62 doctors for Boumedienne

Press, 4 December 1978, Page 9

62 doctors for Boumedienne

NZPA-Reuter Algiers Sixty-two medical specialists are now attending the Algerian President (Mr Houari Boumedienne) in a coma for the last two weeks, and a medical bulletin yesterday said doctors think he could recover consciousness. The bulletin said his condition was stable. Informed sources said doctors had found two blood clots on the President’s brain. The international team attending the President includes doctors from the United States, the Soviet Union, China, Britain, and West Germany. The Algerian press has studiously avoided descriptions of the 51-year-old president’s condition, who seized power in a bloodless coup 13 years ago, and entered Mustafa Hospital, Algiers, two weeks ago. Informed sources said that the Council of the Revolution, Algeria’s ruling body, had recognised the need to appoint a successor.

In the event of the President’s death, a new leader must be appointed within 45 ■ days. There is no provision, • however, for a President incapacitated by illness. Algerians were told on Saturday that the President’s • illness would not affect the strong personal and financial : support that he has given to Polisario Front guerrillas who have been fighting for three years for an independent Western Sahara.