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2- 10 Question Army Policy, Focus
By Jonathan C. Randal Boudiaf and Defense minister who is not expected to fulfill Bou'
Washington Post Foreign Service Khaled Nezzar later banned the diaf's promise of "radical change"
front, arrested its leaders and sent for a people fed up with soaring in
                ALGIERS-For many Algerians, thousands of militants to Sahara flation and unemployment, econom
the most troubling fact about last detention camps. ic mismanagement and revolving
                                                
                                                

week's assassination              Indeed, only two days door governments. Kafi,
of head                   before                however,
of                                              
                                                

state Mohammed              Boudiaf's assassination,has the political connections
Boudiaf                   the regime            capable
was that                                        
                                                

the man identified              had brought before    of initiating a national
as the appareht              a military tri-       reconciliation
                                                

assassin                  bunal the Islamic Salvationwith the Islamic fundamentalists.
was' a junior              Front's               
officer                                         
in an                                           
                                                

elite army                top leaders-Abbasi    Even Nezzar has favored
security                  Madani, Ali           such a
unit who                                        
had                                             
                                                

Muslim "religious              Belhadj and five others-ondialogue, according
convictions."              capital               to key diplo-
                                                

The report                charges of seeking    mats and political
that an                   to overthrow the      observers, de-
army officer                                    
                                                

had pulled                government and replacespite his call a week
the trigger               it with an            ago for the
seemed to                                       
                                                

confirm recurring              Islamic republic in   "eradicating" of fundamentalist
rumors here               June 199 1.           ex-
that                                            
                                                

            the army, longConspiracy theories   tremists.
            consid-       on Boudiaf's          
                                                

            ered the regime'sassassination soon    The generals are said
            ul-           emerged, laying       to be con-
                                                

            timate bulwarkblame variously on    cerned about the army's
            against       mysterious mil-       cohesion.
                                                

chaos, was                itary and civilian    They are mindful that
as subject                power brokers or      younger of-
as the rest                                     
of                                              
                                                

society to                alleged skullduggery  ficers are having second
the Islamic               by Bendjedid          thoughts
fundamental-                                    
                                                

ist virus.                and the discredited   about the yearlong
                          National Liber-       state of emer-
                                                

In Algeria,               ation Front, which    gency decreed in February,
an old saw                monopolized           which
states,                                         
                                                

"Other countries              power until 1990.     has cost the lives
have an                                         of some 100 sol-
army;                                           
                                                

here the                  Some accusations also diers and policemen.
army has                  were di-              
the country."                                    
                                                

Officially,               rected at the army.   The generals also know
that army,                Indeed, a senior      the re-
which effec-                                    
                                                

tively has                Algerian source said  gime now is more beholden
run Algeria               so many peo-          than
from behind               "                     
                                                

the scenes                were accusing the armyever to France, Italy,
since independence              of                    Spain and oth-
30                        ple                   
                                                

-                         bringing Boudiaf back,er Western governments,
   ears a                    using him             which
      o                                               
was silent                                      
when                                            
o                                               
                                                

c                         and then getting rid  have thrown good money
      n                         of him" that the      after bad
      ,                                               
      y                                               
g                                               
                                                

fronted with              government set up an  in helping successive
evidence                  impartial,            Algerian ad-
of the seem-                                    
                                                

ing penetration              three-man panel of    ministrations.
of its ranks              the slain lead-       
by the                                          
                                                

very fundamentalists              er's associates to    Even before Boudiaf's
it has sworn              investigate his       assassina-
                                                

publicly                  death and "convince   tion, foreign business
to eradicate.              the people [the       hesitated to
                                                

The army                  army] had nothing to  make major investments
had never                 do with it."          because of
formally                                        
                                                

named the                 In dealing with the   Algeria's political
fundamentalist              succession,           instability and a
Islamic                                         
                                                

Salvation                 Nezzar and his fellow $24 billion foreign
Front as                  generals, tra-        debt devouring
the enemy.                                      
But                                             
                                                

in January,               ditionally shy of the 70 percent of foreign-exchange
it ousted                 limelight,            
president                                       
                                                

Chadli Bendjedid.              brushed aside hard-lineearnings-which come
to prevent                suggestions           from oil and
the                                             
                                                

front from                that they impose an   natural gas exports.
winning                   outright mil-         
Algeria's                                       
first                                           
                                                

free parliamentary              itary regime by invokingIn such circumstances,
elections.                the ulti-             the fun-
Then                                            
                                                

it brought                mate bulwark argument.damentalists have everything
war hero                                        to
Boudiaf                                         
back                                            
                                                

                                                
                                                
ir heads                                        
down                                            
from 11-inixeUexile                                    
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                          m                     u her unraveling
a "constitutional                         0                               ,,
coup d'etat."              the Algerian veterans'of Algeria's social
                          organization,         fabric.