Algerian guerilla chief, Hassan Hattab, surrenders: reports
AFP, 27 september 2007
ALGIERS (AFP) — One of the most hardline guerrilla chiefs opposed to Algeria’s government, Hassan Hattab of the Salafist Movement for Preaching and Combat, has surrendered, an Arab-language daily reported Friday.
« Hassan Hattab, known under the name of Abou Hamza and founder of the GSPC in 1998, has surrendered to the security forces to benefit from the Charter for Peace and Reconciliation, » the daily Ech-Chourouk said on its website, citing « corroborating sources ».
The news was also given Friday by the international Arabic daily Al-Hayat, except that the latter said Hattab had been arrested on September 22, while for Ech-Chourouk he had turned himself in.
Officials declined to confirm the reports.
Hattab, 40, founded the GSPC almost a decade ago at the instigation of Osama Bin Laden, and his movement was soon put on Washington’s blacklist of terrorist organisations, but he had broken away from the radical Armed Islamic Group when it massacred civilians as well as targetting security forces.
Algeria’s President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, first elected in 1999, introduced a policy of reconciliation and social integration of former guerrillas in a bid to end a conflict that ravaged the north African country from early 1992, after the army intervened to call off a second round of elections the fundamentalist Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) was poised to win.
No full official figures have been released of casualties from that civil war, but a tally compiled from partial security force information and Algerian press reports suggests at least 160,000 people died.
Security chiefs last year stated that only remnants of the « terrorist groups » remained at large, but dozens of people have been killed this year in bomb attacks.
Al Hayat, based in London, reported that Hattab was « arrested on September 22 by the security services » during a day’s end feast with « former guerrillas who had laid down their arms » in the holy fasting month of Ramadan. Under the charter that took effect in 2006 after a September 2005 referendum, ex-fighters who renounce violence can benefit from a pardon.
However, Ech-Cherouk said the GSPC founder — who has been disavowed by members of his movement now calling themselves the Al-Qaeda Branch of the Islamic Maghreb (the north African part of the Arab world) — had arranged to be picked up in the old quarter of Alfiers and taken in after negotiating a deal.
A few days later, he had issued a statement via the Algerian press where he threatened to resume armed struggle on the grounds the « competent authorities » had failed to implement charter terms dropping proceedings against ex-fighters and paying compensation to the families of those killed.
According to unconfirmed reports, Hattab was scheduled to make an appearance on prime-time evening television news at an unspecified date to issue an appeal for an end to all guerilla violence in Algeria.
