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Algeria studies payout to 13,000 in peace push
09 Mar 2008 15:45:25 GMT
 Source: Reuters
ALGIERS, March 9 (Reuters) - Algerian authorities are considering paying financial compensation to more than 13,000 people with links to an Islamist revolt under an amnesty aimed at ending civil strife, state media said on Sunday.

The oil-exporting country started implementing a charter for peace and reconciliation in 2006 in a drive by President Abdelaziz Bouteflika to end Islamist-linked violence that cost the lives of up to 200,000 people since the early 1990s.

"13,014 compensation requests from the victims of the national tragedy have been accepted (for consideration) under the implementation of the charter for peace and national reconciliation," National Solidarity Minister Djamal Ould Abbes was quoted by the official news agency APS as saying.

The minister said 23,396 people had applied for compensation for losses incurred during the intense political violence of the 1990s when tens of thousands of Islamist guerrillas fought the army to try to set up Islamic rule.

Officials have said a decision on how many requests would be approved is expected in coming months.

A 2006 reconciliation law offers Islamic guerrillas still fighting the authorities a pardon if they lay down their weapons provided they were not responsible for massacres, rapes and bombings of public places.

It also provides compensation to families who fell into poverty due to the absence or death of relatives who joined the rebellion, and to people who were dismissed from their jobs for links to the rebellion -- the two main categories of applicant referred to by Ould Abbes.

The law also offers compensation to families whose loved ones were killed by rebels and to families whose relatives disappeared and were believed killed by the security forces.

Authorities have not disclosed how many compensation requests have been received under those categories.

Under the reconciliation plan the government in 2006 freed more than 2,000 former rebels jailed for their role in the conflict, which began when the authorities cancelled 1992 elections which the Islamic Salvation Front was poised to win.

The violence has fallen in recent years, although suicide bombings have hit targets in Algiers and eastern provinces in the past year. These included a twin bombing that killed at least 41 people and wrecked U.N. offices in Algiers on Dec 11. ($=66 Algerian dinars) (Reporting by Hamid Ould Ahmed; editing by William Maclean and Charles Dick)


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Last updated:Sun Mar 9 15:43:06 2008