RIGHTS-ALGERIA: Crimes Get a Dubious Pardon

By Julio Godoy Reprint | | Print |

Julio Godoy

PARIS, Oct 1 2005 (IPS) - The referendum in Algeria this week confirmed a pardon for crimes against humanity committed both by the military and by radical Islamic groups.

But it is the military that will chiefly stand to benefit from the referendum. It will also prolong President Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s grip on the country beyond his now second, and constitutionally last, mandate.

According to official figures, some 80 percent of a total of 18 million Algerians voters (in a population of 32 million) participated in the referendum to ratify the ‘Chart for Peace and National Reconciliation’ formulated by the government. Minister for the interior Noureddine Zerhouni declared Friday that more than 97 percent of voters had approved the chart.

While the reported vote was massive in most of the country, the Berber population in the Kabylie region east of Algiers followed a boycott called by local opposition groups. In Tizi Ouzou and Bejaia, two important Berber cities, voter participation was reportedly lower than 10 percent. Almost all Algerians are Berber by origin, but the group that identifies itself as Berber leans on its ethnic rather than Arab culture.

The chart, which grants amnesty to all responsible for crimes committed during the civil war in the early 1990s was declared by the Bouteflika government to be the only means of turning the page of the civil war.

Several opposition leaders and human rights activists described the referendum as a masquerade.

“The government did not allow a campaign against the chart,” Algerian economist Omar Benderra who has lived in France since the mid-1990s told IPS.

“Activists who tried to dispute the government’s arguments and the massive campaign in the media in favour of the chart, were imprisoned on charges of threatening national security,” he said. He pointed out that the state of political emergency declared by the military in 1992 will continue indefinitely.

Bouteflika’s government did not allow foreign observers to attend the campaign or to certify the legality of the vote counting, said Ali Yahia Abdenour, president of the Algerian League of Human Rights.

“We invited international organisations to come to Algeria to certify whether the referendum was carried out in a democratic way. But the government denied all organisations a visa to enter the country,” he told IPS.

“I am for peace and reconciliation,” Algiers-based human rights activist Malika Silet told IPS in a telephone interview. Malika’s brother was kidnapped by a paramilitary death squad in the neighbourhood of Bab el-Oued in northern Algiers in March 1997, and was never seen again.

“Before the government gives amnesty to war criminals, we want to know the truth about our relatives who became victims,” she said. “Are they alive, are they dead, and if they are dead, where are their bodies?”

Other opposition members described the chart as a mechanism to circumvent the constitution to allow Bouteflika to stay in power a third term.

“The chart gives Bouteflika extraordinary powers, not only to give amnesty to whoever he wants, but also to reform the constitution,” Hocine Aït Ahmed, leader of the National Liberation Front which fought the war of independence against France told IPS. Ahmed now lives in exile in Switzerland.

“It is clear that Bouteflika and the army will use these powers to do whatever they want,” Ahmed said. Hocine The campaign during the referendum was undemocratic, he said. “The referendum was more an electoral tsunami than a democratic vote.”

A social scientist at the University of Algiers who asked not to be identified said the chart for peace and national reconciliation will make research on the civil war impossible.

“The archives in the ministry of justice, in the army, in the police, in the secret services, are sealed off,” he said. “What the government is doing is to order us to erase 15 years of our history from our memories.”

Many opposition leaders continue to question Bouteflika’s legitimacy as president. He came to power after the election in April 1999 during which all opposition parties withdrew their candidates after saying the voting process was fraudulent. Bouteflika continued in power after the election of April 2004 which, according to official figures, he won with 85 percent of the vote. His main opponent at the time, Ali Benflis, called the election “a robbery”.

This is the second amnesty Bouteflika has ordered. The first in July 1999 granted a partial pardon to all Muslim military opposition members who were ready to be disarmed.

The Algerian civil war broke out after the army cancelled the January 1992 elections when it became clear that the Islamic Salvation Front would win.

An estimated 200,000 people were killed in the civil war that followed, often in massacres and summary executions. Up to 20,000 people were kidnapped, and are still reported missing. The war led to an estimated 35 billion dollar damage.

Independent human rights groups such as Amnesty International have said most of these crimes were committed by the army.

A human rights commission set up by the Algerian government also reported in April this year that the army was the main perpetrator of crimes during the civil war. The government has kept the full report secret.