NORTH AFRICA : Having Survived Vote, Algeria Takes Small Step Toward Peace

When Algeria’s military-backed government insisted on staging elections two weeks ago, the odds were good for a disaster. The country was, after all, in the midst of a vicious civil war, and key political opponents were either in jail or in exile.

Yet when former Gen. Liamine Zeroual placed his hand on the Koran this week, officially taking the oath of office as Algeria’s sixth president, it was clear that the North African nation of 28 million people had not only survived its election but may well have taken a small step toward peace.

Zeroual has already moved to renew his call for a “national dialogue” with Islamic opponents. In one of his first official acts, he closed a prison camp in the Sahara Desert, releasing about 640 Islamic militants who had been held there without trial.

The decision to close the prison appears to be part of a strategy to drive a wedge between Muslims who oppose the government, separating militants willing to engage in talks from guerrillas trying to overthrow the government.

In fact, cracks in the opposition facade have already begun to appear, beginning with the election itself, in which a massive turnout was recorded despite boycott calls and threats of violence.

Zeroual’s election, with 60% of the vote, was no surprise given that strong opposition parties such as the Islamic Salvation Front, or FIS, still are banned in the country. But the huge turnout was viewed by political analysts, and even by Western governments opposed to the military regime, as an overwhelming demand for peace in a nation where an estimated 40,000 people have died in political violence since 1992.

Division in the Islamic opposition appeared shortly after the election, with some leaders seeing Zeroual’s installation as an opportunity and others dismissing it as an undemocratic exercise.

In an open letter, Rabah Kebir, the exiled leader of the FIS who lives in Bonn, recognized the legitimacy of the newly elected president and called on him to press to reopen dialogue with the government’s opponents.

But Amwar Haddam, the FIS spokesman in Washington, called the election “illegitimate” and said “the war will go on.”

The apparent split in that organization created an opening for Zeroual, who called on his country’s politicians this week to use the presidential election “to put in place an authentic, pluralist democracy.”

But Zeroual has a long battle ahead. Political violence has continued, with more than a dozen killings since the election.

This week, an army general was slain while shopping in an Algiers suburb, and Muslim guerrillas on Thursday killed two Latvian seamen. More than 100 foreigners have died since September, 1993, when members of the Armed Islamic Group began targeting them in a bid to end foreign support for the Algerian military government.

Zeroual, a 54-year-old retired general, was installed by the army as head of state in January, 1994. Although he was the military’s chosen candidate in the elections, he portrayed himself as an independent with the future of all Algerians at heart.

The Algerian military was accused of widespread human rights abuses during his tenure, but Zeroual himself remained well liked, thanks in part to his long history of fighting for Algeria.

He joined the revolution against French colonial rule at age 16.

After Algeria won its eight-year-long war of independence in 1962, he received military training in the former Soviet Union and France.

He took a series of key operational posts in the army before resigning in 1989 after a dispute with President Chadli Benjedid. When the FIS swept the first round of the 1991 elections, he was working as ambassador to Romania. The army then ousted Benjedid, canceled the second round and banned the FIS, touching off the insurgency.

Zeroual came back to Algeria as defense minister and later president and tried twice to negotiate with detained Muslim leaders. He blamed the failure of those attempts on Islamic intransigence, but others blamed it on the military regime’s unwillingness to compromise.

Now, though, Zeroual has a thin reed of democratic legitimacy that he never had as an appointed leader.

Political analysts say the election may give Zeroual enough independence from his military masters to restart negotiations.