CIA-RDP96-00789R001001550005-5

Questions Linger in Algerian's Death
proved For Release 2 00/08/08 TCIA-RD
Press Looks Beyond Fundamentalists for Motivation of Assassin
By Jonathan C. Randal
Washington Post Foreign Service
ALGIERS, June 30-More than
36 hours after the assassination of
chief of state Mohammed Boudiaf,
Algeria's military-dominated gov-
ernment faced widespread ques-
tioning today about the identity and
motives of Boudiaf's killer.
Although in permanent session
since Monday's assassination, the
government's two key bodies-the
High State Council and the National
Security Council-have said noth-
ing of substance other than an-
nouncing an official investigation of
Boudiaf's killing and arrangements
for his funeral here on Wednesday.
But the freest press in the Arab
world has underlined the lack of
adequate security for Boudiaf's visit,
to the Mediterranean port city of
Annaba and suggested that Islamic
fundamentalists-who were poised
to win a landslide victory in Alge-
ria's first free parliamentary vote
when the military government
seized power in January and can-
celed the elections-were not the
only group with reasons to kill him.
Suggesting "numerous" potential
assassins, newspapers said Bou-
diaf's campaign for "radical change"
and against corruption had upset
not only the fundamentalists, but
various vested interests that many
Algerians believe wield excessive
political and financial influence.
Boudiaf certainly angered funda-
mentalist's by lending his reputation
for honesty and his legitimacy as a
hero of Algeria's war for indepen-
dence from France to the military
crackdown against them.
But since returning from a 28-
year self-imposed exile, he criti-
cized established interest groups
and spurned offers of "national rec-
onciliation" from established polit-
ical parties.
Newspapers also referred to
Boudiaf's repeated vows to punish
corrupt officials and their well-con-
nected friends for tax fraud and
contraband trade.
In April, Boudiaf temporarily
backed off the corruption issue af-
ter the rearrest of Gen. Mostefa
Belhoucif, a former Defense Min-
istry official accused of taking kick-
backs on arms procurement in the
mid-1980s. At the time, informed
sources said Defense Minister Gen.
Khaled Nezzar, widely viewed as
the real power in the regime, was
concerned that the case would re-
vive charges of other corruption in
the military.
But in a recent communique
bearing Boudiaf's mark, the High
State Council, the unelected collec-
tive presidency hurriedly intro-
duced after the army forced pres-
ident Chadli Bendjedid into retire-
ment, swore to punish the corrupt,
"whatever their social position or
hierarchical rank."
Known to be under study at Bou-
diaf's reqest was legislation provid-
ing criminal punishment for fiscal
fraud and creating a special tax on
those who could not legally justify
their wealth.
The press also warned of the
dangers in automatically blaming
the fundamentalists for the murder.
The daily Quotidien d'Algerie said
such accusations "would only cast
the non-fundamentalist, Muslim
majority into the camp of the ene-
mies of progress."
Some observers suggested that
such reasoning was at the center of
a debate that had paralyzed the gov-
ernment's two top councils: with
some officials arguing for a stiffen-
ing of the state of emergency, in
force since Feb. 9, that has allowed
banning of the fundamentalist Is-
lamic Salvation Front, arrest of its
leaders and ouster of its elected
officials.
Others, however, are said to be
arguing that the regime should
open up and accept some form of
"national reconciliation" with the
National Liberation Front, which
monopolized power from 1962 to
1990, the Socialist Forces Front,
smaller democratic parties and
even moderate Islamic fundamen-
talists, including dissident members
of the Islamic Salvation Front.
Among practical questions raised
in the press were why Boudiaf's de-
tailed itinerary in Annaba had been
known for 10 days and whether the
Some
w/92-260
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
A soldier guards entrance to Algiers' al-Alia cemetery, where chief of state Mohammed Boudiaf is to be buried today.
security forces had been penetrated
by the assassin, who apparently had
DE
orately protected cultural center. [1] ;
Although the official Algerian
news service, APS, said the man who
killed Boudiaf was wearing a riot
squad trooper's blue uniform, at
least one reporter disagreed.
A reporter for the daily Le Soir
d'Algerie said he saw Boudiaf's kill-
er-"a man of medium build, with a
heavy red beard, wearing a short-
sleeved civilian open-neck shirt and a
dineck
sweater and trousers"-
emerge from behind the stage, fire
at the head of state, and then disap-
pear by the same route.
APS first said the assassin was
killed, but later the High State Coun-
cil said he had been captured.
Washington Post
1 July 92.
Approved For Release 2000/08/08 : CIA-RDP96-00789R001001550005-5