Council Appointed to Govern Algeria

Government forces and Muslim fundamentalists settled into an uneasy standoff Tuesday as a new five-member council of state was appointed to fill the void left by President Chadli Bendjedid’s resignation over the weekend.

Islamic leaders warned their militants against taking any action that would provoke a crackdown as machine gun-equipped government troops moved into Algeria’s main intersections and roads leading into the city.

“Each hopes the other will make the first move. They’re like cats, each waiting for the other to jump,” said Mohammed Larbi, editor of the independent daily newspaper Al Watan.

In the crowded popular quarter of Bab al Oued, an Islamic Salvation Front stronghold, fundamentalist leaders in beards and long robes prevented their militants from talking to reporters, apparently fearful of provoking the government into an action that would almost certainly crush the front.

“We are soldiers waiting for our orders. What we want is an Islamic state,” said one bearded young man before he was escorted away by Islamic militants.

At a nearby furniture store, an older merchant shook his head and called up images of Algeria’s bloody war of independence from the French, which killed more than 1 million Algerians before its conclusion in 1962. “It’s the young men who want war,” he sighed. “They don’t remember the last one.”

In an apparent attempt to fill a constitutional vacuum left by Bendjedid’s abrupt resignation, reportedly at the behest of Algeria’s defense minister and senior army generals, the council of state was appointed to take over the functions of running the country.

The new panel, presided over by a hero from Algeria’s war of independence, Mohammed Houdiaf, is an apparent attempt to cloak the government’s actions in constitutionality following the nominally appointed interim head of state’s refusal to take on the job, diplomats and government officials said.

Bendjedid’s resignation followed his own order dissolving the National Assembly, preventing the Speaker of the Assembly from succeeding to the presidency. The matter got even more complicated when Abdelmalek Benhabyles, chief of the country’s Constitutional Council, refused to act as interim head of state.

A security council headed by Prime Minister Sid Ahmed Ghozali announced over the weekend that it was taking over the job of running the country. But diplomats said the council had no constitutional authority to govern, including a reported plan to declare a “state of exception” that would expand the government’s powers during the crisis.

The security council’s most important move was to announce the cancellation of Thursday’s scheduled runoff elections, which were expected to guarantee the Islamic Front a large majority in the National Assembly.

The other four members of the council of state are Minister of State Khaled Nezzar; Ali Kafi, president of the National Organization of Freedom Fighters; Tidjani Haddam, rector of the Mosque of Paris, and Ali Haroun, human rights minister.

Islamic leaders, meanwhile, remained split over how to proceed. A moderate faction headed by the current Islamic Front leader, Abdelkadir Hachani, has apparently prevailed, so far, winning approval from the governing Majlis al Shura to issue a strident statement that calls for resistance without specifying any particular measures.

A more militant faction has called for the fundamentalists to begin massive peaceful demonstrations to protest the cancellation of the scheduled elections. The fundamentalists won outright 188 seats in the 430-seat Parliament during initial balloting on Dec. 26.

A third, minority faction has reportedly called for the Islamic Front to cease trying to deal with the government and go back underground for moves that might include armed resistance, some diplomats said.

Times staff writer Robin Wright contributed to this report.