Algeria
Algeria, the second-largest state in Africa, has a Mediterranean
coastline of about 998 kilometers (620 mi.). The Tellian and Saharan
Atlas mountain ranges cross the country from east to west, dividing
it into three zones. Between the northern zone, Tellian Atlas, and
the Mediterranean is a narrow, fertile coastal plain--the Tell
(Arabic for hill)--with a moderate climate year round and rainfall
adequate for agriculture. A high plateau region, averaging 914
meters (3,000 ft.) above sea level, with limited rainfall, great
rocky plains, and desert, lies between the two mountain ranges. It
is generally barren except for scattered clumps of trees and
intermittent bush and pastureland. The third and largest zone, south
of the Saharan Atlas mountain range, is mostly desert. About 80% of
the country is desert, steppes, wasteland, and mountains. Algeria's
weather varies considerably from season to season and from one
geographical location to another. In the north, the summers are
usually hot with little rainfall. Winter rains begin in the north in
October. Frost and snow are rare, except on the highest slopes of
the Tellian Atlas Mountains. Dust and sandstorms occur most
frequently between February and May.
Soil erosion--from overgrazing, other poor farming practices, and
desertification--and the dumping of raw sewage, petroleum refining
wastes, and other industrial effluents are leading to the pollution
of rivers and coastal waters. The Mediterranean Sea, in particular,
is becoming polluted from oil wastes, soil erosion, and fertilizer
runoff. There are inadequate supplies of potable water. |
|
Ninety-one percent of the Algerian population lives
along the Mediterranean coast on 12% of the country's
total land mass. Forty-five percent of the population is
urban, and urbanization continues, despite government
efforts to discourage migration to the cities. About 1.5
million nomads and semi-settled Bedouin still live in
the Saharan area.
Nearly all Algerians are Muslim, of Arab, Berber, or
mixed Arab-Berber stock. Official data on the number of
non-Muslim residents is not available; however,
practitioners report it to be less than 5,000. Most of
the non-Muslim community is comprised of Methodist,
Roman Catholic and Evangelical faiths; the Jewish
community is virtually non-existent. There are about
1,100 American citizens in the country, the majority of
whom live and work in the oil/gas fields in the south.
Algeria's educational system has grown dramatically
since the country gained its independence. In the last
12 years, attendance has doubled to more than 5 million
students. Education is free and compulsory to age 16.
Despite government allocation of substantial educational
resources, population pressures and a serious shortage
of teachers have severely strained the system. Modest
numbers of Algerian students study abroad, primarily in
Europe and Canada. In 2000, the government launched a
major review of the country's educational system and in
2004 efforts to reform the educational system began.
Housing and medicine continue to be pressing problems in
Algeria. Failing infrastructure and the continued influx
of people from rural to urban areas have overtaxed both
systems. According to the United Nations Development
Program, Algeria has one of the world's highest per
housing unit occupancy rates, and government officials
have publicly stated that the country has an immediate
shortfall of 1.5 million housing units.
Since the 5th century B.C., the native peoples of
northern Africa (first identified by the Greeks as
"Berbers") were pushed back from the coast by successive
waves of Phoenician, Roman, Vandal, Byzantine, Arab,
Turkish, and, finally, French invaders. The greatest
cultural impact came from the Arab invasions of the 8th
and 11th centuries A.D., which brought Islam and the
Arabic language. The effects of the most recent (French)
occupation--French language and European-inspired
socialism--are still pervasive.
North African boundaries have shifted during various
stages of the conquests. Algeria's modern borders were
created by the French, whose colonization began in 1830.
To benefit French colonists, most of whom were farmers
and businessmen, northern Algeria was eventually
organized into overseas departments of France, with
representatives in the French National Assembly. France
controlled the entire country, but the traditional
Muslim population in the rural areas remained separated
from the modern economic infrastructure of the European
community.
Algerians began their uprising on November 1, 1954, to
gain rights denied them under French rule. The
revolution, launched by a small group of nationalists
who called themselves the National Liberation Front
(FLN), was a guerrilla war in which both sides targeted
civilians and otherwise used brutal tactics. Eventually,
protracted negotiations led to a cease-fire signed by
France and the FLN on March 18, 1962, at Evian, France.
The Evian Accords also provided for continuing economic,
financial, technical, and cultural relations, along with
interim administrative arrangements until a referendum
on self-determination could be held. Over 1 million
French citizens living in Algeria at the time, called
the pieds-noirs (black feet), left Algeria for France.
The referendum was held in Algeria on July 1, 1962, and
France declared Algeria independent on July 3. In
September 1962 Ahmed Ben Bella was formally elected
president. On September 8, 1963, a Constitution was
adopted by referendum. On June 19, 1965, President Ben
Bella was replaced in a non-violent coup by the Council
of the Revolution headed by Minister of Defense Col.
Houari Boumediene. Ben Bella was first imprisoned and
then exiled. Boumediene, as President of the Council of
the Revolution, led the country as Head of State until
he was formally elected on December 10, 1976. Boumediene
is credited with building "modern Algeria." He died on
December 27, 1978.
Following nomination by an FLN Party Congress, Col.
Chadli Bendjedid was elected president in 1979 and
re-elected in 1984 and 1988. A new constitution was
adopted in 1989 that allowed the formation of political
parties other than the FLN. It also removed the armed
forces, which had run the government since the days of
Boumediene, from a designated role in the operation of
the government. Among the scores of parties that sprang
up under the new constitution, the militant Islamic
Salvation Front (FIS) was the most successful, winning
more than 50% of all votes cast in municipal elections
in June 1990 as well as in the first stage of national
legislative elections held in December 1991.
Faced with the real possibility of a sweeping FIS
victory, the National People's Assembly was dissolved by
presidential decree on January 4, 1992. On January 11,
under pressure from the military leadership, President
Chadli Bendjedid resigned. On January 14, a five-member
High Council of State was appointed by the High Council
of Security to act as a collegiate presidency and
immediately canceled the second round of elections. This
action, coupled with political uncertainty and economic
turmoil, led to a violent reaction by Islamists. On
January 16, Mohamed Boudiaf, a hero of the Liberation
War, returned after 28 years of exile to serve as
Algeria's fourth president. Facing sporadic outbreaks of
violence and terrorism, the security forces took control
of the FIS offices in early February, and the High
Council of State declared a state of emergency. In
March, following a court decision, the FIS Party was
formally dissolved, and a series of arrests and trials
of FIS members occurred resulting in more than 50,000
members being jailed. Algeria became caught in a cycle
of violence, which became increasingly random and
indiscriminate. On June 29, 1992, President Boudiaf was
assassinated in Annaba in front of TV cameras by Army
Lt. Lembarek Boumarafi, who allegedly confessed to
carrying out the killing on behalf of the Islamists.
Despite efforts to restore the political process,
violence and terrorism dominated the Algerian landscape
during the 1990s. In 1994, Liamine Zeroual, former
Minister of Defense, was appointed Head of State by the
High Council of State for a three-year term. During this
period, the Armed Islamic Group (GIA) launched terrorist
campaigns against government figures and institutions to
protest the banning of the Islamist parties. A breakaway
GIA group--the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat
(GSPC)--also undertook terrorist activity in the
country. Government officials estimate that more than
100,000 Algerians died during this period.
Zeroual called for presidential elections in 1995,
though some parties objected to holding elections that
excluded the FIS. Zeroual was elected president with 75%
of the vote. By 1997, in an attempt to bring political
stability to the nation, the National Democratic Rally
(RND) party was formed by a progressive group of FLN
members. In September 1998, President Liamine Zeroual
announced that he would step down in February 1999, 21
months before the end of his term, and that presidential
elections would be held.
Algerians went to the polls in April 1999, following a
campaign in which seven candidates qualified for
election. On the eve of the election, all candidates
except Abdelaziz Bouteflika pulled out amid charges of
widespread electoral fraud. Bouteflika, the candidate
who appeared to enjoy the backing of the military, as
well as the FLN and the RND party regulars, won with an
official vote count of 70% of all votes cast. He was
inaugurated on April 27, 1999 for a 5-year term.
President Bouteflika's agenda focused initially on
restoring security and stability to the country.
Following his inauguration, he proposed an official
amnesty for those who fought against the government
during the 1990s with the exception of those who had
engaged in "blood crimes," such as rape or murder. This
"Civil Concord" policy was widely approved in a
nationwide referendum in September 2000. Government
officials estimate that 80% of those fighting the regime
during the 1990s have accepted the civil concord offer
and have attempted to reintegrate into Algerian society.
Bouteflika also launched national commissions to study
education and judicial reform, as well as restructuring
of the state bureaucracy.
In 2001, Berber activists in the Kabylie region of the
country, reacting to the death of a youth in gendarme
custody, unleashed a resistance campaign against what
they saw as government repression. Strikes and
demonstrations in the Kabylie region were commonplace as
a result, and some spread to the capital. Chief among
Berber demands was recognition of Tamazight (a general
term for Berber languages) as an official language,
official recognition and financial compensation for the
deaths of Kabyles killed in demonstrations, an economic
development plan for the area and greater control over
their own regional affairs. In October 2001, the
Tamazight language was recognized as a national
language, but the issue remains contentious as Tamazight
has not been elevated to an official language.
Algeria's most recent presidential election took place
on April 8, 2004. For the first time since independence,
the presidential race was democratically contested
through to the end. Besides incumbent President
Bouteflika, five other candidates, including one woman,
competed in the election. Opposition candidates
complained of some discrepancies in the voting list;
irregularities on polling day, particularly in Kabylie;
and of unfair media coverage during the campaign as
Bouteflika, by virtue of his office, appeared on
state-owned television daily. Bouteflika was re-elected
in the first round of the election with 84.99% of the
vote. Just over 58% of those Algerians eligible to vote
participated in the election.
In the years since Bouteflika was first elected, the
security situation in Algeria has improved markedly.
Terrorism, however, has not been totally eliminated, and
terrorist incidents still occur, particularly in the
provinces of Boumerdes, Tizi-Ouzou, and in the remote
southern areas of the country. In April 2007, a series
of bombings in Algiers targeted a government facility
and police stations, killing 33 people. In addition, on
July 11 a suicide bomber targeted military barracks in
the Kabylie region, killing eight soldiers. The alleged
mastermind behind the 2007 attacks was killed later in
July during a raid led by Algerian security forces.
In September 2005, Algeria passed a referendum in favor
of President Bouteflika's Charter for Peace and National
Reconciliation, paving the way for implementing
legislation that will pardon certain individuals
convicted of armed terrorist violence. The new Charter
builds upon the Civil Concord, and the Rahma (clemency)
Law shields from prosecution anyone who laid down arms
in response to those previous amnesty offers. The
Charter specifically excludes from amnesty those
involved in mass murders, rapes, or the use of
explosives in public places. The Charter was implemented
in March 2006, and the window for combatants to receive
amnesty expired in September 2006. Approximately 2,500
Islamists were released under the Charter, many of whom
are now suspected of having returned to militant groups
in Algeria. |
|
