ALGERIA: Country mourns death of Ahmed ben Bella, first president after independence from France half a century ago

Record ID: 574084

  • Title: ALGERIA: Country mourns death of Ahmed ben Bella, first president after independence from France half a century ago
  • Date: 13th April 2012
  • Summary: VARIOUS OF STREET SCENES
  • Embargoed: 28th April 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Algeria
  • Country: Algeria
  • Topics: Obituaries,Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA7XGXNB8Y9DS202TXG00CEH7A8
  • Story Text: Flags flew at half mast on Thursday (April 12) as the country began eight days of mourning following the death a day earlier of Ahmed Ben Bella, the man who helped lead the North African country's fight for independence from France and after victory, became its first president and a figure who symbolised the romance of the national liberation struggle before the harsh reality of running a country intruded.
    News of his death was splashed across all the country's front pages as people on the street paid tribute to him.
    "There's total sadness. It's a big loss. He was one of the last ones from the old generation," said one man in Algiers.
    "It's a big loss. He was the father of the Algerian revolution," another added.
    He died on Wednesday morning in the Algerian capital, aged 96, after an illness, the state-run news agency reported.
    The son of peasant farmers who grew up near Algeria's border with Morocco, Ben Bella was a decorated soldier in the French army during World War Two, and then joined Algeria's outlawed national independence movement, spending several years in French prisons.
    When France relinquished control of Algeria in 1962, Ben Bella became president. In orders issued in the heady days after independence, he helped shape the young country by nationalising industry and becoming a champion of Third World anti-colonialism.
    But he lacked the political weight to build the young country and fend off challenges to his power. After three years he was pushed out by Houari Boumediene, from the independence movement's military wing, who took over as head of state.
    That event established a pattern, still in place half a century later, of the military exerting strong influence over Algeria's political life.
    Ben Bella subsequently spent years in jail and exile, only finally settling back in Algeria after Abdelaziz Bouteflika, the serving president, was elected in 1999.
    Bouteflika declared a week of national mourning for Ben Bella. His body will be laid in state so people can pay their respects, and will be buried on Friday, official media reported.
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