| Submit your comments on this article |
| Africa North |
| Algeria plans to release 2,000 Islamist fighters |
| 2006-03-02 |
| Algeria will release more than 2,000 Islamist ex-fighters soon under an amnesty to promote reconciliation after years of conflict in the oil-exporting country, an official said on Wednesday. The releases, the most numerous since civil strife erupted in 1992, will be a high-profile test of the government's push to stabilize a giant north African nation widely seen as crucial for the security of the Mediterranean region. "There will be more than 2,000 people released under the charter for peace and national reconciliation," AbdelKader Sahraoui, an official of the Justice Ministry, said in an interview on state radio. The state radio announcer said separately that this would happen "immediately." The releases, which would be the first of former Islamist fighters for several years, had been widely expected since the government of the large north African oil-exporting country approved a raft of amnesty measures on February 21. Another official source told Reuters that apart from the 2,000 people to be released, an estimated 10,000 people would take advantage of the reconciliation drive in one way or another. These ranged from prisoners having their sentences cut to bereaved relatives being paid compensation. The former combatants were convicted for their role in more than a decade of conflict that began when the authorities canceled the 1992 legislative elections which the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) was poised to win. The amnesty also gives Islamic guerrillas still fighting the authorities six months to surrender and be pardoned provided they were not responsible for massacres, rapes and bombings of public places. Word had circulated about a possible release after the amnesty was published in the government gazette on Tuesday, a measure that signals its entry into force. Thousands of Islamic guerrillas have already given themselves up since early January 2000 after a partial amnesty. The last significant prisoner releases took place in 1999. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #5 |
| Posted by: JFM 2006-03-02 19:46 |
| #4 |
| Posted by: wxjames 2006-03-02 11:37 |
| #3 |
| Posted by: Seafarious 2006-03-02 11:07 |
| #2 |
| Posted by: gromgoru 2006-03-02 11:03 |
| #1 |
| Posted by: DepotGuy 2006-03-02 10:40 |