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Paper Abstract: Discusses internal issues and problems of the African country. Political, economic, religioius, legal and other conflicts. Electoral corruption, and loss of faith in the electoral process and government. Terrorism, ethnic and factional violence of the Algerian Civil War. Dictorial government & threat of nuclear weapons. Islamic fundamentalist threat. Berber/Arab conflicts. Paper Introduction: Algeria's internal issues reflect those of a number of troubled nations in the region that have a large and active anti-government population of fundamentalist Muslims who seek to establish the nation as a strictly Islamic state. The civil war of the past decade has abated, but the danger of serious instability remains. Algeria is run today by Abdelaziz Bouteflika, a powerful individual whose reign has focused on putting down internal dissension and protests, often brutally. He is backed by the military, and although he was elected, the entire electoral process is under the cloud of corruption. This corruption and suspicion is almost a decade old, since the military usurped the legal power of the fundamentalist party which won the elections in 1992. Electoral corruption and particularly the election of Bouteflika are representative of the Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. Theresult was a civil war when the people realized that only through violencewould they ever win the rights the government was denying them.Unfortunately, "Western media have largely bought into the Algeriangovernment's claims of 'liberalization' and that the Islamists are the soleperpetrators of the worst violence" (Chalala 8). Works CitedAlbright, David. 351, No.8115, 48-5 .The Economist. The image,however, does not fit the reality of continued unrest and littlesocioeconomic betterment. Pending its results, MEPs are calling for the suspension of on-going negotiations with a view to the conclusion of an EU/Algeria association agreement (European 527). The corrupted 1999 elections weremerely the latest electoral addition to a decade of governmental corruptionand tyranny. Vol. The violence and turbulence of the Algerian civil war is the mostsignificant issue in the country, for it affects all other issues. Now the latest election, for a civilian president, has gone up in smoke, as all but one of the candidates withdrew (Economist "Farce" 48). "Berbers Protest." June 11, 2 1. The civil war of the past decade has abated, butthe danger of serious instability remains. (U.S.). Algeria, then, remains a troubled nation with a bleak future,politically as well as socioeconomically. Amnesty International seeks to open aninvestigation into the perpetrators--including government and military--role "into allpast and present brutalities, and bring those responsible to justice"(Economist "Algeria" 61). The hope was that the elections of 1999 would begin negotiations thatwould bring an end to the civil conflict of the previous decade, but thebelief that Bouteflika won unfairly put an end to that hope instead. "Greens Want Inquiry Into Algerian Violence." July11, 2 1. Tying economic improvement in with human rights may have helpedreduce violence in Algeria, but the global war on terrorism after September11. Algeria's neighbors Tunisia and Morocco and other nations in theregion are worried for the same reason that Pakistan's neighbors areworried. Algeria's internal issues reflect those of a number of troublednations in the region that have a large and active anti-governmentpopulation of fundamentalist Muslims who seek to establish the nation as astrictly Islamic state. Neither Algeria;s government nor theinternational community want such an investigation, which would surely marthe improving image of Algeria. Adding thethreat of nuclear weapons to such a volatile mix is clearly not what thoseneighbors or the region or the world want. The international spotlight may have passed from Algeria, but theAlgerians themselves remain aware of the country's ills and are active inprotest, particularly the Berber population" "Thousands of Berberdemonstrators chanting 'The regime is the killer' took to the streets ofAlgiers to demand greater rights" (Time 22). The perception is no longer of a secretive military regime doing battle with a ruthless Islamist opposition, but of a country that has turned a corner, leaving behind a traumatic decade of bloodshed in which some 1 , people died (Economist "Algeria" 6 ). The same troubles that plagued the nation before thequestionable election plague the country still today. Bouteflika's major move was to grant amnesty to thousands of Islamicmilitants, an action which brought international sighs of relief andinstantly changed the image of the nation in the global mind. 527.Maclean's. Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. "Algeria: Big Deal inthe Desert?" May 2 1, Vol. 3, 45-47.Chalala, Elie. 11 , No. "Fraud Claimed in Algeria." June 16, 1997. The ruling party woneasily, "but other parties accused authorities of fraud. 23,22-23.----------------------- 1 8196, 58-63.The Economist (U.S.). The civil war mayhave abated, but the violence continues sporadically, and questions about"the truth behind the appalling brutality of Algeria's long civil war"remain. 2 1, has put the violence in Algeria on a distant back burner. He is backedby the military, and although he was elected, the entire electoral processis under the cloud of corruption. 357, No. Tunisia and Morocco,Albright writes, have struggled successfully to minimize the influence of Islamic extremism in their societies. 24,35-36.Time International. In 1997, prolonged demonstrations followed Algeria's second contested parliamentary election after the opposition claimed fraud. Three years ago, a confidential report by the Spanish intelligence service ... "A Farce, Again." April 17, 1999. But the situation in Algeria is different. Electoral corruptionand particularly the election of Bouteflika are representative of thetroubles faced by Algeria today, a nation torn by political, economic,religious, legal and other serious conflicts. These Berber protests then spread to other regions, highlightingconflicts between Berbers and Arabs as another volatile point in Algerianreality: The anger that has been swirling for weeks around the Berber- speaking area of Kabylia has now spilled into other Algerian regions, with riots erupting in towns that are regarded as Arab rather than Berber. generals and seniorpoliticians ... With respect to the electoralissue: The army aborted the country's first multi-party parliamentary election in 1992 for fear that Islamists might sweep the board. Protesters, armed with stones and metal bars, have attacked the premises of state companies, making it clear they are fed up with living under a thinly-veiled military dictatorship that has failed to resolve huge social and economic problems (Economist "Swelling" 1). This corruption and suspicion is almost adecade old, since the military usurped the legal power of thefundamentalist party which won the elections in 1992. That image was called into question again in the summer of 2 1: Responding to several weeks of rioting and demonstrations in Algeria--violently crushed by security forces--two French MEPs Helene Flautre and Daniel Cohn-Bendit, both members of the Greens, called on July 4 in Strasbourg for a Euro-Algerian Committee of Inquiry on the events currently afflicting the country. 157, No. concluded that ... (U.S.). The 1997 elections were invalidated, in effect, because of theoutlawing of religious parties the previous year. Vol. "In Algeria's Killing Fields A Hidden Governmental Role?"The Humanist. 59, No. Somehow this has not prevented a radical transformation in the country's international image over the past 18 months. The civil war appears to have ended, but terrorist attacks continue and the regime has been slow to implement badly needed social and economic reforms, raising questions about the government's long-term stability (Albright 47). "Algeria--Thinking the Unthinkable." Nov 11,2 . As Albright writes, with respect to the threat of nuclear weaponsdevelopment, European and Arab governments alike continue to express concern-- Algeria's nuclear [energy] program seems too extensive for civilian needs.... In both countries, a strongman who was not legally elected by thepeople is in power and is threatened by Islamic extremists. of fixing the elections." Bouteflika is a former foreignminister from the 196 s and 197 s who "mysteriously emerged as thecandidate of three of the four parties in the governing coalition" andreceived "plenty of money from somewhere." In addition, "Algeria's state-owned television accorded him excessive coverage-an important factor in acountry that is roughly 4 % illiterate." As the result of that most recentcorrupt election, "most Algerians seem disillusioned with the entirepolitical process" (Economist "Farce" 49). The intervening years has seen such outrages as the passing ofa constitution in 1996 which outlawed any political party based onreligion, an attempt to emasculate the fundamentalist Islamic groups. Chalala connects ongoing violence and massacres in 2 1 withthe canceling of the 1992 elections. 57, No. Vol. Mostimportantly, it keeps the government from focusing on the economy. If the loss of electoral faith were not bad enough, the governmentitself is suspected of participating in the mass killings in the countrywhich have previously been attributed to terrorism and ethnic and factionalviolence: The ongoing Algerian civil war may have started as a battle to establish an Islamic state, but increasing evidence shows that the war today--at least in part--is being fueled by the economic greed of a secular government (Chalala 5). March 1999, Vol. 1-3.European Report. To date,although he has not been in office a lengthy period of time, he is notdoing well. "The Algerian nuclear program, originally conceived with a clear military purpose, continues to equip itself with the installations necessary to carry out all the activities linked to the complete cycle for obtaining military grade plutonium, a key element in a nuclear arms program" (Albright 46). The central question facing Algeria today inevitably focuses on theability of Bouteflika to hold the government and nation together and todevelop a faith in the people that he is capable of doing the job andtherefore deserves it, whether he was elected fairly or not. "The Swelling Anger of Algerians." June 23,2 1. Algeria's violence and instability, along with the presence of bothan Islamic fundamentalist threat and a dictatorial government, is even morefrightening to the region and the world when we consider that it may beseeking to acquire nuclear weapons through its own development program,although the government denies such a claim, just as the Iraqi governmentof Saddam Hussein denies the same charge. Such loss of faith in theelectoral process means, to some degree, loss of faith in the entiregovernment and in its ability in the future of the nation to developdemocratically and to respond to the needs of the people, especially socialand economic needs. Thewithdrawing candidates for president "accuse[d] the ... Who will control those weapons,the strongman, the military, the Islamic extremists? Writing a year after Bouteflika's election, the Economist writes: Around 2 people are still being killed every month in Algeria. That agenda is the same in 2 1 as it was in 1992 when the governmentcanceled elections, namely, the preservation and continuity of its power,at any cost. Theconflict pits "nationalist and secular government forces against Islamists"and "has claimed 8 , lives since it began in 1992." Although thefundamentalist Islamic groups have claimed responsibility for many of thekillings of civilians (particularly the Armed Islamic Group, which emergedfrom the Islamic Salvation Front), an increasing body of evidence is pointing to another hidden hand on the gun--that of the government's security forces and some of its backed militias, which use the violence of the Islamists to mask another agenda (Chalala 6). Vol. Parties basingtheir platform on Islam were banned, and radical Muslim leaders had calledfor a boycott" (Macleans 35). 2, 5-13.The Economist. Algeria is run today byAbdelaziz Bouteflika, a powerful individual whose reign has focused onputting down internal dissension and protests, often brutally. If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.