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| Africa North |
| Algeria plans to release 2,000 Islamist fighters |
| 2006-03-02 |
| Algeria will release more than 2,000 Islamist ex-fighters soon under an amnesty to promote reconciliation after years of conflict in the oil-exporting country, an official said on Wednesday. The releases, the most numerous since civil strife erupted in 1992, will be a high-profile test of the government's push to stabilize a giant north African nation widely seen as crucial for the security of the Mediterranean region. "There will be more than 2,000 people released under the charter for peace and national reconciliation," AbdelKader Sahraoui, an official of the Justice Ministry, said in an interview on state radio. The state radio announcer said separately that this would happen "immediately." The releases, which would be the first of former Islamist fighters for several years, had been widely expected since the government of the large north African oil-exporting country approved a raft of amnesty measures on February 21. Another official source told Reuters that apart from the 2,000 people to be released, an estimated 10,000 people would take advantage of the reconciliation drive in one way or another. These ranged from prisoners having their sentences cut to bereaved relatives being paid compensation. The former combatants were convicted for their role in more than a decade of conflict that began when the authorities canceled the 1992 legislative elections which the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) was poised to win. The amnesty also gives Islamic guerrillas still fighting the authorities six months to surrender and be pardoned provided they were not responsible for massacres, rapes and bombings of public places. Word had circulated about a possible release after the amnesty was published in the government gazette on Tuesday, a measure that signals its entry into force. Thousands of Islamic guerrillas have already given themselves up since early January 2000 after a partial amnesty. The last significant prisoner releases took place in 1999. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #5 The fact is that the panarabist/islamist government and the islmaist rebels are ideologically quite close. The people now in governemnt were islamists even before the rebellion agsint the French, they created the most repressive regime against women in all Maghreb and they have agressively pursued a politic of islamisation and arabisation against the Berber populations. For instance they have amde use of Arab mandatory but not Algerian Arab, "classic" Arab ie Arab like talked in Arabia centuries ago. I told abourt Algeria's berbers. For one part an incereasing number of them seem to be rejecting Islam as an instrument of foreign domination. For another part they are protesting because the Algerian government is replacing their suffi imams with wahabi ones. As I said the governement and the islamist rebels share basically teh same ideology. The only differnce is about who will wear the golden turban and the fraction of the budget to be used for killing infidels. |
| Posted by: JFM 2006-03-02 19:46 |
| #4 Another day, and the world is still a madhouse. |
| Posted by: wxjames 2006-03-02 11:37 |
| #3 "Another batch of Number Threes for the Zarkman!" |
| Posted by: Seafarious 2006-03-02 11:07 |
| #2 Next to be seen in Europe. |
| Posted by: gromgoru 2006-03-02 11:03 |
| #1 There may be an ulterior motive at work here. The ambiguously worded charter was most likely crafted in order to grant amnesty to members of state-armed militias and security forces convicted of abuses. Not only will this bar victims from seeking justice it will obviate AlgeriaÂ’s obligations under international law to investigate and remedy such abuses. The legislation even goes further to that end and makes it a crime to debate such abuses. Article 46 of the charter states: "Anyone who, by speech, writing, or any other act, uses or exploits the wounds of the National Tragedy to harm the institutions of the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, to weaken the state, or to undermine the good reputation of its agents who honorably served it, or to tarnish the image of Algeria internationally, shall be punished by three to five years in prison and a fine of 250,000 to 500,000 dianars." |
| Posted by: DepotGuy 2006-03-02 10:40 |