clear

Creating new perspectives since 2009

Bouteflika: Reconciliation protected Algeria from seditions

September 29, 2015 at 2:52 pm

Algeria’s Charter for Peace and National Reconciliation is protecting the country from seditions and instability, Quds Press reported the country’s president as saying yesterday.

Marking the charter’s tenth anniversary, President Abdelaziz Bouteflika said the reduction in the terrorist threat on the country and the national army helped Algeria concentrate its resources on the fight against criminals at the borders and to face instability which has been shaking neighbouring countries.

He described what is going on in some Arab countries regarding attempts to achieve democracy as “events burdened with instability” targeting only the Arab and Islamic countries.

According to AFP, after he was elected in 1999, President Bouteflika proposed an amnesty for rebels who surrendered and twice secured public endorsement for “national reconciliation” through referendums.

The first, in 1999, led to a sharp decrease in violence and the second came on 29 September 2005, when Algerians voted in a referendum to approve the Charter for Peace and National Reconciliation that led to 8,500 armed Islamists being pardoned in exchange for their surrender.