madani was quoted as saying:
We do not accept this democracy which permits an elected official to be in contradiction with Islam, the
and in February 1989, Benhadj stated:
There is no democracy because the only source of power is Allah through the
The FIS made "spectacular" progress in the first year of its existence,[38] with an enormous following in the urban areas. Its doctors, nurses and rescue teams showed "devotion and effectiveness" helping victims of an earthquake in Tipaza Province;[39] its organized marches and rallies "applied steady pressure on the state" to force a promise of early elections.[39]
FIS electoral victory, 1990
Despite President Bendjedid and his party, the FLN's new liberal reforms, in the 12 June 1990
Once in power in local governments, its administration and its Islamic charity were praised by many as just, equitable, orderly and virtuous, in contrast to its corrupt, wasteful, arbitrary and inefficient FLN predecessors.[46][47] But it also alarmed the less-traditional educated French-speaking class. It imposed the veil on female municipal employees; pressured liquor stores, video shops and other un-Islamic establishments to close; and segregated bathing areas by gender.[48]
Co-leader of the FIS Ali Benhadj declared his intention in 1990, "to ban France from Algeria intellectually and ideologically, and be done, once and for all, with those whom France has nursed with her poisoned milk."[48][49]
Devout activists removed the satellite dishes of households receiving European satellite broadcast in favor of Arab satellite dishes receiving Saudi broadcasts.[50] Educationally, the party was committed to continue the Arabization of the educational system by shifting the language of instruction in more institutions, such as medical and technological schools, from French to Arabic. Large numbers of recent graduates, the first post-independence generation educated mainly in Arabic, liked this measure, as they had found the continued use of French in higher education and public life jarring and disadvantageous.[51]
In January 1991 following the start of the
Military coup and cancellation of elections, 1992
The FIS had made open threats against the ruling power, condemning them as unpatriotic and pro-French, as well as financially corrupt. Additionally, FIS leadership was at best divided on the desirability of democracy, and some expressed fears that a FIS government would be, as U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Edward Djerejian put it, "one person, one vote, one time."[53]
On 11 January 1992 the army cancelled the electoral process, forcing President Bendjedid to resign and bringing in the exiled independence fighter Mohamed Boudiaf to serve as a new president. However, on 29 June 1992 he was assassinated by one of his bodyguards, Lieutenant Lambarek Boumaarafi. The assassin was sentenced to death in a closed trial in 1995. The sentence was not carried out. Many FIS members were arrested—5,000 by the army's account, 40,000 according to Gilles Kepel[54] and including its leader Abdelkader Hachani—that the jails had insufficient space to hold them in; camps were set up for them in the Sahara desert, and bearded men feared to leave their houses lest they be arrested as FIS sympathizers. The government officially dissolved the FIS on 4 March and its apparatus was dismantled.[52]
Beginning of war, 1992–93
Of the few FIS activists that remained free, many took this as a declaration of war. Throughout much of the country, remaining FIS activists, along with some Islamists too radical for FIS, took to the hills (the mountains of northern Algeria, where the forest and scrub cover were well-suited to guerrilla warfare) with whatever weapons were available and became guerrilla fighters. The very sparsely populated but oil-rich Sahara would remain mostly peaceful for almost the entire duration of the conflict. This meant that the government's principal source of foreign exchange—oil exports—was largely unaffected.[citation needed] The tense situation was compounded by the economy, which collapsed even further that year, as almost all of the longstanding subsidies on food were eliminated.
At first Algeria remained relatively calm. But in March 1993 "a steady succession of university academics, intellectuals, writer, journalist, and medical doctors were assassinated."[55] While not all were connected with the regime, they were French-speaking and so "in the eyes of the young urban poor who had joined the jihad ... associated with the hated image of French-speaking intellectuals".[55] It also "exploded" the idea of the government's triumph over the Islamists. Other attacks showed a willingness to target civilians. The bombing of the Algiers airport claimed 9 lives and injured 128 people. The FIS condemned the bombing along with the other major parties, but the FIS's influence over the guerrillas turned out to be limited.[55]
The regime began to lose control of mountain and rural districts. In working class areas of the cities insurgents expelled the police and declared "liberated Islamic zones".[55] Even the main roads of the cities passed into the hands of the insurgents.[55]
Founding of the insurgent groups
The first major armed movement to emerge, starting almost immediately after the coup, was the Islamic Armed Movement (MIA). The group was founded by former militants of Mustafa Bouyali "group" such as Abdelkader Chebouti, Mansouri Meliani, and Ezzedine Baa and they named themselves after his group active in the 80's. It was led by the ex-soldier "General" Abdelkader Chebouti, a longstanding Islamist. The MIA was "well-organized and structured and favored a long-term jihad" targeting the state and its representatives and based on a guerrilla campaign like that of the War of Independence.[56] From prison, Ali Benhadj issued a fatwa giving the MIA his blessing.[56] In February 1992, ex-Algerian officer, ex-Afghan fighter, former FIS head of security and editor of the FIS official newspaper El Mounqid, Said Mekhloufi founded the Movement for an Islamic State (MEI).
The other main jihad group was called the
The various groups arranged several meetings to attempt to unite their forces, accepting the overall leadership of Chebouti in theory. At the last of these, at Tamesguida on 1 September, Chebouti expressed his concern about the movement's lack of discipline, in particular worrying that the Algiers airport attack, which he had not approved, could alienate supporters. The meeting was broken up by an assault from the security forces, provoking suspicions which prevented any further meetings. However the MEI merged with the GIA in May 1994.
The FIS itself established an underground network, with clandestine newspapers and even an MIA-linked radio station, and began issuing official statements from abroad starting in late 1992. However, at this stage the opinions of the guerrilla movements on the FIS were mixed; while many supported FIS, a significant faction, led by the "Afghans", regarded party political activity as inherently un-Islamic, and therefore rejected FIS statements.[citation needed]
In 1993, the divisions within the guerrilla movement became more distinct. The MIA and MEI, concentrated in the maquis, attempted to develop a military strategy against the state, typically targeting the security services and sabotaging or bombing state institutions. From its inception on, however, the GIA, concentrated in urban areas, called for and implemented the killing of anyone supporting the authorities, including government employees such as teachers and civil servants. It assassinated journalists and intellectuals (such as Tahar Djaout), saying that "The journalists who fight against Islamism through the pen will perish by the sword."[59]
It soon stepped up its attacks by targeting civilians who refused to live by their prohibitions, and in September 1993 began killing foreigners,
Failed negotiations and guerrilla infighting, 1994
The violence continued throughout 1994, although the economy began to improve during this time; following negotiations with the IMF, the government succeeded in rescheduling debt repayments, providing it with a substantial financial windfall,
Soon after taking office, he began negotiations with the imprisoned FIS leadership, releasing some prisoners by way of encouragement. The talks split the pro-government political spectrum. The largest political parties, especially the
Meanwhile, under Cherif Gousmi (its leader since March), the GIA became the most high-profile guerrilla army in 1994, and achieved supremacy over the FIS.[60] In May, several Islamist leaders that were not jailed (Mohammed Said, Abderraraq Redjem), including the MEI's Said Makhloufi, joined the GIA. This was a surprise to many observers, and a blow to the FIS since the GIA had been issuing death threats against the leaders since November 1993. The move was interpreted either as the result of intra-FIS competition or as an attempt to change the GIA's course from within.[60]
FIS-loyal guerrillas, threatened with marginalization, attempted to unite their forces.[65] In July 1994,[65] the MIA, together with the remainder of the MEI and a variety of smaller groups,[citation needed] united as the Islamic Salvation Army (a term that had previously sometimes been used as a general label for pro-FIS guerrillas), declaring their allegiance to FIS. It national amir was Madani Merzag.[65] By the end of 1994, they controlled over half the guerrillas of the east and west, but barely 20% in the center, near the capital, which was where the GIA were mainly based. They issued communiqués condemning the GIA's indiscriminate targeting of women, journalists and other civilians "not involved in the repression", and attacked the GIA's school arson campaign. The AIS and FIS supported a negotiated settlement with the government/military, and the AIS's role was to strengthening FIS's hand in the negotiations.[65] The GIA was absolutely opposed to negotiations and sought instead "to purge the land of the ungodly", including the Algerian government. The two insurgent groups would soon be "locked in bloody combat."[65]
Despite the growing power of the GIA, inside the "liberated Islamic zones" of the insurgency, conditions were beginning to deteriorate. The Islamist notables, entrepreneurs, and shopkeepers had at first funded the insurgent amirs and fighters, hoping for revenge against the government that had seized power from the FIS movement they supported. But over the months the voluntary "Islamic tax" became a "full-scale extortionist racket, operated by band of armed men claiming to represent an ever more shadowy cause," who also fought each other over turf. The extortion and the fact that the zones were surrounded by the army, impoverished and victimized the pious business class which eventually fled the zones, severely weakening the Islamist cause.[60]
On 26 August, the GIA even declared a
At the end of October, the government announced the failure of its negotiations with the FIS. Instead, Zéroual embarked on a new plan: he scheduled presidential elections for 1995, while promoting "eradicationists" such as Lamari within the army and organizing "self-defense militias" in villages to fight the guerrillas. The end of 1994 saw a noticeable upsurge in violence. Over 1994, Algeria's isolation deepened; most foreign press agencies, such as Reuters, left the country this year, while the Moroccan border closed and the main foreign airlines cancelled all routes. The resulting gap in news coverage was further worsened by a government order in June banning Algerian media from reporting any terrorism-related news not covered in official press releases.[67]
A few FIS leaders, notably
To the surprise of many, even Ali Belhadj endorsed the agreement, which meant that the FIS had returned into the legal framework, along with the other opposition parties. The initiative was also received favorably by "influential circles" in the United States. However, for the agreement to work, the FIS still had to have the support of its original power base, when in fact the pious bourgeous had abandon it for the collaborationist Hamas party and the urban poor for jihad;
Cherif Gousmi was eventually succeeded by
In Algeria itself, attacks continued, with car bombs and assassinations of musicians, sportsmen, and unveiled women, as well as police and soldiers. Even at this stage, the seemingly counterproductive nature of many of its attacks led to speculation (encouraged by FIS members abroad whose importance was undermined by GIA hostility to negotiation) that the group had been infiltrated by Algerian secret services. The region south of Algiers, in particular, came to be dominated by the GIA, who called it the "liberated zone". Later, it would come to be known as the "Triangle of Death".
Reports of battles between the AIS and GIA increased, and the GIA reiterated its death threats against FIS and AIS leaders, assassinating a co-founder of the FIS, Abdelbaki Sahraoui, in Paris. At this point, foreign sources estimated the total number of guerrillas to be about 27,000.
Politics resume, militias emerge, 1995–96
Following the breakdown of negotiations with the FIS, the government decided to hold presidential elections. On 16 November 1995, former head of ground forces of the Algerian military Liamine Zéroual was elected president with 60% of votes cast in an
The election results were a setback for the armed groups, who saw a significant increase in desertions immediately following the elections. The FIS' Rabah Kebir responded to the apparent shift in popular mood by adopting a more conciliatory tone towards the government, but was condemned by some parts of the party and of the AIS. The GIA was shaken by internal dissension; shortly after the election, its leadership killed the FIS leaders who had joined the GIA, accusing them of attempting a takeover. This purge accelerated the disintegration of the GIA: Mustapha Kartali, Ali Benhadjar and Hassan Hattab's factions all refused to recognize Zitouni's leadership starting around late 1995, although they would not formally break away until later. In December, the GIA killed the AIS leader for central Algeria, Azzedine Baa, and in January pledged to fight the AIS as an enemy; particularly in the west, full-scale battles between them became common.
The Government's political moves were combined with a substantial increase in the pro-Government militias' profile. "Self-defense militias", often called "Patriots" for short, consisting of trusted local citizens trained and armed by the army, were founded in towns near areas where guerrillas were active, and were promoted on national TV. The program was received well in some parts of the country, but was less popular in others; it would be substantially increased over the next few years, particularly after the massacres of 1997.
Massacres and reconciliation, 1996–97
On March 27, the Armed Islamic Group abducted seven
1997 elections
Village massacres
At this point, however, a new and vital problem emerged. Starting around April (the Thalit massacre), Algeria was wracked by massacres of intense brutality and unprecedented size; previous massacres had occurred in the conflict, but always on a substantially smaller scale. Typically targeting entire villages or neighborhoods and disregarding the age and sex of victims, killing tens, and sometimes hundreds, of civilians at a time.
Algerian massacres in 1997 | ||||||||||
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Massacres in which over 50 people were killed: | ||||||||||
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1998 → | ||||||||||
Algerian massacres in 1998 | ||||
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Massacres in which over 50 people were killed: | ||||
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← 1997 1999 → | ||||
These massacres continued through the end of 1998, changing the nature of the political situation considerably. The areas south and east of Algiers, which had voted strongly for FIS in 1991, were hit particularly hard; the Rais and Bentalha massacres in particular shocked worldwide observers. Pregnant women were sliced open, children were hacked to pieces or dashed against walls, men's limbs were hacked off one by one, and, as the attackers retreated, they would kidnap young women to keep as sex slaves. Although this quotation by Nesroullah Yous, a survivor of Bentalha, may be an exaggeration, it expresses the apparent mood of the attackers:
We have the whole night to rape your women and children, drink your blood. Even if you escape today, we'll come back tomorrow to finish you off! We're here to send you to your God![75]
Dispute over responsibility
The GIA's responsibility for these massacres remains disputed. In a communique its amir Antar Zouabri claimed credit for both Rais and Bentalha, calling the killings an "offering to God" and declaring impious the victims and all Algerians who had not joined its ranks.[76] By declaring that "except for those who are with us, all others are apostates and deserving of death,"[77] it had adopted a takfirist ideology. In some cases, it has been suggested that the GIA were motivated to commit a massacre by a village's joining the Patriot program, which they saw as evidence of disloyalty; in others, that rivalry with other groups (e.g., Mustapha Kartali's breakaway faction) played a part. Its policy of massacring civilians was cited by the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat as one of the main reasons it split off from the GIA.
However, according to reports by Amnesty International[78] and Human Rights Watch[79] army barracks were stationed within a few hundred meters of the villages, yet did nothing to stop the killings. At about the same time, a number of people claiming to be defectors from the Algerian security services (such as Habib Souaidia), having fled to Western countries, alleged that the security services had themselves committed some of the massacres.[80][81][82] [83][page needed][Note 4] These and other details raised suspicions that the state was in some way collaborating with, or even controlling parts of, the GIA (particularly through infiltration by the secret services) – a theory popularised by Nesroullah Yous, and FIS itself.[85] This suggestion provoked furious reactions from some quarters in Algeria, and has been rejected by many researchers,[Note 5] though others regard it as plausible. [Note 6]
In contrast, Algerians such as Zazi Sadou, have collected testimonies by survivors that their attackers were unmasked and were recognised as local radicals – in one case even an elected member of the FIS.
AIS unilateral truce
The AIS, which at this point was engaged in an all-out war with the GIA as well as the Government, found itself in an untenable position. The GIA seemed a more immediately pressing enemy, and AIS members expressed fears that the massacres—which it had condemned more than once—would be blamed on them. On 21 September 1997, the AIS' head, Madani Mezrag, ordered a unilateral and unconditional ceasefire starting 1 October, in order to "unveil the enemy that hides behind these abominable massacres." The AIS thus largely took itself out of the political equation, reducing the fighting to a struggle between the Government, the GIA, and the various splinter groups that were increasingly breaking away from the GIA. Ali Benhadjar's FIS-loyalist Islamic League for Da'wa and Jihad (LIDD), formed in February 1997, allied itself with the AIS and observed the same ceasefire. Over the next three years, the AIS would gradually negotiate an amnesty for its members.
GIA destroyed, 1998–2000
History of Algeria |
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After receiving much international pressure to act, the EU sent two delegations, one of them led by Mário Soares, to visit Algeria and investigate the massacres in the first half of 1998; their reports condemned the Islamist armed groups.
The GIA's policy of massacring civilians had already caused a split among its commanders, with some rejecting the policy; on 14 September 1998, this disagreement was formalized with the formation of the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), based in the mountains west of Kabylie and led by Hassan Hattab. Massacres continued throughout 1998 attributed to "armed groups that had formerly belonged to the GIA", some engaged in banditry, other settling scores with the patriots or others, some enlisting in the services of landowners to frighten illegal occupants away.[92] Eventually towns soon became safer, although massacres continued in rural areas.[citation needed]
On 11 September, President Zéroual surprised observers by announcing his resignation. New elections were arranged, and on 15 April 1999, the army-backed ex-independence-fighter
This law was finally approved by
The AIS fully disbanded after 11 January 2000, having negotiated a special amnesty with the Government. The GIA, torn by splits and desertions and denounced by all sides even in the Islamist movement, was slowly destroyed by army operations over the next few years; by the time Algerian security forces killed Antar Zouabri in Boufarik on 8 February 2002, it was effectively incapacitated. The Government's efforts were given a boost in the aftermath of 11 September 2001 attacks; United States sympathy for Algeria's government increased, and was expressed concretely through such actions as the freezing of GIA and GSPC assets and the supply of infrared goggles to the army.[citation needed]
GSPC continues
With the GIA's decline, the GSPC was left as the most active rebel group, with about 300 fighters in 2003.
2004 presidential election and amnesty
The release of FIS leaders Madani and Belhadj in 2003 had no observable effect on the situation, illustrating a newfound governmental confidence which would be deepened by the
In September 2005
Lawyer Ali Merabet, for example, founder of Somoud, an NGO which represents the families of the disappeared, was opposed to the Charter which would "force the victims to grant forgiveness". He remains doubtful that the time of the FIS has truly ended and notes that while people no longer support them, the project of the FIS – which he denies is Islamic – still exists and remains a threat.[96]
The proposal was implemented by Presidential decree in February 2006, and adopted on 29 September 2006. Particularly controversial was its provision of immunity against prosecution to surrendered ex-guerrillas (for all but the worst crimes) and Army personnel (for any action "safeguarding the nation".)
While the fighting died down a state of emergency remained in place,
Death toll
Bouteflika said in 1999 that 100,000 people had died by that time and in a speech on 25 February 2005, spoke of a round figure of 150,000 people killed in the war.[99] Fouad Ajami argues the toll could be as high as 200,000, and that it is in the government's interest to minimize casualties.[27] These figures, not broken down into government forces, insurgents and civilians, are commonly cited as the war's death toll. However this estimate may be too high. A 2008 study found about 26,000 people killed, through combat operations, massacres, bombings and assassinations, alongside 18,000 people 'disappeared' and presumed killed in secret. This would give a death toll of roughly 44,000 people[26] out of a population of about 25,010,000 in 1990 and 31,193,917 in 2000.[26][102]
Use of child soldiers
Throughout the war children were recruited frequently by the armed groups fighting the government.[25] A government-allied militia—the Legitimate Defence Groups (LDG)—also used children, according to some reports.[25][103] Although the rules for joining the LDG were the same as the army, in which only adults were recruited (by conscription) the LDG applied no safeguards to ensure that children could not join up.[103] The extent of child recruitment during the war remains unknown.[103]
Analysis and impact
Factors that prevented Algeria from following in the path of Saudi Arabia and Iran into an Islamic state include minority groups (army rank and file, veterans of the War of Independence, the secular middle class) that threw their support with the government, and Islamist supporters that lost faith with the Salafi Jihadis. Unlike in Iran, the army rank and file stayed on the side of the government. Veterans of the War of Independence known as the "revolutionary family" felt its privileges directly tied to the government and supported the regime. Also unlike in Iran, the secular middle class remained firmly in support of the government. Branded as "sons of France" by the jihadis, they feared an Islamist takeover far more than they hated the corruption and ineptitude of the FLN government.[104] The part of the middle class who supported the FIS supported the jihad against the government at first. However, living in GIA-controlled areas, cut off by the security forces, they suffered from extortion from less-than-disciplined young jihadis demanding "Zakat". Business owners abandoned the GIA to support first the AIS and eventually the government-approved Islamist Hamas or Movement of Society for Peace party.[60] The young urban poor themselves whose 1988 October Riots had initiated reforms and put an end to one-party rule, was "crushed as a political factor".[105]
At least at first, the "unspeakable atrocities" and enormous loss of life on behalf of a military defeat "drastically weakened Islamism as a whole" throughout the Muslim world, and led to much time and energy being spent by Islamists distancing themselves from extremism.[106] In Algeria the war left the public "with a deep fear of instability" according to Algerian journalist Kamel Daoud. The country was one of the few in the Arab world not to participate in the Arab Spring.[107]
See also
- List of Algerian assassinated journalists
- Terrorist bombings in Algeria
- Garde communale
- Algerian War
- Censorship in Algeria
- Human rights in Algeria
- Les éradicateurs – Les dialoguistes
- Sant'Egidio platform
- Timeline of the Algerian Civil War
Notes
- ^ "Hassan Hattab's GSPC which has condemned the GIA's indiscriminate attacks on civilians and, since going it alone, has tended to revert to the classic MIA-AIS strategy of confining its attacks to guerrilla forces."[28]
- ^ In 1989, 40 percent of Algeria's population of 24 million were under 15 years of age; the urban population was in excess of 50 percent of the total population; the birthrate was 3.1% per year[31]
- ^ price fell from over US$35 per barrel in 1980 to below $10 in 1986 (prices not adjusted for inflation)[32]
- ^ "'When I enlisted into the Algerian army in 1989, I was miles away from thinking that I would be a witness to the tragedy that has struck my country. I have seen colleagues burn alive a 15-year-old child. I have seen soldiers disguising themselves as terrorists and massacring civilians."[84]
- ^ "Still, there is substantial evidence that many among the deadliest massacres have been perpetrated by Islamist guerrillas. The most important evidence comes from testimonies of survivors who were able to identify local Islamists among the attackers (see below). In fact, survivors who openly accuse the army for its failure to intervene also expressed no doubt about the identity of the killers, pointing to the Islamist guerrillas (e.g. Tuquoi, J.-P. 1997. 'Algérie, Autopsie d'un Massacre.' Le Monde 11 November). Moreover, some of the troubling aspects of this story can be explained without reference to an army conspiracy. For example, in civil wars prisoners tend to be killed on the spot rather than taken prisoner (Laqueur, W. 1998. Guerrilla Warfare: A Historical and Critical Study. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction). Militiamen, the most likely to capture guerrillas, have openly stated that they took no prisoners (Amnesty International. 1997b. Algeria: Civilian Population Caught in a Spiral of Violence. Report MDE 28/23/97. p.17). Journalists working in the field have found credible testimonies in support of the thesis that most massacres are organized by the rebels (Leclère, T. 1997. 'Raïs, Retour sur un Massacre.' Télérama 22 October; Tuquoi 1997 among others). European foreign ministries believe that it is Islamist guerrillas who are responsible for the massacres (Observer 9 February 1998). Although, it is impossible to know the full truth at this point (see Charef, A. 1998. Algérie: Autopsie d'un massacre. Paris: L'Aube.), the assumption that many massacres were committed by the Islamist guerrillas seems plausible and is widely adopted by area experts (Addi, L. 1998. 'Algeria's Army, Algeria's Agony.' Foreign Affairs (July–August), p.44) and other authors (Smith, B. 1998. 'Algeria: The Horror.' The New York Review of Books XLV 7: p.27). Likewise, the reluctance of the army to intervene and stop some of these massacres is also beyond doubt."[86]
- ^ "Under Zouabri, the extremism and violence of the GIA became completely indiscriminate, leading to the horrific massacres of 1997 and 1998 – although, once again, great care must be exercised over these incidents as it is quite clear that the greatest beneficiary from them was the Algerian state. There is considerable indirect evidence of state involvement and some direct evidence as well, which is discussed below."[87]
- ^ "Some fundamentalist leaders have attempted to distance themselves from these massacres and claimed that the State was behind them or that they were the work of the State-armed self-defense groups. Some human rights groups have echoed this claim to some extent. Inside Algeria, and particularly among survivors of the communities attacked, the view is sharply different. In many cases, survivors have identified their attackers as the assailants enter the villages unmasked and are often from the locality. In one case, a survivor identified a former elected FIS officials as one of the perpetrators of a massacre. Testimonies Collected by Zazi Sadou."[88]
- ^ "To people who had been watching Algeria's evolution, the assumption that sinister complicities within the Algerian state were involved in the assassinations and massacres was libelous. I thought of Khalida Messaoudi, a forty-year-old former teacher and political activist who went into hiding after being sentenced to die by those who shared the ideology of the killers who descended on Had T'Chekala. Among democratic, human rights, and feminist organizations very few have expressed support for Messaoudi. In the United States only the American Federation of Teachers has recognized her struggle for human rights. She was condemned for being an impious, Zionist (she is a nonpracticing Muslim), loose, radical woman, and thousands of women in Algeria have been killed for much less. Sixteen-year-old girls, for instance, have been dragged out of classrooms and slaughtered in school yards like sheep because the killers decreed that nubile girls should not be in school. This was the context and the background and the reality. And now, when the world paid attention, it was to suggest the involvement of Government death squads."[89]
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Bibliography
- Kaplan, Roger (August 1998). ""The Libel of Moral Equivalence"". The Atlantic Monthly. Vol. 282, no. 2.
- Kepel, Gilles (2002). Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-01090-1.
- Luis Martinez (translated by Jonathan Derrick) (1998). The Algerian Civil War 1990–1998. London: Hurst & Co. ISBN 978-1-85065-517-6.
- ISBN 978-0-8157-7301-6. Retrieved 23 February 2005.
- Souaidia, Habib (2001). La sale guerre [The dirty war] (in French). Paris: folio actuel. ISBN 978-2-07-041988-3.
- Michael Willis (1996). The Islamist Challenge in Algeria: A Political History. New York: NYU Press. ISBN 978-0-8147-9328-2.
Further reading
- M. Al-Ahnaf; B. Botiveau; F. Fregosi (1991). L'Algerie par ses islamistes. Paris: Karthala. ISBN 978-2-86537-318-5.
- Marco Impagliazzo; Mario Giro (1997). Algeria in ostaggio. Milano: Guerini e Associati.
- Horne, Alistair. (1977). A Savage War of Peace: Algeria, 1954-1962. Viking Press.
- McDougall, James. (2017). A History of Algeria. Cambridge University Press.
- McDougall, James. (2006). History and the culture of nationalism in Algeria. Cambridge University Press.
External links
- On the secret war in Algeria and French machinations
- Shadow Report on Algeria presented by the International Women's Human Rights Law Clinic & Women Living Under Muslim Laws
- Islamism, Violence and Reform in Algeria: Turning the Page, ICG Middle East Report No. 29 (registration required)
- Chronologie d'une tragédie cachée, a timeline
- Le mouvement islamiste algerien, Salima Mellah