On March 13, one of the founding leaders of Algeria's militant Islamist groups was freed from prison as part of an amnesty backed by president Abdelaziz Bouteflika. Abdelhak Layada, also known as Abu Adlane, had been sentenced to death for his role in the country’s civil war, which has claimed about 150,000 lives.
The release of Layada sparked protests in the capital Algiers as relatives of victims of the civil war took to the streets to condemn the move. Layada set up the Armed Islamic Group (GIA) in 1992 after the army cancelled polls which Islamists were set to win.
Despite the protests, some 2,200 people who were accused of involvement in terrorist activities have been freed under the new amnesty law, which came into effect in February after being approved in a referendum last year. The amnesty offers a pardon to militants on the run who surrender by August, six months after it came into effect, as long as they are not responsible for massacres, rapes or bombings of public places. It however grants the military immunity from prosecution, which has fuelled the wave of criticism from those opposed to it.
Observers are optimist that the country is regaining its stability
The amnesty law is the boldest attempt yet by Bouteflika’s government to heal a country wracked by 14 years of civil strife and which Algerians hope will bring national reconciliation. At a more practical level though, the government hopes the controversial release of the militants will end attacks by armed groups that the state has declared to be terrorists.
Algeria has been haunted for years by the military’s decision to annul the 1992 polls out of fear of the rise of the Islamists, who would have formed the next government had the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) won the general election.
FIS and other similar groups have since been crippled as most of their leaders have been behind bars until now. Indeed, the deputy-chairman of the group, Ali Belhadj, was released less than a week before Layada. He was among Layada’s family members who received him from prison.
The only militant group which remains active is the Salafist Group for Fighting and Preaching which has been vocal in rejecting the terms of the amnesty, particularly the immunity it grants the military.
The big question now is whether Algeria has fully recovered after more than a decade of violence and political conflict to take its rightful place in the affairs of its North African region. Observers are optimist that the country is regaining its political stability and that with security restored, the economic prospects are bright. However, whether the stability is sustainable or not largely depends on the success or failure of the current amnesty and to what extent it pacifies the radical elements within the Islamist groups. The amnesty is the second since President Bouteflika took office seven years ago.
The verdict will be known on August 31, the deadline set for terrorists and armed groups to give up their weapons and surrender according to the terms of the amnesty agreed and approved by the September 29, 2005 referendum. Algeria’s Interior Minister, Nourredine Yazid Zerhouni, says so far about 100 armed militants have surrendered, “but a handful of terrorists are still at large and are considered active and eager to unleash more violence.”
Justice Minister Tayeb Laiez says 400 people still remain in detention. According to Mr Laiez, 17,000 terrorists were killed since the beginning of the civil war in 1992. But other sources put the death toll at between 150,000 and 200,000 — mainly civilians. Up to 7,500 people are believed to have disappeared and are still listed as missing.
The economic impact of the war is immense: it is estimated at about US$10 billion loss to the economy as hundreds of enterprises were destroyed and thousands lost their jobs. The physical and psychological scars are still vivid as the country goes through the motions of fostering national reconciliation in an atmosphere of extreme suspicion and resentment.
The need for national dialogue and restraint has never been greater in the Algerian political arena and the entire society in general. Since President Bouteflika proposed the charter for peace and national reconciliation, he has steered the country through a long and difficult process of political negotiations that sometimes ended in failure. However, his efforts culminated in Algerians approving the charter by a score of 74 per cent, a fitting reward for the president who had committed himself to ending the long years of violence that have caused anguish to many Algerians.
When Bouteflika was re-elected to a second term in a landslide victory in April 2004, he promised to devote himself to seeking "true national reconciliation," a pledge he had made when he first took power in 1999 on a popular platform of restoring national harmony and ending years of bloodshed. He released thousands of Muslim militants and secured the public’s support for the first offer of amnesty, which many rebels accepted, leading to a decline in violence. To their credit, the military, traditionally a key player in Algerian politics, remained neutral during the polls.
Analysts see the approval of the peace charter as a clear statement by Algerians that they are determined to close the sombre chapter of their recent history and open a new one based on negotiated rules of political engagement that will hopefully give rise to a culture of tolerance among political and social groups.
In addition to their release, the new charter provides for compensation of the detainees, and their reintegration into society through various programmes.
But as in societies that have experienced extreme suffering and indignity — from Rwanda to apartheid South Africa — reconciliation does not come easily, especially to those who lost their loves ones or whose property and livelihoods were destroyed.
Understandably, they, as well as parts of civil society, are against the release of prominent figures representing Algeria’s Islamic militancy such as Ali Belhadj , who is considered to be unrepentant.
Government is yielding to the demands of the Islamists
Belhadj was jailed for 12 years after his arrest in Morocco in 1993 and last September he was put back in prison after he made inflammatory remarks to the Arabic television network Al Jazeera on the kidnapping and assassination of two Algerian diplomats in Iraq.
Several national associations that oppose the terms of the amnesty law accuse the state of amnesia, complacency and yielding to the demands of the Islamists in freeing “the perpetrators of the most inhumane atrocities against civilian populations.” Mr Hocine Ait Ahmed, the charismatic leader of the Socialist Forces Front, one of the oldest opposition parties in the country, described the charter as “an act of betrayal, treason and perjury.”
The local press is awash with reports of rumours doing the rounds that militants who have been recently released were regrouping to resume their terrorism activities.
While there has been no evidence of that happening on the ground, the killing on April 23 of six local guards in a terrorist ambush in eastern Algeria appeared to have heightened people’s fear of renewed attacks and given credence to the rumours.
One Algerian security expert confirmed press reports that terrorist attacks were occurring in parts of the country almost daily but not on a large scale as was the case in the past. Although he could not link the attacks to the released militants, the expert predicted that they would end in the long run.
While it pursues peace through dialogue, the government is, however, resolute on how to deal with the violence. Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia, made it clear that “Algeria will no longer live under the anarchical and chaotic situation of 1990s”. He said the State was determined to “defeat the terrorists and defend the unity and security of its citizens and their assets.” “The terms of the charter that was democratically approved will be fully implemented word by word, and terrorists who will not surrender and observe these terms will ultimately be wiped out,” Mr Ouyahia declared.
For his part, Mr Zerhouni, the tough-talking Interior Minister, affirmed unequivocally that “former Islamic Salvation Front militants will not be allowed to resume any political activities, especially those who were involved in violence activities, at least as long as I am in charge of this Ministry.” Mr Zerhouni said that in the short term, law and order would be the government’s prime objectives since Algerians were fed up with years of chaos.
As part of the government's efforts to ensure security, the government last week announced that it would nearly double its police force to 200,000 in the next four years to cope with rising crime in the country of 33 million people. While thefts were on the increase, it’s the upsurge in kidnapping of children for ransom in recent months that has caused the greatest alarm.
On the whole, Algeria is today enjoying relative peace and the economy is picking up, recording a growth of about 5.1 per cent in 2005. An oil and natural gas producer, Algeria’s energy exports are the backbone of the country’s economy.
And its fortunes seem to be on the rise: Last week Algerian energy group Sonatrach said it had made a new gas find in the Sahara desert, bringing to nine the number of oil and gas discoveries this year. It made 13 such discoveries in 2004. The gas was found in partnership with Tunisian company Medex Petroleum North Africa.
An $80 billion, five-year plan to put the economy back on track
The country currently produces 1.4 million barrels of oil per day and aims to expand output to 1.5 million bpd this year, increasing to 2 million bpd in 2010. It supplies large amounts of its natural gas to Europe
With oil revenues reserves estimated at US$61 billion, observers say they expect to see a re-launch of a series of huge economic and social projects. The government last year launched an $80 billion, five-year plan to put the economy back on track of strong growth.
One economist pointed to the construction of the 1,200 km East-West highway estimated to cost US$11 billion as an example of the gigantic projects envisaged by the government as it takes advantage of soaring oil prices.
Other projects include the building of new estates to house one million people and the creation of thousands of jobs to halt rising unemployment, currently at 17 per cent.
The prospects for prosperity certainly look bright, but Algerians know it will all depend on what happens after the August surrender deadline given to armed groups that are still holding out.
# Laeed Zaghlami is an Algerian journalist based in Algiers.
# Africa Insight is an initiative of the Nation Media Group’s Africa Media Network