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Sheikh Shayban goes for goes for Bouteflika’s reconciliatory moves
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By
Diaa Mostafa, IOL Correspondent
ALGIERS,
December 7 (IslamOnline.net) – Algerian political and law experts
voiced Monday, December 6, their support for President Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s
call for granting amnesty for those who took up arms in the 1990s,
though disagreeing on how to put it into effect.
Sheikh
Abdul Rahman Shayban, chief of Algeria’s Muslim Scholars Association which had played a leading role in
the Algerian national struggle against the French occupation
(1830-1962), goes for Bouteflika’s reconciliatory moves.
Speaking
to IslamOnline.net, Shayban, however, said that addressing the roots
of the 1990s civil conflict should be given priority before any talk
about reconciliation and amnesty.
Addressing
the 10th meeting of the war veterans on December 2, the
Algerian president called for granting amnesty for militants,
stressing that the offer would be put for public referendum.
A
day later, a national committee was formed to discuss how to translate
the president’s call into concrete steps.
Sheikh
Abdul Kader Bu Khamkham, a leader of the outlawed Islamic Salvation
Front (ISF), shared identical viewpoints with Shayban, adding that any
amnesty should include militants hiding in the mountains.
“They
should be allowed to reunite with their families and loved ones,” he
said.
Algeria
had fallen into a bloody and vicious cycle of violence in early 1992
after the government had annulled the results of the 1991 legislative
election in which the outlawed Islamic Salvation Front was about to
secure a landslide victory.
The
authorities then disbanded the Islamic movement and unleashed a
crackdown on its members, arresting scores of them.
The
government move had triggered a bloody armed conflict that lingered on
for several years, claiming the lives of some 150,000 people, mostly
civilians.
Legal
Limbo
But
Lawyer Bu Gomaa Ghusher, chairman of the Algerian league for human
rights, said the Algerian president has no constitutional powers to
grant amnesty.
“Only
the parliament is entitled to grant amnesty,” he told IOL.
He
added that as far as the president is concerned, he can “pardon”
militants convicted by court verdicts.
In
calling for a public referendum, “the president throws the ball in
the people’s court,” Ghusher said.
The
law expert compared the situation in Algeria to that of South Africa, Chile
and Argentina where conflicts had ended up with national reconciliations based on
law.
“If
the president wants a peaceful Algeria, he should build his national
reconciliation effort on justice, equality and transparency,” he
said.
Ghusher
suggested setting up an ad hoc independent committee to figure out
those responsible for the bloody civil war and hold them accountable.
“They
can’t carry out such atrocities with impunity.”
Similar
committees were formed in 1999 but their recommendations have not, in
effect, materialized.
“Many
committees were formed in vain,” Aisha Bu Sabah Mosallam, deputy of
the National Reform Movement, said emphatically.
“We
call for a political solution to the crisis, given that the security
solution has only made matters worse.”
