The 15-year long struggle between the
Algerian regime and the Islamist Group for Call and Combat
continues.
Head of the group, known by its
French-language acronym GSPC, 'Abd Al-Malik Dourkdel, vowed on
Saturday to continue with the armed struggle and called on Osama Bin
Laden to provide the group with instructions, the Jordanian news
agency Al-Bawaba reported.
Dourkdel rejected an appeal for
reconciliation by President 'Abd Al-'Aziz Boutaflika.
"The group must continue its
fight against the aggressors who have erected artificial borders
between Islamic states," Dourkdel said in a statement on the
group's Website.
Dourkdel was one of the signatories
to a statement, which announced in 2003 the group's alliance with
Al-Qa'ida.
Citizens of Algeria have voted last
February on a referendum, which proposed amnesty for participants in
the country's civil war. The voters decided to accept Boutaflika's
Charter for Peace and National Reconciliation, and to exempt all
individuals – whether in armed groups or in the government's
security forces – from prosecution for crimes committed during the
civil war. The war, which began in 1992, has claimed the lives of
more than 150,000 people.
Implementing the charter, the
Algerian authorities last April released 2,200 prisoners. Experts
estimate that some 40,000 prisoners are still in prison for their
involvement in the civil war.
The charter indicated that members of
the GSPC who surrendered themselves by the end of 2006, would have
also benefited from the pardon. Last week, the original leader of
the GSPC, Hasan Hattab, was planning to turn himself in to the
authorities, an Algerian report claimed.
