The Algerian president wins overwhelming support for his peace and reconciliation charter, writes Gamal Nkrumah It is never an easy matter to assess political risk in Algeria. There were times when the country's politics were far uglier than it is today. Thanks in large measure to the Herculean efforts of Algerian President Abdel-Aziz Bouteflika to instill the spirit of tolerance and forgiveness in the war-torn nation and push ahead with the country's long- chequered democratisation process, Algeria is setting itself a new political agenda. By accident of geography -- inadequate albeit fertile coastal strip, rugged mountainous terrain, sprawling desert and proximity to Europe -- the North African country has inherited myriad predicaments. Algeria's oil-fuelled economy has had its downside. Agriculture has long been in a state of neglect, industrial production in a spiral of perpetual decline. However, the starting point for President Bouteflika is better: better, at least, than that confronting many of his predecessors. Both politically and economically, Algeria is in stronger shape than it was only five years ago. Democracy in Algeria is starting to flourish again. Nonetheless, Algeria's lingering problems largely rest on Bouteflika's shoulders alone. Rampant unemployment, an alarming brain drain and the constant threat of militant Islam continue to dog the once relatively wealthy oil- rich nation. Still, more than 97 per cent of Algerians approved Bouteflika's Charter for Peace and National Reconciliation in a nationwide referendum last Thursday. Interior Minister Yazid Zerhouni proudly announced the results. Turnout, officially estimated to be 79.76 per cent, was the highest in many years. The Algerian people's enthusiasm does have an explanation. "Algerians are war- weary. They yearn for peace," political commentator Fahmy Howeidy told Al-Ahram Weekly. The Algerian civil war claimed the lives of 150,000 people, destroying the country's infrastructure to the tune of $30 billion. Though violence has subsided considerably, hundreds of Algerians, both military and civilians, are still killed every year. A few hard-line militant Islamists continue to stand their ground. They flatly reject Bouteflika's offer of amnesty for militant Islamists and their sympathisers who give them logistical support. Indeed, militant Islamists killed three civilians only days after the referendum. The murderous reaction bore the hallmarks of Algeria's Islamist firebrands. It flies in the face of serious efforts to end more than a decade of war and wanton destruction. "This vote is a waste of time. Algeria is not in need of a charter for peace and reconciliation, but in need of a charter for Islam," warned a statement issued by the Salafist Group of Preaching and Combat better known by its French acronym GSPC. "We are not seeking power," the GSPC statement read. "We have not raised arms in the face of the country's rulers to achieve political demands." GSPC, with purported links to Al-Qaeda, clearly poses a threat to the nascent Algerian democracy. "We have stood up to the tyrants in order to lend victory to Islam. The jihad will go on," the Emir, or leader, of the GSPC, Abou Mossab Abdel-Wadoud, whose real name is Abdel-Malek Droukdel, vowed. This pressure from Islamists has now receded, but it clearly still poses a threat of sorts. "I was critical of Bouteflika in the past," Howeidy explained. "But he has handled the volatile political situation in the country with care." The current government in Algiers is trying hard to institutionalise democracy. Bouteflika has long eschewed supporting an explicitly populist albeit authoritarian agenda favoured by his predecessors. But painful memories, including the names of the missing and unaccounted for (an estimated 6,500 Algerians), persist. Bouteflika indicated that the families of those who disappeared between 1992 and 1998 after being arrested for supposedly supporting militant Islamist groups would receive some monetary compensation. Bouteflika also introduced the "civil reconciliation" initiative during his first term in office in 1999. Algeria was plunged into civil war after military authorities clamped down on Islamist groups and rescinded on promises to hold general elections. The foremost Islamist group at the time, the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS), won 55 per cent of the vote in local elections in 1990 and was poised to win the 1991 general elections. When military strongman Chadhli Bendjedid stepped down in January 1992, the country erupted in violence. Today the FIS is a spent force. The Armed Islamic Group, better known by its French acronym GIA, has been sidelined politically. The moderate Islamist Islah Party, the Movement for National Reform, on the other hand, fared well in Algeria's last parliamentary and local government elections. Only during Bouteflika's presidency has peace and security returned to Algeria. Confirming his reputation as a master of bold strokes, Bouteflika has forgiven many of his former foes. FIS chief Abbas Madani and his deputy Ali Belhadj were released in July 2003 after serving 12 years in military prison. Both tacitly supported Bouteflika's reconciliation charter. The amnesty at the heart of the charter excludes Islamist militants who partook of massacres, rape, or bomb attacks in public places. Algerian authorities say that only a few hundred Islamist militants bearing weapons are at large and fighting security forces. Most of these, they say, belong to the GSPC. The national predilection for settling scores had to be stopped. But it is not only in Algeria that national anxieties prompt the curtailment of individual self-expression and historical discussion. Algeria's immediate neighbours -- Mauritania, Morocco, Tunisia and Libya -- are also in a state of political flux. All of Algeria's neighbours have had strong militant Islamist movements, but only in Algeria have the armed Islamist opposition posed a dangerous threat to the secular regime. "Algerians by nature are hardy, hot-blooded and temperamental mountain people and there will always be a segment of society that will disagree with whatever Bouteflika comes up with. There will always be some Algerians who don't want peace. Some want to have a Taliban-style Islamist regime. But, the vast majority of Algerians today want peace, democracy, human rights and sustainable development. They just want bygones to be bygones," argues Howeidy. In this spirit, last Thursday's referendum was the prize Bouteflika had long sought. Militant Islamists diluting the dividend for Algeria would be committing a serious mistake. Areas inhabited by the Amazigh, or non-Arabic speaking people, are embroiled in social and political unrest. These also happen to be the most economically deprived regions of the country. Bouteflika may have won a significant round, but much remains to be achieved.
