Algeria pledges reform after week of riots

Press, 12 October 1988, Page 10

Algeria pledges reform after week of riots

NZPA-Reuter Algiers The Algerian President, Chadli Benjedid, has pledged far-reaching political reform to complement economic austerity after a week of riots which he said had threatened the country with civil war. But he gave no specific hint of any relaxation in belt-tightening austerity measures, widely blamed for the country’s worst riots since independence in 1962. Unconfirmed reports say as many as 200 people have been killed in the rioting, which spread from Algiers to the rest of the country.

“My conviction is that it is now time to introduce

reform even in the political field, to revive some laws and the constitution to go hand in hand with the new beginning,” Mr Chadli said in a nationwide televised address. In his first public appearance since anti-Gov-ernment riots erupted on Tuesday last week over rising food prices, shortages and unemployment, he said he was determined to liberalise the socialist economy. Just before Mr Chadli spoke, sporadic gunfire could be heard in Algiers, where security forces had earlier fired on demonstrators to disperse an illegal march by thousands of youths, led by Muslim fundamentalists.

Onlookers said they saw dozens fall to the ground and accused security services of preventing relatives from claiming the bodies of the dead. The emphasis on Mr Chadli’s 30-minute speech was on political change to complement economic austerity measures, some of which had been opposed by old-guard socialists within his one-party National Liberation Front. “We will respect the will of the Algerian people in their desire for political changes in their widest meaning ... my personal belief is that through these reforms we will be able to deal with many of our economic

and political problems,” he said. The reform programme, he said, would be presented to the Algerian people for debate and democratic discussion. He gave no details, but on Monday night the F.L.N.’s Paris representative, Ali Amar, told French television the reforms would be put to the people in a referendum. The streets of Algiers were deserted on Monday night, two hours before a curfew started. Mr Chadli, aged 59, who declared a state of siege on Thursday, told the people that reforms could not go ahead until calm was restored.