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After more than a century of rule by
France, Algerians fought through much of the 1950s to
achieve independence in 1962. Algeria's primary
political party, the National Liberation Front (FLN),
has dominated politics ever since. Many Algerians in the
subsequent generation were not satisfied, however, and
moved to counter the FLN's centrality in Algerian
politics. The surprising first round success of the
Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) in the December 1991
balloting spurred the Algerian army to intervene and
postpone the second round of elections to prevent what
the secular elite feared would be an extremist-led
government from assuming power. The army began a
crackdown on the FIS that spurred FIS supporters to
begin attacking government targets. The government later
allowed elections featuring pro-government and moderate
religious-based parties, but did not appease the
activists who progressively widened their attacks. The
fighting escalated into an insurgency, which saw intense
fighting between 1992-98 and which resulted in over
100,000 deaths - many attributed to indiscriminate
massacres of villagers by extremists. The government
gained the upper hand by the late-1990s and FIS's armed
wing, the Islamic Salvation Army, disbanded in January
2000. However, small numbers of armed militants persist
in confronting government forces and conducting ambushes
and occasional attacks on villages. The army placed
Abdelaziz BOUTEFLIKA in the presidency in 1999 in a
fraudulent election but claimed neutrality in his 2004
landslide reelection victory. Longstanding problems
continue to face BOUTEFLIKA in his second term,
including the ethnic minority Berbers' ongoing autonomy
campaign, large-scale unemployment, a shortage of
housing, unreliable electrical and water supplies,
government inefficiencies and corruption, and the
continuing activities of extremist militants. The 2006
merger of the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC)
with al-Qaida (followed by a name change to al-Qaida in
the Lands of the Islamic Maghreb) signaled an increase
in bombings, including high-profile, mass-casualty
suicide attacks targeted against the Algerian government
and Western interests. Algeria must also diversify its
petroleum-based economy, which has yielded a large cash
reserve but which has not been used to redress Algeria's
many social and infrastructure problems. |
