ALGERIA: Algerians set to vote in referendum on controversial amnesty, sparking protests from relatives of "disappeared"

Record ID: 574320

  • Title: ALGERIA: Algerians set to vote in referendum on controversial amnesty, sparking protests from relatives of "disappeared"
  • Date: 29th September 2005
  • Summary: WIDE OF STREET SCENE WITH PEOPLE WALKING / REFERENDUM POSTER
  • Embargoed: 14th October 2005 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Algeria
  • Country: Algeria
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA1VOOTYK0A1YBR6SCQ06VG7ZSI
  • Story Text: Algerians will vote on Thursday (September 29) on a referendum on a controversial amnesty aimed at ending 13 years of Islamist insurgency,
    Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika called last month for referendum over the draft charter for peace and national reconciliation,"
    But he said militants involved in "massacres and explosions in public areas" would be excluded from the reconciliation plan, Bouteflika said earlier this month.
    The amnesty would involve dropping legal action against Islamist rebels who have already surrendered, and against some still at large in Algeria or abroad.
    Algeria's insurgency, which at one point threatened the state's survival, was sparked when the powerful military cancelled elections a radical Islamic political party, the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS), was set to win in 1992.
    As many as 200,000 people were killed in the bloodshed but clashes and attacks have fallen sharply in recent years.
    The draft reconciliation plan also bars those behind insurgent violence from entering politics, in an apparent reference to leaders of the now-banned FIS.
    Meanwhile, dozens of Algerians staged a protest in front of the government human rights office demanding the government to find out the fate of their relatives who disappeared or were kidnapped by insurgents during 13 years of insurgency.
    Thousands of people who disappeared in the violence will be considered under the reconciliation plan "victims of the national tragedy", Bouteflika said earlier in the month adding that compensation for their families will be made.
    A government human rights group recently said these numbered 6,141. cai/jrc/
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