Algeria: Rumours of an army purge

There is both mystery and a lack of information surrounding the reported “retirement” of senior army officers. More than a month ago, it was reported that a list of 74 senior officers had been drawn up by army chief of staff and deputy defence minister, General Ahmed Gaïd Salah, to be considered for retirement by the High Council of Military Function (HCFM). We then heard that the list may have contained several hundred names and that the “Bouteflika camp”, which includes Gaïd Salah, was already in the throes of “removing” senior army officers who were known or suspected of being opposed to Bouteflika’s fourth mandate. We have since been hearing that this “purge” is being disproportionately weighted against the DRS.

According to our sources, it is because this year’s normal 5 July process of army retirements has turned into this sort of purge, that there has been so little public information on what is happening. Although our sources are adamant that such a purge is taking place, we are finding it impossible to get a firm confirmation of how it is being conducted and who has been removed.

It is obviously a sensitive and politically dangerous process and one that can only be accomplished successfully if it is kept as secret as possible. We are hearing, but cannot confirm, that several hundred officers have been fired or are perhaps still in the firing line, with the DRS being most targeted.

For more news and expert analysis about Algeria, please see Algeria Focus and Algeria Politics & Security.

© 2014 Menas Associates

Qatar's Emir also visits Algeria

The Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani, visited for two days this week on an invitation by President Bouteflika. The Emir was accompanied by Qatar Foreign Minister Khalid Bin Mohammad Al-Atiyya. In what was foreseen as something of a diplomatic faux pas, the visit coincided with that of John Kerry.

Sheikh Tamim arrived in Algiers late on Wednesday 3 April as part of a tour that had earlier taken him to Jordan and Sudan. He left for Tunisia later on Thursday.
Attending the meeting broadcast on Algerian state television were Algerian Parliament Speaker Abdul Qadir bin Saleh, head of Algeria's national assembly Al-Arabi Ould Khalifa and Algerian Finance Minister Karim Djoudi.

The exact details of the bilateral talks were not revealed in a statement issued on the visit by the Algerian Presidency. However, the visit is widely believed to been an attempt by Qatar to seek support in its current isolation in the Gulf Region as a result of its conflicts with Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the UAE. Although relations between Qatar and Algeria have at times been tetchy, the Emir’s family has extremely close relations with Bouteflika.

For more news and expert analysis about Algeria, please see Algeria Focus and Algeria Politics & Security.

© 2014 Menas Associates

Air Algérie's plans to buy new planes

Air Algérie's CEO, Abdelwahid Bouabdallah, announced on Wednesday 8th December that the airline, recently investigated by the European aviation authority, will soon be buying 11 new aircraft. These will comprise “four cargo aircraft, four for medical evacuation and three jet planes (details not given).”

Bouabdallah also confirmed that of the 15 new aircraft bought recently, seven have been delivered while four others are expected in March 2011. He also confirmed that the company was negotiating the opening of a new Algiers to New York service, and that he was optimistic about its outcome.

A WikiLeaks report, as yet unverified, indicates that the American diplomats successfully lobbied President Bouteflika for Air Algérie to buy these 11 planes from Boeing rather than its European rival Airbus. This may explain the lack of detail in Bouabdallah's announcement.

For more news and expert analysis about Algeria please see Algeria Focus and Algeria Politics & Security.

© 2010 Menas Associates

UK working closely with Algeria on counter-terrorism

Following the announcement by British MP Alistair Burt at the end of his two-day visit of to Algiers on 11-12th November, the second meeting of the UK Algerian joint committee on counter-terrorism met in London for two full days of talks on 29-30th November.

Burt, who is Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), with responsibility for the Middle East and North Africa and counter terrorism, spoke effusively to the media during his visit to Algiers three weeks ago about UK-Algerian cooperation in counterterrorism.

The first, somewhat tentative meeting of the bilateral committee was held on 16-17th March 2010. The end of November meeting in London was the first full-blown 'operational' meeting of the two 'countries' delegations.

The Algerian delegation was headed by President Bouteflika's counterterrorism advisor and envoy Kamal Razzak Bara. The UK delegation was headed by the FCO's Director of Defence and Strategic Threats Simon Manley. An Al Jazeera report at the start of the meetings described Manley as having strong working relations and contacts with both domestic (MI5) and foreign (MI6) British intelligence agencies and the British Ministry of Defence, as well as internal counterterrorism security agencies.

British officials heaped praise on Algeria's record on terrorism and made it clear that the UK would not only be working increasingly closely with Algeria's DRS but that it would be providing it with material, intelligence, training and other such co-operative needs. The close working relationship between UK and Algerian counterterrorism is demonstrated by the fact that that the FCO's special advisor on terrorism in NW Africa, Patrick Tobin, is now almost permanently based in Algiers.

Major General Robin Searby, who was a member of the British delegation and the UK Prime Minister's adviser on counterterrorism for North Africa said that: "For the UK, Algeria has already great experience [in counterterrorism] and we will offer full assistance to the Algerian Government in its fight against Al Qaida in the Maghreb. The Algerian government is very strong in combating terrorism and the United Kingdom is confident and optimistic about this approach."

For more news and expert analysis about Algeria please see Algeria Focus and Algeria Politics & Security.

© 2010 Menas Associates

Algeria - Ali Belhadj arrested following protest at US Embasy

Ali Belhadj and three other well-known and respected leaders of opposition movements were arrested on Monday 31st May while protesting at the American Embassy in Algiers against Israel's heavy-handed response to the Gaza aid flotilla.

The FIS, readers will recall, was prohibited from taking power in January 1992 by a coup d'état by the country's most powerful generals. After establishing an overwhelming lead in the first round of the very democratic 1991-92 general election, the military stepped in and annulled the second round of voting, which would have secured the FIS' electoral victory. This military coup d'état took the country into its Dirty War, from which it has still not fully recovered.

The three men arrested with Belhadj were:

> Dr Ahmed ben Mohamed, one of the signatories to the 'Sant' Egidio' National Contract in January 1995. The Contract, drawn up and signed in Rome under the auspices of the Catholic Sant' Egidio Community, was an attempt by the FIS and most of Algeria's other political parties to establish 'political pluralism' and peace. The notable exception to the talks was the government, which at that time had just received both IMF and US financial backing (through Halliburton) and had no desire to end the war.

> Abdelkhader Dehbi, well known for his frequent writings in Quotidien d'Algerie, is a leader of the 19th March Movement. Named after the day of the ceasefire between France and Algeria in 1962, the movement, which is similar to the Rachad movement, was created about two years ago. Its aim is to overthrow the current regime by peaceful means and to establish democratic government in Algeria. Its founder was Sallaheddine Sidhoun, who also contributes to Quotidien d'Algerie.

> Sidhoun is a surgeon who was given a 20-year prison sentence for giving surgical help to the GIA. Instead of going to jail, he went underground. After some ten years, he emerged, made a lot of public noise and went to court, where he was declared innocent! Both Sidhoun and Dehbi were celebrated maquisards (mujahideen) in the Algerian War of Independence.

In February 2010 (see Algeria P&S - 19.02.10), Dehbi, who was a close friend of Bouteflika before he became president, asked him to stand down as president as he was destroying Algeria. The full text of Dehbi's letter can be accessed here.

The fourth person arrested was Lakhdar Bouregaa who was commander of Wilaya IV in the Algerian War of Independence and a member of the National Council of the FLN. He was a founder, alongside Ait Ahmed, of the FFS. Bouregaa was accused of being involved in Tahar Zbiri's unsuccessful revolt against former president Houari Boumédiène in 1967, and was reportedly tortured in prison until released in 1974.

The four men went to the US Embassy after Israel attacked the Gaza aid flotilla and asked to see the Ambassador. A diplomat, whose name we do not have, came out of the Embassy to talk with them. The diplomat was smoking a cigarette. Dr Mohamed asked the diplomat to stop smoking in their presence. He accordingly put the cigarette behind his back before throwing it away. The five men spoke for around 15 minutes before plain-clothes DRS officers, who had been observing the exchange, ordered uniformed police to arrest the four Algerians.

The four were physically seized, one by one, and taken away into detention. Belhadj was taken last and was beaten up in front of the diplomat. According to our sources, his parting words to the diplomat were: 'You do not need to colonise us: that is already being done for you by your puppets.' Belhadj was held in detention for about eight hours while the other three were held for about 2-3 hours.

For more news and expert analysis about Algeria please see Algeria Focus and Algeria Politics & Security.

Algeria - DRS retakes control of Sonatrach

In a surprise move on Monday 31st May, President Abdelaziz Bouteflika issued a presidential decree firing the former Sonatrach PDG/CEO, Mohammed Meziane and the company's four former vice-presidents who were already in jail or under house arrest because of the investigation into the suspected embezzlement of millions of dollars.

Bouteflika's move would appear to be pre-empting the legal process. However, we understand from our Algerian sources that this move is not designed, as some commentators have suggested, to speed up the process of rehabilitating Sonatrach and getting the company back to business after the scandal that has paralysed it over the last few months. Instead, we believe that it is part of a much deeper political deal,forced upon Bouteflika, which has resulted in Sonatrach being 'retaken' by Algeria's powerful DRS intelligence services.

In this week's Algeria Politics & Security, which will be published on Friday 4th June, we will explain how the appointments of Youcef Yousfi as the new Energy Minister and Noureddine Cherouati as Sonatrach's new PDG/CEO, along with the 31st May firings of Sonatrach's former top management, are part of the battle that has been fought between the p residency and the DRS since before the beginning of this year.

We will explain how these appointments, along with the dismissal of Energy Minister Chakib Khelil, the demotion of the formerly all-powerful Interior Minister Noureddine Yazid Zerhouni, and other ministerial changes are integral parts of a bitterly contested deal which has now seen Bouteflika losing out and having to return control of Sonatrach to the DRS.

We will also explain how and why this deal and the new management of both the Energy Ministry and Sonatrach, far from promising an 'opening up' and liberalisation of Algeria's hydrocarbons sector, is likely to lead to policies which will be damaging to both Algeria and most foreign interests in the sector.

For more news and expert analysis about Algeria please see Algeria Focus and Algeria Politics & Security.