Does the Military Really Rule in Algeria?

A recent post in this blog described the Algerian army's purchase of $4 billion worth of modern fighter jets, tanks, and STA missiles from Russia, at a time when Algeria is in desperate need of renovation of its infrastructure and an economic boost for its civilians. The fact that the army can spend billions (notice - that it is Billions, not Millions) that way indicates that the Algerian army wields more power than wielded by armies in most democracies.

This very point was convincingly addressed in an essay by Abdul Qadeer Shareef, an Algerian and a Humanities Lecturer at Ajman University of Science and Technology, in which he argues that the military behaves as if it is " above the jurisdiction of civilian institutions and is ... responsible to nobody." He points out that a head of state, even a military head of state, can not rein in "this gargantuan military establishment", as happened with Presidents Benjedid and Zeroual (both of whom were kicked out by the military.)

Others have suggested that Bouteflika's clemency law and his amnesty and forgiveness policy, which excused many of the excesses on the civil war, were pushed for by the military, as a number of present military top brass were the very ones who would have been charged, had the law not been passed. All of this seems to be corroborating evidence that, indeed, the military does control Algeria.

The senior man in the military establishment, as far as power is concerned, is probably General Larbi Belkheir, who was, until December of last year, the personal advisor to Bouteflika, and is now the newly appointed ambassador of Algeria. Two other members of the ultimate decision-making group in the military appear to be former defense minister, General. Khaled Nezzar and the ex-chief of staff General Mohamed Lamari. Possibly those interested in Algeria should create Google Alerts for these three military movers and shakers, and watch their public activities as the presidency of Abdelaziz Bouteflika comes to an end.

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