Islamic front leader says reform in Algeria has reached an impasse

The prospects for political reform in Algeria have reached deadlock and if “wise men” within the regime did not realise the sensitivity of the stage and answer the growing demands for reform, all bets are open for change, Quds Press news agency reported the co-founder of the country’s Islamic Salvation Front Sheikh Ali Benhadj as saying.

In an exclusive interview, Benhadj said the recent American warnings of new terrorist risks in Algeria are politically motivated and reflect the weakness of the Algerian regime.

“We do not know the sort of information the US Embassy has used to build this opinion. The embassy in Algeria is well protected and more secure than the presidential palace. And while we wait for the US Embassy to reveal this information, these warnings remain political rather than an expression of the reality,” he said.

Benhaj added: “There is no doubt that the Algerian ruling powers lack legitimacy and popular representation which makes them vulnerable to blackmail from international powers. France and the United States want to gain some interest in the Algerian desert.”

He called on “sensible and wise men in the Algerian regime” to respond to demands for reform and stop concessions to foreign powers. “A sensible person wishes the expected change in Algeria to be peaceful and quiet with the participation of the power itself, but if the wise men in power did not respond to this call, Algeria will be disturbed, which will have internal and regional implications.

“The change in Algeria is coming, and if there were no deep reform, the people will increase their demands and move towards achieving them. For us in Algeria, we believe that new presidential elections will be held within two years mainly because the president is ill and has mandated his powers to Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal and Chief of Staff Kaid Saleh, therefore Algeria is run today by the army and not Bouteflika,” Benhaj explained.

The opposition memeber criticised the Algerian authorities’ decision to exclude leaders in the Islamic Front, imprisoned since 1992, from a presidential pardon on independence day, and said “excluding nearly 130 prisoners from the Islamic Salvation Front who have been in prison since the coup in 1992 and were tried under special courts that were annulled after a campaign by human rights activists because of their illegality, unconstitutionality and violation of all international human rights conventions is, in itself, illegal and contrary to international laws which stipulate that amnesty should not be issued on a discriminatory basis. The amnesty was an opportunity for the authorities to confirm that it they are serious in their efforts to start dialogue, but the authorities missed the opportunity and excluding them from its decision.”

On the fate of reform in Algeria, Benhadj said: “It is stalled and all observers realise that it had reached an impasse. The president is a paralysed man and his powers are distributed between Sellal and Kaid, and the military runs the country, and therefore the country is now open to all bets for change.”