ALGERIANS appear to have voted for the lesser of two evils in accepting the government’s proposed Charter for Peace and National Reconciliation in Thursday’s referendum. This will pardon not only most former terrorists but also the security forces, both guilty of murders in the “Black Decade” from 1992 when as many as 200,000 Algerians died. To have rejected the proposition, because it did not include a South African-style Truth and Reconciliation process, would have risked political stalemate and a return to violence.
The one certainty about this referendum is that all sane Algerians are fed up with the violence and want only to get on with their lives in peace and security. Allegations that the overwhelming electoral backing in the referendum was fixed may well be true. There were no independent monitors. However, few informed observers doubt that whatever the real figures, the majority of those who voted did in fact back President Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s peace charter.
Algeria should now move rapidly to the charter’s implementation. Under this only those terrorists guilty of mass murder or rape will be prosecuted. There is no apparent provision to include members of the police and army who may have been guilty of such crimes. It has been asserted that 18,000 Algerians deemed to support the terrorists disappeared in raids by security forces or government backed militias. The charter provides for financial compensation in 6,000 such cases, a clear admission that abductions took place. These payouts may prove tricky and controversial.
The charter will also ban leading Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) politicians from standing for election. Given that it was FIS’ 1991 victory in the initial round of the first-ever multiparty elections, and the subsequent decision to abandon the second round, which triggered the violence, this may be a difficult, if not unwise, move. FIS’ armed wing disbanded in 2000 after many members took up two government amnesties. Excluding FIS leaders from the political process could look as if the government were driving home a victory rather using the charter to establish a new peaceful political arena.
The security forces certainly defeated the other main terror group, the GIA. However a breakaway faction, the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, (GSPC) remains active with maybe 1,000 members. Unless these too can be overcome or brought into the political process, the specter of violence will remain. However, if the exclusion of FIS politicians looks like government triumphalism, the GSPC may refuse to give up.
Finally, the very hardest part of peace and recovery is unaddressed by the charter. This involves government plans to sort out an economy crippled by postcolonial socialism, incompetence and corruption. It was that colossal economic failure which fueled the original discontent that triggered popular support for FIS and the subsequent violence.
