Muslims Fighting Terrorists
The Algerian army battled terrorists this week. Today, in a final storming of a natural gas complex in the Algerian Sahara, the secularist army regained control of the complex seized last Wednesday by Islamist hostage-takers, of several nationalities. Casualties are apparently heavy. Western governments have expressed surprise and frustration (but, privately, relief as well) that the Algerian response has been so rapid and heavy-handed. An audio recording released by the Algerian security forces indicates that the terrorists' goal was to force negotiations for a swap of 100 prisoners long held by the Algerian government. The government opted for force instead.
Algeria's insistence on not negotiating with terrorists should be of no surprise to anyone. Over ten years ending in 2002, the Algerian government, and more particularly the Algerian military, talked then fought with Islamists in a complex, blood-stained civil war about which the rest of the world, including France, adopted a policy of mostly benign neglect and buck-passing. It is estimated that upward to 200,000 Algerians died, in a war where deliberate massacres were not uncommon, but their reasons opaque, in that who was killing whom, and why, was often unclear. At the time, Algerian generals, who had seized power during the 1992 elections when Islamist parties appeared poised to form the next government, were divided between "dialoguistes", who favored talking to the Islamists, and "eradicateurs", who believed there was no such thing as a "moderate Islamist", and wanted to eliminate them. The debate raged for years. More Algerians, including civilians who were specifically targeted, died each year, and it was not until an amnesty issued in 1999 to guerrilla fighters by a newly-elected President, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, that violence subsided, with full victory for the government some two years later.
A decade later, Mr. Bouteflika remains the Algerian President. Still recovering from the legacy of the civil war, he clearly sided this week with the "eradicateurs", deciding on a response of overwhelming force in dealing with the Islamist terrorists in the Sahara. He won this battle. But, although not yet affected by the Arab Spring, it seems nonetheless difficult to imagine how Mr Bouteflika and his military-backed government can ultimately escape the kind of pressures that two years ago swept away similar power structures in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya. As in these neighboring Arab countries, the Islamists, in the form of Muslim- Brotherhood-backed political parties, are well-organized, and may yet emerge in Algeria as the new power elite. Last Spring, following elections, even Mr Bouteflika seemed to acknowledge the possibility, when he said that "my generation has had its time".