January 27, 2000
In Assault on Islamic Rebels, a Bid to End Algeria's Civil War
By JOHN F. BURNS
ONDON, Jan. 26 -- A bid by Algeria's president to end an eight-year civil war by beginning an offensive
against Islamic guerrillas who have
defied a government amnesty has
erupted into some of the fiercest
fighting in years.
Reports in Algerian newspapers
have said that at least 125 soldiers
and guerrillas have been killed since
the government began its offensive
in a mountainous area of western
Algeria nine days ago.
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Relizane Province has been one base for rebel attacks.
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The government attack follows an
ultimatum included in a peace plan
President Abdelaziz Bouteflika put
forward after he was elected last
April. His proposal for a "civil concord" with the guerrillas, ratified in
a national referendum in September,
hinged on an amnesty for any rebel
surrendering before Jan. 13. A pro-government newspaper in Algiers,
El Khabar, said last week that 4,200
rebels might have surrendered,
more than double the figure previously given by the government. But
by most counts, at least 1,500 rebels,
perhaps substantially more, remain
active.
When he proposed the amnesty,
Mr. Bouteflika said that guerrillas
who prolonged the war would face "a
fight without mercy" and "eradication." He waited six days past the
deadline before sending paratroops,
infantry units and helicopters
against one of the main guerrilla
strongholds in the hinterland of Relizane province, 95 miles southwest of
Algiers. The region is one of several
that have served as base areas for
guerrilla attacks on the Mediterranean coastal plain, where 90 percent
of Algerians live.
The combat area -- which includes
the Oursenis national park, a vacation area before the war -- is thickly
forested with pines and cedars and
rises to nearly 4,000 feet. Le Matin,
an independent Algiers newspaper,
reported on Monday that 25 government soldiers and about 100 guerrillas had been killed, with 70 of the
dead rebels being accounted for in
fighting on Saturday. The paper said
about 230 guerrillas were still holding out against the main thrust of the
government attack.
The stakes are high. Mr. Bouteflika was hand-picked for the presidency last year by Algeria's generals, who have held decisive political
authority since shortly after Algeria's independence from France in
1962. His pledge to Algeria's 30 million people was that he would bring
about "national reconciliation" by
ending the war.
By unofficial estimates, 100,000
people have been killed in the conflict, most of them civilians who have
been bombed in cafes, markets and
schools, stopped at guerrilla roadblocks and executed, or slaughtered
by the hundreds in village massacres.
Algerians see the conflict as an
extension of what they call their national "nightmare," reaching back to
the eight-year war of independence
with a French colonial army that
historians say cost about one million
lives.
More than an end to the war rides
on Mr. Bouteflika's shoulders, since
many Algerians believe there is little
hope of the generals' allowing the
emergence of a genuine parliamentary democracy or of Algeria's rising from the economic abyss into
which it fell in the 1990's until the
fighting ends.
Although Algerians are gaining
confidence that the back of the Islamic insurgency has been broken, it
is not clear yet that the war's end is
at hand. For one thing, the rebels'
"eradication" would void the generals' main claim for retaining decisive political power.
"It's a little early to say, but I'm
not at all convinced that this is the
end game," said High Roberts, a
specialist on Algeria who teaches at
the London School of Economics.
"I'm not convinced that there is a
consensus in Algiers to make a definitive end to all the armed groups."
The amnesty plan has had some
striking successes. On Jan. 11, two
days before the amnesty expired, the
guerrilla group that started the war,
the Islamic Salvation Army, agreed
to dissolve itself after Mr. Bouteflika
granted its estimated 8,000 fighters a
blanket amnesty. The move effectively ratified the status quo, since
the Islamic Salvation Front, the political group that controlled the fighters, had observed a cease-fire since
August 1997.
Perhaps more significant has been
Mr. Bouteflika's success in opening
amnesty negotiations with a splinter
force led by a guerrilla leader, Hassan Hattab, who broke with the main
insurgent group over its attacks on
civilians. Algerian security force
spokesmen have said that Mr. Hattab has 1,500 fighters in his group,
the Salafist Group for Proselytization and Combat, which has been
active in the mountains of the Kabylia area about 70 miles east of Algiers.
What remains unclear is how
many guerrillas will accept, or defy,
their leaders' decisions on the amnesty. The interior minister, Yazid
Zerhouni, said last week that "about
80 percent" of all the guerrillas had
surrendered, but did not specify how
many men that involved. Although
the Islamic Salvation Army's leader,
Madani Mezrag, signed a statement
dissolving the force, the actual hand-over of arms by his fighters appears
to have been sporadic. Government
spokesmen have said that 1,100 of the
Mr Mezrag's fighters have surrendered in the Jijel area, 130 miles east
of Algiers, but others have yet to
respond.
A major point of contention in the
government's negotiations with the
guerrilla leaders has been the amnesty terms. The deal with the Islamic Salvation Army provided that the
rebel fighters would be merged into
the government army and used in
the war against rebel holdouts. This
appears to have been the case already in the Relizane offensive.
For other groups, a sticking point
could be Mr. Bouteflika's insistence
that the amnesty will not cover
"blood crimes," rape or acts of
terror in public places, a definition
likely to cover many of the rebels.
