With an extended hand, Algeria exudes magnanimity in face of enemy fire, writes Gamal Nkrumah The Algerian civil war was a peculiarly nightmarish affair: brutal, amoral and excessive. The war, emanating the worst kind of fanatical ugliness associated with the most sinister of religious wars, never came to a conclusion. It has almost grinded to a halt, but it has not entirely ended. An unknown group killed three civilians only two days after Algerian President Abdul-Aziz Bouteflika announced the date of next month's referendum on a draft charter for peace and national reconciliation. The civil war cost the country's infrastructure some $30 billion and claimed more than 200,000 lives. Algerians are war weary. The chaos and violence of Algeria during the 1980s and 1990s forced Algerians to search for answers about the conflict, its causes and effects. The national predilection for settling scores had to be stopped. The petering out of the war left the country at the crossroads and coincided with a resurgence of popular calls for democratic transformation in Algeria and neighbouring countries. It is in this context that Bouteflika unveiled a draft charter for peace and national reconciliation that will be put to a referendum on 29 September. Bouteflika is a politician in a hurry. He incarnates change for the better. He must also reconcile his people with multi- party politics. His name has become closely associated with successful outcomes. He embodies, it is hoped both at home and abroad, the reserves of moral courage to finish the job. Bouteflika, at any rate, stated publicly that he loathed those who unscrupulously "exploit" Islam for political ends. Bouteflika granted amnesty to 3,343 prisoners last month on the 43rd anniversary of the country's independence from France. There are an estimated 48,000 inmates in Algeria's overcrowded prisons. Algeria, the land of a million martyrs lost during the war of liberation, is no stranger to violence. Fighting a coloniser is one tough battle, warring against fellow compatriots is an entirely different matter. The country is in a dual crisis of confidence that concerns its essence as well as its performance as an emerging nation that is bent on political reform. It is a crisis that is part of -- but goes beyond -- the crisis of the Arab Maghreb of northwest Africa. Confirming his reputation as a master of bold strokes, Bouteflika realised early that the struggle against militant Islamists might not be winnable by military means alone. He tried to beckon them over, or more precisely to court those who laid down their arms and surrendered to the Algerian authorities. His was a vision in which the brutish was airbrushed out. Today, he must prove yet again that he has both clout and panache. It was at this precise historical moment that the United States, emboldened by 11 September, stepped in, urging radical change. In the months to come, there will be added pressure from the US to accelerate the process of political reform. Once the ugly bits are stripped away, all that is left is the hope for a better future. But the painful memories, including the names of the unaccounted missing -- an estimated 6,500 Algerians -- remain to scar an entire nation. Bouteflika indicated that the families of the disappeared would receive monetary compensation. So what of the future? It's in the Algerian people's hands, their president assured them. They decide if the country is to put its bloody past behind it in September. Bouteflika embarked on "concrete steps to stop bloodshed and restore peace." He introduced the "civil reconciliation" initiative during his first term in office in 1999. Small wonder, then, that Bouteflika was re-elected in 2004. Moderate Islamists took part in the multi-party elections, but lost. But this does not mean they have a weak political hand. Opinion polls showed the growing appeal of moves such as Bouteflika's September referendum. The draft provides for legal proceedings to be dropped against militant Islamists who stopped violence and surrendered to the authorities. He proposed a referendum on a draft charter for peace and national reconciliation. The draft excludes those involved in mass killings. Whether or not he is correct, it is evident that Bouteflika's about-face on militant Islamists was the result of inexorable pressures that built up both from Algerians and foreign powers -- most notably the US and France. Foreign governments critical of the extent and force of Algeria's clampdown were also pressing for a resolution of the country's political impasse. Several militant groups reject the peace plan and have vowed to continue the struggle against the secular Algerian government. The outlawed Islamist Group for Preaching and Combat, which issued a statement last month in which it praised Al-Qaeda for killing two Algerian diplomats, flatly rejected Bouteflika's overtures. Algeria promptly pulled its remaining diplomats out of Iraq. The Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) adopted a more ambiguous stance. FIS won 55 per cent of the vote in local elections in 1990 and was poised to win the 1991 general elections, dubbed the year of the botched elections. Indeed, FIS won 188 seats in the December 1991 general elections. The military strongman Shadli Bendjedid stepped down in January 1992, and the country plunged into a second round of ferocious civil war. The military authorities decided to stamp out militant Islamists and rescinded promises to hold general elections. Algerians who struggled for so long for their liberty deeply resented the limits the military's harsh rules put on their hard- won freedom. It was only during Bouteflika's presidency that peace and security returned to Algeria. FIS chief Abbas Madani and his deputy Ali Belhadj were released in July 2003 after serving 12 years in military prison. Belhadj was detained briefly last month after he praised the insurgents in Iraq and said that they were entitled to kidnap diplomats. Moralism in such matters is often a political ruse. And in Algeria, as elsewhere, militant Islamist rhetoric is often channelled to partisan ends by glib political operators. The Armed Islamic Group, better known by its French acronym GIA, was badly battered by the Algerian government clampdown on militant groups and 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. But the Islamists are not the only group to protest against the referendum. The Association of the Families of the Disappeared in Algeria also objected to the amnesty for individuals who were involved in killings. The organisation wants all those responsible to be brought to book. Algerian authorities say they want to end judicial proceedings against those who voluntarily surrender and hand in their weapons and Islamists not directly implicated in the violence. Today, under Bouteflika, Algeria says it is committed both to democratisation and to rejuvenating its oil-fuelled economy. "Algerian oil heats all the homes in New England," the American ambassador to Algeria was once quoted as saying. Indeed, Algeria is a major energy supplier to Europe and the US. The country's geographical proximity of Western markets is an added advantage. Resource-rich Algeria is a potentially wealthy country, but it desperately needs long-term peace and stability. Bouteflika understands that peace and prosperity are interrelated facets, and there are strong indications that a majority of Algerians trust his from "Civil Concord" to "National Reconciliation" vision.
