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| Africa: North |
| GSPC trying to scuttle amnesty |
| 2005-04-11 |
| Islamic militants bent on overthrowing the Algerian government are set to intensify attacks to try to scupper an amnesty proposal to end more than a decade of civil war, analysts said on Monday. In the deadliest attack on civilians in six months, suspected rebels shot dead at least 14 people on Thursday and burned their bodies at a fake roadblock near the town Larbaa, 25 km (15 miles) south of the capital Algiers. "Some terrorists don't want to surrender and will do all they can to sabotage an amnesty," said an Algerian security analyst, who declined to be named. "I expect the surge in violence to continue as the project gets under way," he said. The Larbaa ambush came shortly after President Abdelaziz Bouteflika said security had been re-established in oil-rich Algeria. Some 50 people, half of them soldiers, have been killed near Algiers in recent weeks -- most blamed on Algeria's main rebel organisation the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC). Bouteflika is calling on Algerians to back a general amnesty to end a conflict, which has cost 150,000 lives and $30 billion in damages since 1992. The amnesty is expected to be offered to rebels and security forces members this year following a national referendum. Violence has sharply fallen in recent years, and 2004 was the least violent year since the conflict began with 700 deaths, including 400 rebels. A state of emergency has been in force since 1992. The security risk remains high, according to diplomats and security analysts, because some of the 300 to 500 rebels still operational have no desire to surrender. Some are accused of contraband trafficking and running racketeering operations. "The fresh attacks are a way for the terrorists to say 'no' but it's also a way to say 'we are still here and we can influence the politics of the country'," said Mahmoud Belhimer, a university professor and deputy editor at El Khabar. It is unclear whether the GSPC, which is on the U.S. list of foreign terrorist groups and has pledged allegiance to al Qaeda, was behind Larbaa, as they normally do not kill civilians. Experts fear hardline elements of the GSPC, the now-defunct Armed Islamic Group and another minor group, the Salafist Group for Preaching and Daawa, had instead joined forces. The Larbaa attack came only hours after Bouteflika said in a speech to mark one year since his re-election that "security had been largely re-established across the territory". The president repeated that an amnesty was the only way to turn the page on a bloody chapter in the country's young history. He is credited with improving Algeria's image and bringing back foreign investment to a country still scarred by a violent 1954-1962 war of independence against colonial France. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |