Chadli Bendjedid

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Chadli Bendjedid
الشاذلي بن جديد
Official portrait, 1979
3rd President of Algeria
In office
9 February 1979 – 11 January 1992
Prime MinisterMohamed Ben Ahmed Abdelghani
Abdelhamid Brahimi
Kasdi Merbah
Mouloud Hamrouche
Sid Ahmed Ghozali
Preceded byRabah Bitat (Interim)
Succeeded byAbdelmalek Benhabyles (Acting)
Personal details
Born(1929-04-14)14 April 1929
PNP
Years of service1954–1962 (ALN)
1962–1979 (PNP)
RankColonel
Battles/warsAlgerian War

Chadli Bendjedid (

. His presidential term of office ran from 9 February 1979 to 11 January 1992.

A combatant during the Algerian War, he was a member of the Revolutionary Council from 1965 to 1976 and was appointed Colonel in 1969.

He was appointed Secretary General of the National Liberation Front (FLN) in January 1979 and was elected president the following month. Bendjedid would win re-elections without competition in 1984 and 1989. He resigned from the presidency in January 1992 following a disputed election and military coup, leading to the Algerian Civil War.

He remained under house arrest until 1999 and died of cancer at the age of 83.

Career

Early life and career

Bendjedid during the war of independence in 1961

Bendjedid was born in

Mers el-Kebir in conformity with the Évian Accords
, and the monitoring of the frontier between Algeria and Morocco which was the site of significant tension.

Ascent to presidency

Bendjedid with other heads of state at the Cancun Summit in 1981

Bendjedid was

Parti de l'Avant-Garde Socialiste (PAGS) to acquire jurisdiction over the mass trade union and youth organizations.[1]

In office, Bendjedid reduced the state's role in the

Front Islamique du Salut (FIS) to power, forcing Bendjedid out of office and sparking a long and bloody Algerian Civil War.[4]

Post-presidency life

Bendjedid was put under house arrest in Oran but freed in 1999 after the rise to the presidency of Abdelaziz Bouteflika. In a 2002 interview, he revealed his willingness to accept the results of the 1991 poll and work with the FIS while avoiding their takeover of all government institutions. He believed the constitution gave him the power to do so, but he failed to win over the support of the military establishment.[5]

He returned to the public eye in late 2008 when he gave a controversial speech at a conference in Al-Tarif, his hometown.[6] The publication of his memoirs was announced on 1 November 2012, coinciding with the 58th anniversary of the outbreak of the War of National Liberation.[7]

Illness and death

Bendjedid was hospitalized in Paris in January 2012 for cancer treatment and returned to hospital again in May and October 2012.[8] On 3 October 2012, Bendjedid was admitted to the intensive care unit of a military hospital in Ain-Naadja in Algiers. State-run media announced that he died of cancer on 6 October 2012.[9][10] He was buried at the El Alia Cemetery.

Honours

Chadli Bendjedid's portrait in the streets, 1984

National honour

References

  1. ^ a b c d Algeria:Anger of The Dispossessed, Martin Evans and John Phillips, Yale University Press, 2007, p. 114
  2. ^ "El Mouradia, Chadli Ben Djedid". El-mouradia.dz. Archived from the original on 9 November 2013. Retrieved 20 June 2014.
  3. ^ a b ""Black October" Riots in Algeria 1988". Onwar.com. Archived from the original on 24 March 2012. Retrieved 20 June 2014.
  4. ^ "Chadli Bendjedid". The Telegraph. 7 October 2012. Retrieved 20 October 2012.
  5. ^ Mohamed Ben-Madani (15 October 2012). "Chadli Bendjedid obituary". theguardian. Retrieved 20 June 2014.
  6. ^ Revolutionary ghosts Archived 9 August 2009 at the Wayback Machine Al-Ahram Weekly, Issue 927, 25–31 December 2008.
  7. ^ "Chadli Bendjedid raconte sa vie". Jeune Afrique. 28 September 2012. Retrieved 20 October 2012.
  8. ^ "Former Algerian President Chadli Bendjedid dies". Al Arabiya. Algiers. AFP. 6 October 2012. Retrieved 6 October 2012.
  9. ^ "Algeria ex-president Chadli Bendjedid dies". BBC. 6 October 2012. Retrieved 6 October 2012.
  10. ^ "Algerian president overthrown in '92 coup dies". The Huffington Post. 6 October 2012. Retrieved 6 October 2012.

External links

Political offices
Preceded by President of Algeria
1979–1992
Succeeded by