1. You started the Rachad Movement, according to the founding documents, to put an end to the rule of oppression and corruption in Algeria. How is this to be realised, knowing that this state is ruled by the generals with an iron hand?

The Rachad Movement is a resistance movement using non-violent means to achieve change.  We are well aware that the use of violence in all its forms, and the creation of phantom enemies to justify oppressive discourse and policies to strangle society and abuse the nation, are key strategies that the generals’ regime is using to keep an iron grip on Algeria.

Those who refuse to be drawn into the gang in power’s agenda of violence, and instead resist it through non-violent means, such as protests and disobedience and peaceful popular intifadas, undercut many of its justifications for its existence, weakens its plots, and shames its whitewashed image abroad, where it takes pains to display itself as the “civilised” regime.

2. You think the ruling regime in Algeria is illegal.  Why is that?

Because it emerged from a coup d’Etat against the constitution and the will of the people, and because it has ruled, and still rules, through state terror.  Most of the soldiers who carried out the coup against the will of the people in 1992 are still the real rulers of Algeria, such as the Deputy Minister of Defense Abdelmalek Guenaizia, and the Chief of Staff General Gaid Salah, and especially Lt. General Mohamed “Toufik” Mediene, head of the secret services.  These have remained in their posts in one way or another, and have changed a number of presidents, and prime ministers, and tens of ministers and officials, while some of them have not changed their own office.

It is the hidden government, with the secret services at its core, that is in control of the state, even if it withdraws from some of its powers for civilian consumption.

The army behind the curtain tries to make the situation look good whenever necessary, whether by the farce of elections or by making illegal changes to the constitution or by any other means calculated to lengthen the lifespan of despotism.

Even the army elements that appear to have withdrawn from government are still linked to the ruling circles by many connections, and still intervene in the administration of the governing side with the interests and e conomic power they took on during the 1990s.  Moreover, many officers implicated in the shedding of Algerian blood have been promoted to the rank of general, ensuring that the same kind of people will continue to dominate the government, even if some of the names change.

3. How will you change Algeria’s internal situation when most of you are in exile?  What means will enable you to achieve this?

Rachad is a non-violent political and popular movement for its representatives within a highly flexible broader framework to achieve the primary goal: radical change of the system of government.  From this starting point, the goal of the Rachad Movement is not tied to individuals or their locations, as long as the work of each feeds into the goal outlined.

The founding of Rachad was announced from exile because we were deeply convinced that it was impossible to announce it from Algeria in the shadow of political and media stranglehold and complete coercion.  But elements of the movement remain present within the country, and the movement’s effective presence abroad is an extension, for the media and in other respects, of the activity which will be concentrated within the country at the appropriate time.

Experience has shown that all attempts at serious change starting from within have ended up being aborted in various ways – through infiltration or exploitation or invalidation or assassination, or all of the above.

What is happening to the independent unions these days is the latest example of this, even though the independent unions do not seek to change or even reform the regime, but only to improve workers’ standard of living.

In addition to non-violent resistance, as answered previously, Rachad benefits greatly from its presence abroad to spread its media message which is essential to the success of the heralded change process.

The despotic government in Algeria has managed to monopolise the media, serious or light, although the ongoing information revolution has changed many assumptions, and new media such as video sites and collective participation sites and blogging and forums, as well as satellite channels, have deprived the government of its former abilities to extort and mislead.  But these new media channels are not yet sufficiently widely available within the country.  For this reason, Rachad benefits from the presence of supporters abroad, using these technologies to bring the voice of truth to the world.  The government has not hesitated to block Rachad’s main site – the first site blocked in Algeria – but we have found other ways to keep in touch with Algerians in the country.

4. Larbi Belkheir is among the main architects of the ruling regime.  Will his departure leave a gap in the Algerian political scene?

There is no doubt that the disappearance of some of the ruling regime’s personalities has a negative effect on the fragile balance of power between quarrelling factions within the regime; but the absence of some of the regime’s major criminals is not a solution.  The octopus organisation that they established is still maintained, though less well.

Within the secret services, the positions have been filled by other names, belonging to officers seasoned in the kitchens of corruption and perpetual violence.  The generals succeeding to their empty posts are ones who participated in administering the massacres and planned killing operations against the Algerian people throughout the nineties.

The secret services government decides on military, political, and ministerial appointments and positions.  No high position is official until it has been confirmed by the secret services themselves after verifying the recipient’s complete loyalty to the regime.  To be appointed in any position, a person is expected to have previously confirmed his loyalty by participating in some form or other of financial or moral corruption, or by being directly responsible for an act of killing... so that he will be compliant and ready to execute any dirty assignment he may be ordered to carry out.

In this context Ouyahia’s description of himself as “a dirty jobs man” comes to mind.

This mechanism prevails among most ministries, authorities, and even the directors of many economic and educational centres and universities and other such posts.  Even Bouteflika himself has a file. He was prosecuted by the Court of Audit for his involvement in the embezzlement of millions of dollars during his term at the head of the Foreign Ministry in the 1960s and 1970s, and criminal proceedings were issued against him; he returned some of the embezzled money, and Chadli Bendjedid then pardoned him after the events of 5 October 1988.

5. Some say that the appointment of Belkheir as Algeria’s ambassador to Morocco was in order to distance him from the centre of power in Algeria following disagreements with President Bouteflika.  What evidence is there for this claim?

Internal struggle between different factions is a characteristic of the current regime.  Sometimes it reaches such a high point that the factions are forced to settle matters by agreeing to some concessions to preserve the balance of power.  One such case was the removal of General Betchine and resignation of General Liamine Zeroual in September 1998, after a fierce internal struggle whose manifestations included the horrifying massacres carried out by death squads in order to increase the pressure on the then-presidential faction; another was the removal of Mohamed Lamari in April 1992, followed by his return to the power structure after Boudiaf’s assassination.

The distancing of Larbi B elkheir from the heart of the regime, including supervision over the presidential apparatus, happened with the consent of both sides, the secret services and the presidency, each of whom wanted to succeed him; in the end they divided his legacy between them.  He has been a kingmaker and an engineer of the ruin of Algeria in any case.

6. Before sending Larbi Belkheir off to Morocco, Bouteflika had decided in 2005 to resign from his post.  Why is that?

The appointment of Bouteflika as head of the visible state happened with the consent of the top generals, including some without an official position.  Larbi Belkheir played the main role in that.  The goal was to save the regime from international crisis and popular anger after the calamities caused by eradicationist policies.

7. Some say that the crisis in which Algeria has been enmeshed since 1991 was ignited by Larbi Belkheir, and that he played a major role in it.

No one with knowledge of the Algerian situation would dispute that Larbi Belkheir, son of one of the gaids who cooperated with French colonialism and gathered great fortunes in money and land, has played a major role in the Algerian tragedy.  Indeed, he has been an architect of Algeria’s ruin.  It is a sad matter indeed that Larbi Belkheir should die without first paying the price for his long career of crimes against Algeria and the Algerian people.

Larbi Belkheir was the shadow ruler of Algeria under Chadli Bendjedid. Chadli did not realise until too late that Belkheir had started an empire of corruption during the 1980s that enabled him, and a gang of others who had previously fought for the French against the Algerian Revolution, to carry out a coup against the Algerian people’s choice in early 1992.

Larbi Belkheir and his gang are responsible before God, history, and the community for all the blood that has flowed since this date.  Even Bouteflika admitted in one of his speeches that “the violence started with the coup against the people’s choice.”

8. Is it true that Larbi Belkheir is the one who brought Bouteflika to power, but “the magic quickly rebounded against the sorcerer”?  Is this connected with the appearance of other factions in the secret services opposed to Larbi Belkheir and their alliance with the president to oust Belkheir?

Belkheir, General Toufik, and Bouteflika’s friend the Algerian arms dealer Abdelkader Koudjeti played a part in convincing the army group to accept the placement of Bouteflika as the front for the generals to cover up their crimes and violations of the people’s rights.

But Bouteflika, a potent plotter well-acquainted with the conspiracies of authority, inflamed conflict between the generals. By the start of his second term in 2004 he had gotten rid of the Chief of Staff, the bloodthirsty Lt. Gen. Mohamed Lamari, and nearly 20 other generals.

This had happened with the participation and blessing of the secret services.  At that point, he decided to put an end to the source of his fortune and architect of his glory, Larbi Belkheir. He got his wish after exerting major pressure, including threats of resignation and of seeking asylum abroad.  He replaced Belkheir with his darling brother Said Bouteflika, who leads the presidential wing at present.

Bouteflika started to expand his sphere gradually.  Term after term he spread his family’s rule and enthroned regionalism by appointing many people from his region to ministries, which he was permitted to do, and other high positions in the state... He had expected to have the upper hand in the security apparatus and the secret services after getting rid of the others, but the conflict in fact showed that the issue was much tougher.

9. How long will the effect of internal clashes between factions of the Algerian regime affect the future of Algeria, as exemplified by the Sonatrach scandal and the assassination of Col. Tounsi?

There are many examples of the continuing struggle between factions of the Algerian regime. Some are apparent and well-covered, such as those mentioned, but some appear as if they were normal developments of political and economic affairs and attract attention only from specialist followers of Algerian affairs.

These conflicts have led at certain points to one or another side being driven to take the populace hostage and commit unimaginably brutal massacres.

The conflicts that led to crimes against humanity resulted not just in the unleashing of total destruction at society and the nation and the people, including the killing of more than two hundred thousand (200,000) people, most of them innocent, but also threatened the very existence of Algeria.  The Sahel and Sahara issues that some generals of the Algerian secret services conspire over in order to make it easier for international forces to take over Algeria’s resources in the south are a clear example of the threat posed by these internal conflicts and the factions involved in them.

10. How long will the secret services continue to be the decision-makers while the President plays an implementation role?

The situation will last as it is until the regime is radically and finally changed and the secret services and security forces and army and presidency and all other institutions – which now consist of apparatuses – are subjected to legal accountability by true representations of the people transparently elected.

When the representatives of the people decide in full transparency the budgets of these bodies, and the laws and rules by which they govern, and the mechanisms for distributing responsibilities within them – then the president too will have his constitutionally defined role alone, and not this absurdity that we see now spread from the lowest levels of the municipalities to the highest levels of the presidency and ministries and security forces and other institutions.

11. You say in one of your interviews that the Algerian secret services use the Sahara issue to slaughter Saharans and Algerians alike.  What do you mean by that, and how is that?

The Algerian regime, as totalitarian states generally do, needs an enemy to provide it with an excuse for its own actions and policies, and to distract attention from itself, as laid out in Machiavelli’s The Prince.

The truth is that the Algerian regime has been innovative in creating enemies both internal and external, and the Sahara issue gave it a perfect foreign enemy, regardless of the essence of the issue and our opinions on it.  Thus the Algerian generals opposed Chadli in the late 1980s when he tried to solve it.  One of the most important reasons for the assassination of Boudiaf is that he wanted to find a solution to the Sahara issue.  It has become a threat to the region from which no one benefits but a few regimes and gangs that have formed within these regimes.

The Sahara issue, like the terrorism issue, needs to continue in order to create a state of instability.  This instability provides an excuse for the policies and perks and emoluments of major elements of the regime, but at the same time strangles the people of the Maghreb who are in fact a single people.  In the name of this external danger billions of dollars are spent yearly on weapons which time has shown will be used only against the oppressed – billions that should have gone to provide the necessities of life to millions in torment, but go instead to the treasuries of arrogant powers, and in the form of bribes and “percentages” to the pockets of the generals.

12. Algiers has been classified with the worst of poor capitals, and the situation is disastrous in many areas.  Why is there such a paradox even though the state has billions of dollars in oil and gas revenues?

For example, the state got 84 billion dollars in 2008, although some of these billions never even reach the state treasury, and go straight to Swiss or French or Caribbean bank accounts, or even accounts in Bahrain or the Emirates.

In addition to the corruption pervasive in every state structure, the appointment management stands out for the sterility of its administration despite funds.  The budgets set aside for urban development, including the capital, are eaten away at from many sides, bringing the wheel of development to a halt and starting the “ruralisation” of cities, to the point that a person feels as though he were in an occupied town.

This is a predictable result of totalitarianism. The suppression of freedoms has caused damage in every sphere of life and has extended even to the freedom to innovate and create.  Managerial responsibilities and consulting contracts are awarded on the basis of clientelism and bribes, rather than giving priority to expertise and professionalism.  The billions of dollars lose their value when they fall into the hands of the ruling Mafia gangs that use them only for their personal interests and to fund their squabbles – indeed, to corrupt the morals of the Algerian family and of society in general.

13. You also say that major officers in the Algerian secret services are implicated in suspicious ties, ties with the terrorist groups as well as drug dealing.  What is the evidence for this?

The evidence for major Algerian secret services officers’ involvement in setting up the armed terrorist groups and calling them “Islamic” is too great to be enumerated; here are a few far from exhaustive examples: 

• The testimony of the Algerian army colonel Ahmed Chouchane on General Kamel Abderrahmane’s request for General Bachir Tertag (both of the secret services) to join the GIA and become the deputy of its leader Djamel Zitouni, who was one of their assistants.
• The testimony of Colonel Mohamed Samraoui (ex-secret services) in his book Chronique des années de sang, whose contents many sources within the regime confirmed as 90% true.
• The testimony of Officer Abdelkader Tigha (of the secret services) in his book Contre-espionnage algérien : notre guerre contre les islamistes.  Abdelkader Tigha discusses in detail how the Algerian secret services kidnapped the French monks from Medea and took them to Blida and the role of Mouloud “Hadj” Azzout in the operation.  The latter was a helper of the secret services and at the same toime the head of the GIA media section.
• The declarations of Khaled Nezzar during his testimony in the Dirty War trial in Paris that the army secret services had infiltrated the armed groups and used them.
• The testimony of Reda Hsaine, an Algerian journalist libing in Britain, about the Algerian secret services’ attempt to conscript him in the mid-1990s in Algiers to collect the donations that supporters of the armed groups in Algeria were gathering, most of which the Algerian secret services were receiving even as the donators thought they were sending their money to support “jihad”!
• The testimony of the journalist Nicole Chevillard in Rachid Ramda’s trial, and how the Algerian secret services tried to conscript her to carry out a study of elements that could be used to put pressure on the generals in Algeria, and how Raymond Nart, former counterespionage official, explained that his dear friend Smaine Lamari, head of Algeria’s directorate of counterespionage, admitted to him that Djamel Zitouni, the leader of the GIA, had become one of his men (ie of the secret services’ men.)
• The book The Dark Sahara, an in-depth, well-documented study by the British anthropologist Jeremy Keenan, who lived in Algeria at various times since 1964, about the Algerian secret services’ conspiracy in the Sahara and how they arranged for the kidnapping of European tourists in 2003 in the name of the GSPC.  This work annoyed the Algerian generals and exposed their methods of misdirection.

The Sahara-Sahel region remains a centre for the activities of the Algerian secret services, who fabricate conspiracies against the country’s wealth and resources in the name of antiterrorism, while using them for smuggling operations of all kinds, most importantly drug smuggling, which according to US figures stands at more than a billion dollars a year.  It is well-known that the great barons of smuggling in the south are connected to security officials and enjoy their protection and get their security coverage from them.  The commander of Military Region II, one of the main coup participants in the regime, was even removed as a result of disputes with other officers about who would dominate drugs in the western region.

14. Can you give us an interpretation of those generals?  Don’t you think that they have committed crimes against Algeria and are still continuing to do so?

Many of Algeria’s generals came from the French army; they fought against their own people in the time of the glorious Revolution, and they have caused terrible destruction not only by making the coup but also by adopting eradicationist policies and non-popular policies as far as can be imagined from the morality of Algerian society.

These generals were not able even to come up with a model along Turkish lines (though such a model too would have deserved condemnation), because they did not have the professional capabilities not the level of knowledge that would fit them for running a country.  They cannot do a decent job of administering even a barracks, much less a state whose revolution once fascinated the whole world.

Those generals and their civilian helpers, and others from the Mafia gangs that have formed for them and with their aid, have committed crimes against Algeria that history shall not forgive.  They owe God a terrible reckoning.

http://rachad.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=499:2010-04-19-20-45-41&catid=73:pressear&Itemid=90

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