Sometimes it almost seems that tragedy attracts tragedy. The long-running horror of the murderous civil conflict in Algeria has just been compounded by an earthquake to the east of the capital Algiers where over 1,000 people have been confirmed killed and which has injured many thousands more. The quake, which measured 7.7 on the Richter scale, was of a similar ferocity to that which left 3,000 dead and 8,000 injured in Al-Asnam 23 years ago. Since the epicenter of the latest disaster was in the populous coastal region, it must be feared that in the coming days the number of victims will be revised upward.
Algeria hardly needed this setback on top of its many other troubles. This is a country which has never managed to recover from the brutal independence war fought against the colonial French. The euphoria of the early days of freedom did not last long. Two years after he was elected as civilian president, the left-wing Ahmed Ben Bella was overthrown by the military, who introduced a one-party state, only revoked in 1989, and ever since has remained the dominant political power in the land. The program of rapid industrialization begun in 1976 failed to bring expected economic growth, and by 1986 inflation and unemployment along with a collapse in oil and gas prices led to massive rioting.
Voters took advantage of the apparent return of multiparty democracy to express their disgust with the economic ineptitude of the dominant military by awarding 55 percent of the popular vote to the reformist Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) in the 1990 local elections. A year later, when its seemed the FIS had won an outright majority at the general election, the military flexed their muscle and resumed power. Thus began a long insurrection. Terrorists have butchered whole villages or families of those suspected of being pro-government. In response, the government has waged a dirty war, in which there is strong evidence that military units, masquerading as terrorists, have themselves perpetrated pitiless attacks upon civilian communities.
For many observers, the slaughter in Algeria is more than reminiscent of the closing days of French rule, when white colonists sought to hang onto the territory in a campaign of great viciousness. Both the freedom fighters and the colonists, the so-called “pieds noirs” (“black feet”) perpetrated wicked crimes against each other’s communities and the French military played a hardly less brutal role. Such was the bitterness and fear engendered by the conflict that when independence came, the great majority of the ethnic French left, taking with them key skills which could have helped the young country establish itself. Because of the savagery of the present insurrection, most of those Frenchmen who did stay on have finally left as well.
Yet out of horror can come opportunity. The blow that fate has struck is a blow that affects all of Algeria. It has become clear that the effective civil war that has been raging in the country for the last 11 years can be won by neither side. At some stage they must start talking to each other, even though the agenda is riven with deep fissures of disagreement. Maybe a good way to begin the dialogue would be for both parties to discuss how best they can each help ease the earthquake tragedy that has beset their fellow Algerians.
