Chapter 5 Part 2 Algeria pre-independence and post-colonial chronology

Algeria A chronology of key events and key protagonists

Source: Le Sueur James D., Algeria since 1989, Between Terror and Democracy, 2010 1908 Young Algerians delegation meets with Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau in Paris to discuss the possibility of reforming the colonial system in Algeria. 1912 French law enacted that imposes conscription on Algerian Muslims. August 1914 Germany declares war on France. 1919 Treaty of Versailles. 1926 The nationalist organization, the toile Nord-Africaine (ENA), founded in Paris. Led by its general secretary, Ahmed Messali Hadj, the group publicizes its agenda to liberate Algeria. 1929 ENA is dissolved and banned by France. 1933 Messali Hadj re-establishes ENA. June 1936 Muslim College created in Algeria, establishing a separate representative body for Algerian Muslims. 1937 Foundation of Parti du Peuple Algrien (PPA), following the renewed dissolution and banning of the ENA. November 1942 Allied landings in Algeria May 1943 Resistance leader, General Charles de Gaulle, arrives in Algiers to lead the Free French operations. May 8, 1945 The French massacre thousands of Algerians at Stif and Guelma. Algerians estimate that 45,000 were killed, the French government proposes a total of 20,000. Messali Hadj and other prominent leaders arrested. These events drive the Algerian resistance into clandestinity. April 1946 Ferhat Abbas founds Union Dmocratique du Manifeste Algrien (UDMA). October 1946 Messali Hadj establishes Mouvement pour le Triomphe des Liberts Dmocratiques (MTLD), which later recruits an armed wing known as the Organisation Spciale. 1954 Spring The Comit Rvolutionnaire pour lUnit et lAction (CRUA) is founded. November 1 Guerrilla war begins against the French. CRUA becomes the nationalist organization thereafter known as the Front de Libration Nationale (FLN). December Messali Hadj, marginalized by FLN, creates a rival guerrilla organization, the Mouvement National Algrien (MNA). The two formations compete for control over Algerian nationalism. 1955 January Franois Mitterrand, Frances minister of the interior, vows to restore order in Algeria and authorizes full use of military force to crush the insurrection. February Jacques Soustelle appointed by Prime Minister Pierre Mends France as governor general of Algeria. April 1824 Bandung Conference (Asia-Africa Conference) held in Indonesia under the leadership of President Ahmed Sukarno. Participation of FLN. Bandung led to the creation of the Non-Aligned Movement. September Algerian Communist Party officially banned by French government. 1956 February Jacques Soustelle leaves post of governor general and Robert Lacoste is named as his replacement; the post is renamed minister resident, allowing Lacoste more direct power. October Airplane carrying Ahmed Ben Bella, Hocine At Ahmed, Ferhat Abbas, and other FLN leaders over Algeria forced to land. Leaders on board arrested and held until conclusion of the war. 1957 January Battle of Algiers begins when General Massu is granted police powers in Algeria. This action transforms the military campaign considerably. June Mlouza massacre. FLN denies responsibility, but later admits to the murder of over 300 Algerian civilians at Mlouza. June Arrest of Maurice Audin, member of Algerian Communist Party and professor of mathematics at University of Algiers. He is disappeared by French military. Henri Alleg, editor of Alger Rpublicain, also arrested. July Senator John F. Kennedy makes impassioned speech calling on France to end the war in Algeria. 1958 February Henri Allegs The Question published in Europe. The book causes an international scandal over the French use of torture, which Alleg, as a victim, outlines in great detail. May Political conditions in Algeria deteriorate. May 13 General Massu creates Committee of Public Safety after assuming control over government in Algeria, and calls on de Gaulle to take power in France with a military coup dtat. French military threatens to take over Paris if de Gaulle is not brought to power. June 1 Despite widespread opposition in Paris, de Gaulle illegally assumes powers over French government. Coup dtat becomes a reality. 1959 September De Gaulle makes it clear he will pursue self-determination for Algerians in a national referendum. 1960 January Conservative French settlers revolt against French government, put up barricades in Algiers.

Chapter 5 Part 2 Algeria pre-independence and post-colonial chronology

September Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) founded in Baghdad. 1961 January French voters pass referendum on de Gaulles handling of Algerian situation. May Organisation Arme Secrte (OAS), an ultra-right, pro-colonial paramilitary organization, created with the intention of overthrowing de Gaulle and keeping Algeria French. September 8 De Gaulle survives OAS assassination attempt. 1962 March Evian meetings between FLN and French formalize the terms of ceasefire; OAS responds with a wave of terror in Algeria. March 15 Mouloud Feraoun and five other leaders of Centres Sociaux murdered by OAS in an attempt to disrupt the peace process. March 18 Evian agreement signed. March 19 Ceasefire goes into effect. July 5 Algeria declares independence. July 22 Ahmed Ben Bella seizes control of government. October Algeria inducted into United Nations. Ben Bella, as prime minister, attends ceremonies in New York. October 22 US President John F. Kennedy makes television appearance informing US citizens of presence of Soviet missiles in Cuba. Ben Bella expresses sympathy for Fidel Castro and alienates the Kennedy administration.

Post-colonial Algeria
Source: BBC news, Africa. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-14118856 1962 - Algeria gains independence from France. 1963 - Ahmed Ben Bella elected as first president. 1965 - Col Houari Boumedienne overthrows Ben Bella, pledges to end corruption. 1976 - Boumedienne introduces a new constitution which confirms commitment to socialism and role of the National Liberation Front (FLN) as the sole political party. Islam is recognised as state religion. 1976 December - Boumedienne is elected president and is instrumental in launching a programme of rapid industrialisation. 1978 - Boumedienne dies and is replaced by Col Chadli Bendjedid, as the compromise candidate of the military establishment. 1986 - Rising inflation and unemployment, exacerbated by the collapse of oil and gas prices lead to a wave of strikes and violent demonstrations. Ban on parties lifted 1988 - Serious rioting against economic conditions. 1989 - The National People's Assembly revokes the ban on new political parties and adopts a new electoral law allowing opposition parties to contest future elections. 1989 - Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) founded and over 20 new parties licensed. 1990 - The FIS wins 55 per cent of the vote in local elections. 1991 - Government announces parliamentary elections in June 1991 and plans changes to electoral system including restrictions on campaigning in mosques. FIS reacts by calling general strike. State of siege declared, elections postponed. FIS leaders Abassi Madani and Ali Belhadj arrested and jailed. 1991 December - In the first round of general elections the FIS wins 188 seats outright, and seems virtually certain to obtain an absolute majority in the second round. Military takes over 1992 4 January - The National People's Assembly is dissolved by presidential decree and on 11 January President Chadli, apparently under pressure from the military leadership, resigns. A five-member Higher State Council, chaired by Mohamed Boudiaf, takes over. Street gatherings banned, violent clashes break out on 8 and 9 February between FIS supporters and security forces. A state of emergency is declared, the FIS is ordered to disband and all 411 FIS-controlled local and regional authorities are dissolved. Boudiaf assassinated 1992 29 June - Boudiaf assassinated by a member of his bodyguard with alleged Islamist links. Violence increases and the Armed Islamic Group (GIA) emerges as the main group behind these operations. 1994 - Liamine Zeroual, a retired army colonel, is appointed chairman of the Higher State Council.

Chapter 5 Part 2 Algeria pre-independence and post-colonial chronology

1995 - Zeroual wins a five-year term as president of the republic with a comfortable majority. 1996 - Proposed constitutional changes approved in a referendum by over 85 per cent of voters. 1997 - Parliamentary elections won by the newly-created Democratic National Rally, followed by the moderate Islamic party, Movement of Society for Peace. Militants ignore concord 1998 - President Zeroual announces his intention to cut short his term and hold early presidential elections. 1999 - Former foreign minister Abdelaziz Bouteflika elected as president after all opposition candidates withdraw from race, saying they had received inadequate guarantees of fair and transparent elections. 1999 - Referendum approves Bouteflika's law on civil concord, the result of long and largely secret negotiations with the armed wing of the FIS, the Islamic Salvation Army (AIS). Thousands of members of the AIS and other armed groups are pardoned. 2000 - Attacks on civilians and security forces continue, and are thought to be the work of small groups still opposed to the civil concord. Violence is estimated to have claimed over 100,000 lives in Algeria since 1992. 2001 April/May - Scores of demonstrators are killed in violent clashes between security forces and Berber protesters in the mainly Berber region of Kabylie following the death of a teenager in police custody. 2001 May - The mainly Berber party, the Rally for Culture and Democracy, withdraws from the government in protest against the authorities' handling of riots in Kabylie.

Key protagonists
Source: Le Sueur James D., Algeria since 1989, Between Terror and Democracy, 2010 Hocine At Ahmed (1926): A historic co-founder of the FLN in 1954, he was captured by the French military in 1956 after a plane carrying FLN leaders was illegally forced to land. He spent the rest of the war in custody. After independence he opposed Ben Bella and the FLNs hegemonic one-party stance. In 1963 he founded a Kabylia-based opposition party, the FFS, but was arrested by Ben Bellas government that same year. He escaped from prison in 1966 and lived in exile, first in France and then in Switzerland, until returning to Algeria in December 1989. He oversaw the legalization of the FFS as an opposition party after the democratic process was opened. He supported and signed the SantEgidio Platform in 1995. He withdrew as a candidate for president in 1999 due to claims of election rigging by the military, but ran again in 2004 and 2009. Ahmed Ben Bella (1918): Served in the French military during the Second World War. A historic founder of the FLN, he was based in Cairo until he was captured in 1956 when a plane carrying FLN leaders was illegally forced to land by the French military. After independence, he became prime minister in 1962 and was elected (in an uncontested race) to become Algerias first president in 1963. In 1965, Colonel Houari Boumediene overthrew him in a bloodless coup dtat, and kept him under house arrest until 1980. In 1980 he went into exile, returning to Algeria in 1990. While in exile, in 1984 he founded the MDA, a moderate Islamist party, which he revived in Algeria after coming back to take part in Algerias first democratic elections. He was present at the SantEgidio Conference in Rome and a signatory of the Rome Platform. His party was officially banned in 1997. Chadli Bendjedid (1929): Served as Algerias third president from 1979 to 1992, following the death of Boumediene. After the overthrow of Ben Bella, he occupied important government posts, including key military command positions. Re-elected to the presidency in 1985 and 1989, he oversaw the controversial Family Code in 1986 which greatly restricted womens freedoms as a concession to conservative Islamists. Following the riots in October 1988, he quickly opened up the political process and pledged to enforce liberal economic reforms. He enacted the 1989 Constitution that formalized Algerias commitment to reform, and introduced a multi-party system. He lost the confidence of the military after the FIS swept the local elections in 1990 and the first round of the national parliamentary elections in 1991, and was forced to resign after the military coup dtat in January 1992. Mohamed Boudiaf (1919June 1992): A member of Messali Hadjs PPA, he remained a fervent nationalist during the colonial era and throughout decolonization. He was captured in 1956, along with other FLN leaders, when the plane he was traveling in was forced down by French military. He rejected the FLNs single-party stance after independence, but was forced into exile in Morocco by the FLNs ruthless tactics. In 1992, after 27 years in exile, he returned to Algeria at the request of the government to accept the chairmanship of the newly created ruling council (HCE). He was assassinated by his bodyguard on June 29, 1992.

Chapter 5 Part 2 Algeria pre-independence and post-colonial chronology

Houari Boumediene (1932December 1978): Joined the FLN in 1955 and directed the ALN, the partys armed wing, from 1960. Took power in a military coup dtat in 1965 that led to the imprisonment of Ben Bella and consolidated the FLNs hold on power. He ruled as an autocrat, but instituted major reforms that focused on a socialist economic model in an effort to create a vibrant industrial-based economy. He accelerated arabization in primary and secondary schools. Under his leadership, Algeria became a leading member of the Non-Aligned Movement. In 1976, he oversaw the implementation of the National Charter that, among other things, re-enforced Islams place as the state religion but also the states control over religious institutions. Under his leadership, the Algerian state imposed strict limits on democratic freedoms, including freedom of the press. Abdelaziz Bouteflika (1937): Elected president in 1999. Re-elected in 1994, and to a controversial third term in 2009. A veteran of the war of liberation, he served as minister of youth and sport and minister of foreign affairs until 1978. He went into exile in 1981 to avoid being prosecuted for corruption, and continued to live abroad until after 1989. Marginalized in the post-Boumediene reshuffle of the old guard, he became the militarys favored candidate to succeed General Liamine Zeroual as president. In 1999 and in 2005 he successfully sponsored controversial amnesty referendums designed to foster national reconciliation and thereby end terrorism.