Algeria to study ex-rebel Islamist party bid-paper
By Lamine Chikhi, Mon 3 Sep 2007
ALGIERS, Sept 3 (Reuters) – Algeria has signalled it will consider allowing former armed Islamists to form a political party, a move that would reverse a ban on political activity by the men who launched an Islamist insurrection in the 1990s.
Interior Minister Noureddine Yazid Zerhouni said that the former Islamic Army of Salvation (AIS), which disarmed in 1997 in return for amnesty, could introduce its request to create a new political party, El Khabar newspaper reported.
« We will see if the request is in conformity with the national reconciliation law, » the top selling daily quoted Zerhouni on Monday as saying.
Political analysts say formation of a party by the veterans of the AIS, the armed wing of the now-defunct Islamic Salvation Front (FIS), could speed up normalisation of the country’s stagnant political scene after 15 years of political violence.
A record low turnout in parliamentary polls in May sent a worrying message that Algerians are losing faith in the future and politics generally despite an oil bonanza, commentators say.
According to Algerian law, Algerians must obtain the Interior Ministry’s permission to form a political party.
Zerhouni has previously been against the return of any former armed groups to the political scene, saying in recent remarks « we refuse to return to the troubles of the 1990s. »
Conflict broke out in Algeria in 1992 after military-backed authorities scrapped parliamentary elections that the FIS was set to win. The authorities had feared an Islamic revolution.
Up to 200,000 people are estimated to have been killed in 15 years of violence. The authorities banned the FIS and imposed a state of emergency, measures which remain in effect.
To end the conflict, President Abdelaziz Bouteflika offered an amnesty to rebels who disarmed, provided they were not involved in massacres, rapes and bombings in public places.
Madani Mezrag, former AIS head, told Reuters that « Zerhouni’s remarks were very positive and show that the man is changing, » adding that « he used to be very anti-Islamist. »
« We played our role to implement reconciliation among the people, and it is our constitutional right to get permission to form a new political party, » Mezrag told Reuters.
Mezrag is one of several AIS veterans who have campaigned to support Bouteflika’s reconciliation plan and have tried to persuade former colleagues to disarm. The veterans still want to set up an Islamic state, but this time through political means.
The reconciliation policy has long had a social dimension amid worries that militancy will flourish among the poor and the unemployed. The jobless rate for those under 30 is 70 percent.
Islamist sympathisers say the authorities would deepen what many see as their isolation from ordinary people if they continue tight curbs in the political arena.
Political violence has subsided in recent years but a hard core of about 500 rebels, now grouped in the so-called al Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb, continues to fight mainly in the Kabylie region east of the capital Algiers.
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