Algeria
a Timeline
Last Updated: 2-27-2007
Algerian Colonization and War of Liberation, 1830-1962
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1830 - French government of Charles X invades and commences to conquer area now known as Algeria "as a means of distracting the people from its incompetence at home." (Field p.126)
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1848 - French complete takeover of Algeria. (Field p.126)
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1870 - "Large scale" French colonization begins. (Field p.127)
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1954 November 1 - Algerian war for independence starts. "Emboldened by the French defeat at Dien Bien Phu, the Front de Liberation Nationale (FLN) launches armed revolts throughout Allgeria and issues a proclamation calling for a sovereign Algerian state." (Atlantic Monthly, p.122, Nov. 2006)
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1955 August - FLN begins targeting civilians, inciting a mob that kills more than 120 people in Philippeville. Between 1,200 and 12,000 Muslims are killed in retaliation by French troops and by pied-noir ... governor-general of French Algeria resolves not to compromise" with the FLN. (Atlantic Monthly, p.122, Nov. 2006)
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1956 September 30 - "FLN attempts to draw international attention to the conflict by targeting urban areas. The Battle of Algiers begins when three women plant bombs in public venues." (Atlantic Monthly, p.122, Nov. 2006)
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1962 March - War ends with FLN victory. French government declares a cease-fire.(Atlantic Monthly, p.122, Nov. 2006)
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1962 July 1 - Referendum held to approve agreements negotiated between the French and the FLN which call for an Algerian Algeria. "Six million Algerians cast their ballots for independence. (Atlantic Monthly, p.122, Nov. 2006)
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1962 - More than one million colons -- teachers, doctors, technicians, administrators -- flee Algeria. (Field p.126) Earlier in 1962, the Colon OAS organisation had mounted terrorist attacks against civlians, both Muslim and French. (Atlantic Monthly, p.122, Nov. 2006)
Post-War Years, 1970-1989
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1972 - Arabic introduced into the classroom replacing French as a means of instruction in some school classes. (Field p.129)
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1973-4 - Oil price rises. Algerian economic policy turns away from industrialization and toward consumption. (Field p.134)
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1986 - Oil prices collapse. Government increases borrowing, assuming collapse is temporary (it's not). Investment spending halted. Unemployment reaches 1/4 of work force - 70% among the young. Frustration, anger and obsession with government corruption grows. (Field p.134-5)
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1986 - Anti-government riots in Constantine. Nearly 200 sent to prison. (Field p.137)
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1988 October 4-12 - Major riots. 280-700 killed by government security forces. Riots in Algiers, Oran and other towns. Crowds of (mostly) young people attack "government offices, shops selling luxury goods, and particularly any building that is associated with the FLN ruling party." Authorities respond "harshly" and report 280 killed. Reporters say more than 700 killed. (Field p.137)
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1988 November 3 - Referendum liberalizing election laws held. Calls for allowing non-FLN candidates to run in elections. Attempt by president Chadli to win favor, distance himself from the unpopular FLN. 83% turnout, voters give 92% approval. (Field p.137-8)
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1989 March 10 - FIS founded. Integristes or fundamentalist party Front Islamique de Salut (the Islamic Salvation Front) founded at Ben Badis Mosque in Algiers. 15 founders represent "a number of different approaches" to Islamization of society, from jihadi to reformist moderates, but excludes some Islamist groups (Hamas, Hahda parties.) (Kepel, p.167) (Field, p.139)
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1989 April, May - More demonstrations, strikes, riots. (Field p.138)
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1989 July - Announcement that political parties will be legal provided they are licensed. (Field p.138)
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1989 September - "floodgates of reform" are "fully opened." Pres. Chadli dismisses Prime Minister Kasdi Merbahd, believing his links with official in the FLN are "too strong." "Idealist" Mouloud Hamrouche new Prime Minister. Begins licensing political parties. (Field p.138)
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1989 - FIS emerges as far and away the leading political party, seizing the initiative from the president and prime minister. (Field p.139)
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1989 October - FIS wins public support by providing "tents and blanket for homeless after an earthquake near Tipaza." Public contrasts its energy with the local FLN authorities, whose first reaction is "to deploy riot police to protect government property from the protesting victims." (Field p.243)
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1990 June 12 - FIS wins municipal elections of the modernized the Algerian political system and sealed the alliance between the three components of the Islamist movement [hittistes, (i.e. jobless young men hanging around "holding up the walls"), small bourgeois frustrated with FLN corruption/incompetence and Islamist clerics). Municipal elections are prelude to national elections. (Kepel)
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1991 - In its first months in (municipal) power, FIS issues moral prohibitions against liquor, video stores, unsegregated beaches, etc. and alarms urban middle class with anti-French-speaking pronouncements. (Kepel p.144)
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1991 January (late) - FIS supports Saddam Hussein. After the Gulf War starts "a uniformed Ali Behadj delivers a harangue in front of the Ministry of Defense in which he demanded the formation of a corps of volunteers to join the forces of Saddam Hussein." Army is angered. So are conservative Islamic Saudi and Gulf benefactors of the FIS. (Kepel)
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1991 Late May - General strike called by Madani of FIS against government plan to gerrymander election districts against FIS for national elections. (Kepel)
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1991 June 3 - State of emergency declared. Pro-FIS demonstrators are dispersed by tanks. (Kepel)
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1991 June 4 - Prime minister Hamrouche is sacked and elections are indefinitely postponed following a clash between FIS supporters and police in which more than 50 people killed. (Field, p.143) FIS loses momentum. Military cracks down on "local FIS bosses," while the FIS hesitates over how to respond. (Kepel, p.173)
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1991 June 30 - FIS leaders Benhadj and Madani are arrested for sedition and imprisoned for the duration of the civil war. (Kepel, p.173)
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1991 December 26 - First round of national elections. FIS wins 188 seats, losing over 25% of its support from 1990 election, but still wins handily. Needs only 28 more in the run off election on January 16 to have a majority in parliament. FIS uses some intimidation against secular-looking voters. (Field, p.143-4)
Algerian Islamic Civil War and Aftermath 1992-1998
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1992 January 11 - Revulsion builds among Algerian establishment and educated Algerians over impending FIS takeover of power. President Chadli resigns. Minister of Defense General Khaled Nezzar takes control. Second round of elections canceled (postponed?). In following weeks FIS leadership is arrested. (Field p.144)
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1992 March 4 - FIS dissolved and its appartus dismantled, thousands of militants interned in camps in the Sahara. (Kepel p.175)
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1992 June - Head of Council of State, 72-year-old Mohammad Boudiaf, is assassinated. Boudiaf has a reputation for incorruptibility and corrupt members of FLN thought to be behind the attack. (Field p.144)
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1992 December - "the armed movement consisted of two main branches."
The MIA is led by General Chebouti, It's structured and well organized and favors a long-term jihad. Has support of Ali Behadj of the FIS.
GIA is led by Layada, whose strategy is "immediate action to destabilize the enemy, with repeated attacks designed to create an atmosphere of general insecurity. His verdict on the FIS was severe." Layada, the first amir of the GIA threatens journalists ("grandsons of France") and the families of Algerian soldiers. ... (Kepel, p.259-60)
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1993 March - Campaign of assassination of Franco-phone professionals begins. University academics, intellectual, writers, journalists, and medical doctors murdered. Are not necessarily associated with the regime but their killing undermines regimes claim to having crushed the Islamists. (Kepel, p.262)
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1993 May - Seif Allah Djafar succeeds Layada as head of GIA after Layada is arrested in Morocco. Mourad Si Ahmed, aka Seif Allah Djafar (literally "Djafar, the sword of Allah"), aka Djafar al-Afghani is a 30-year-old black marketer with no education beyond primary school. (Kepel)
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1993 September 21 - Two French surveyors killed at Sidi Bel Abbas by GIA supporters. Beginning of campaign to murder foreigners in Algeria. 26 killed by end of 1993. (Kepel, p.264)
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1993 November - Sheikh Mohamed Bouslimani killed. A "popular figure who was prominent in Nahnah's devout middle class Hamas party" is kidnapped and executed after refusing to issue a fatwa endorsing the GIA's tactics." (Kepel, p.264)
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1993 December - GIA declares all foreigners should leave the country by the beginning of the month. Thereafter is commences killing foreigners. (Fields, p.146)
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1994 March - GIA amir Djafar is killed "in circumstances suggesting that the army had been given exact information on his whereabouts," i.e. an inside job by a competitor. (p.264, Kepel.)
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1994 March - Several hundred fighters of MEI Islamist guerilla group attack Lambeze prison and free all Islamist inmates. (p.264, Kepel.)
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1994 March 10 - New amir is 26-year-old Cherif Gousmi "His amirate saw the high-water mark of GIA power ..." Islamic forces combine. (Kepel)
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1994 May 13 - Three leading Islamist leaders (Mohammed Said, Abderrazaq Redjem (representing the FIS), and Said Mekhloufi) pledge allegiance (baya) to Gousmi. GIA is now "the undisputed principal Islamist force in Algeria." (Kepel, p.265)
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1994 July 18 - GIA and AIS (Islamic Salvation Army, the more moderate military wing of the outlawed Islamic Salvation Front (FIS)) find "themselves locked in bloody combat." (Kepel)
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1994 October 27 - New GIA amir. Djamel Zitouni 32-year-old son of a poultry merchant. "His mastery of written Arabic was as limited as his knowledge of the texts of Islam," but he "quickly attracted attention as a specialist in killing French citizens." Dissension in the GIA at the "murky circumstances" under which he came to power. (Kepel)
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1994 December - GIA excalates war, attacking France. Hijackers seizes a French Airbus at Algiers airport and fly it to Marseille. Police attack and kill hijackers before they can execute plan to crash plane into Paris. (Kepel, p.267)
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1995 January 13 - FIS in exile signs platform for a political and peaceful solution to the Algerian crisis with several other opposition parties in Rome. (Kepel, p.267-8)
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1995 July 25 - Eight terror attacks over three months kill 10 and injure more than 175. Terrorists are poor lumpen Algerians living in France who have been contacted by Algerians and Al-Ansar. GIA does not claim responsibility but evidence "convinced most analysts that Zitouuni's GIA was behind" the attacks." Was the motivation to encourage France to cut off support to Algeria? Or were the Algerians government provacatuers plotting to manipulate France to stiffen its resolve to help the FLN/military crush the Islamists? (Kepel, p.308-9)
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1995 - June GIA purges start: GIA militant Ezzedine Baa defects to AIS. Is caught, judged, and executed. (Kepel)
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1995 November - Islamist leader Abderrazaq Redjem "announces he too wishes to rejoin the AIS, and along with Mohammed Said is mysteriously killed." GIA claims security forces did it. (Kepel)
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1995 Late - GIA head Zitouni issues tract condemning takfir "in attempt to disassociate himself from the members of this faction." (Kepel, p.269)
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1995-6 - FIS starts to become irrelevant. Urban poor are out of control. Devout small shopkeepers tire of shakedowns by lumpen hittistes turn towards moderate Hamas party. Belief spreads that GIA is thoroughly infiltrated by government agents. (Kepel)
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1996 January - GIA admits it, not the government, killed Abderrazaq Redjem and Mohammed Said. (Kepel)
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1996 Spring - some GIA regional leaders drop Zitouni (the GIA amir). "Militants desert in droves." (Kepel)
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1996 May 21 - Seven French Trappist monks aged between 50 and 82 years who had been abducted from a monastery in Tibehirine two months earlier are found beheaded. (Kepel, p.308, http://web.amnesty.org)
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1996 May 31 - Al Ansar bulletin in London which had been the voice of the GIA, ceases publication, after demanding explanations from Zitouni over killings of two leaders. (Kepel)
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1996 Summer - GIA releases video of two friends of Redjem in which they 'confess' to killing Redjem and "humbly request summary execution." Further enhances GIA's image as ruthless and bloody. (Kepel, p.270)
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1996 July 16 - Zitouni hunted down and shot, probably by djazarists (a "technocratic" Islamist faction). (Kepel)
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1997 February - New GIA Amir, Antar Zouabri, "finishes off" the GIA with his fanaticism. New line as presented by The Sharp Sword party organ in London, is that the majority of Algerians have `forsaken religion and renounced the battle against its enemies.` (Kepel)
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1997 January-February - Month of Ramadan is the bloodiest of the entire war, with horrific massacres of civilians, whose throats were cut with knives. (Kepel)
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1997 August-September - Bloodbaths in Rais, Beni Messous, and Bentalha. Several hundred people killed. (Kepel)
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1997 September 21 - GIA Virtually disappears. AIS declares unilateral truce. (Kepel)
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1997 September 27 - Publication of communique of GIA, "claiming responsiblity for the massacres and justifying them by declaring impious all those Algerians who had not joined its ranks," (i.e. after earlier denouncing takfir the GIA now choses it.) Published in issue of Al-Ansar which denounces it and terminates support for GIA. Communiques cease. (Kepel, p.273)
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1997 - Estimated 80,000 killed in war (so far), "most of them civilians," according to Amnesty International. (Lewis, p.110)
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1998 - Massacres continued unabated. Are GIA groups now turning to banditry? Settling non-political scores? Become hired hands clearing squatters from land? Not clear. (Kepel)
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1999 - Series of elections aimed at institutionalizing gradual peace. (Kepel)
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1999 April 24 - Newly elected Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika takes office. Declares national reconciliation his priority. (adl)
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1999 April - The Algerian government claimed victory against the GIA. Security forces kill senior GIA leader Abdel Kader Rahmouni along with 18 other GIA members and seize weapons and 220 explosives. Rahmouni is believed to be the top lieutenant of GIA head Antar Zouabri. (adl)
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1999 June 5 - the AIS announces a halt to its fight against the Algerian government. (adl)
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1999 June 8? - Several days following the cease-fire announcement, the AIS storms a GIA base in Algeria's eastern province of Jijel and captures its field commander and several other armed militants. As part of the amnesty deal, the FIS had pledged to help the government combat the more radical Islamic extremist factions, in particular the Armed Islamic Group (GIA), responsible for most of the grisly massacres against Algerian civilians. (adl)
References
http://www.adl.org/Terror/focus/17_focus_c_algeria.asp
Field, Michael, Inside the Arab World
Harvard University Press, 1995
Kepel, Gilles, Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam, 2002. p.173, 263
Lewis, Bernard, The Crisis of Islam : Holy War and Unholy Terror, by Bernard Lewis, 2003