In addition to the strategic interest in this region, four French hostages who worked for AREVA, the French uranium mining company, are detained there by AQMI (Al Qaïda au Maghreb Islamique, the Al-Qaida’s branch operating in North Africa) for over a year. The management of this crisis seems to be aggravated by a state of severe turbulence in the Algerian government.

Other topics, such as the end of the Libyan dictator and the support provided to him by Algiers, stability with neighboring Morocco, the lack of willingness from Bouteflika and his generals to move toward with substantial political reforms, and the archives of the Algerian war, were also discussed with varying degrees of emphasis.

France has actually failed in negotiating with AQMI’s kidnappers, who demand about 90 million Euros. Alain Juppe, well aware of the connections with some leaders of the DRS with AQMI’s terrorists, attempts to explore this trail. No option to the release of the French hostages should be omitted, as much is at stake for the next presidential election in France. Leaving nothing to chance, Alain Juppe was to ensure more closely the reliability and good faith of his contacts in Algeria.

Indeed, all political observers have recently noticed the power vacuum in Algeria. In this country where, in normal times, it is already very difficult to know who really governs, the situation has deteriorated dangerously. Once in Algiers, Mr. Juppe found himself dealing with two sick men : a President in a comatose state who, even in good health, cannot decide anything without the consent of the military, and the army general in charge of security who is incapable of managing the sensitive internal affairs due to a severe illness. Then the French Minister did not breathe a word. Instead, he bore the cost for the French diplomacy line of conduct with Algiers. Despite the struggle of clans in the Algerian harem, France is still confronted with Algiers’ obstinacy to keep the Sahel as its zone of influence. This seriously jeopardizes the chances of release of the French hostages from the hands of AQMI ; but Mr. Juppe, not only would he shut his differences with the Algerians, he also clears them of their responsibilities in the case of the hostages as in their support for Gaddafi.

The discomfort of the French diplomacy revels all its dismay before a challenging partner whom, for lack of anything better, it must maintain. France is forced into complicity with a criminal regime making facts even more opaque. Today, everyone knows that without the support of France (Generals’) Algeria would already be buried by history.

How can we still expect from such partners the release of the French hostages being held in the vastness of the Sahara, while in Kabylia  , less than 60 km from Algiers, the same terrorists spread death every day under the indifference of the security services, if not under their own protection ?

We expected Mr. Juppe to put his Algerian counterpart before his own contradictions : is it not the Algerian army that shot and killed in 2001 as many as 127 young Kabyles and made thousands more disabled for life ? These young people were only armed with the word freedom on their lips. What credit could be given to such violent and brutal state for finding a political solution to the Libyan crisis ? The Algerian regime is afraid of suffering the same fate as that of Gaddafi. This is one of the reasons Algiers refused to recognize the Libyan National Transitional Council. Satellite photos show vividly the support of the Algerian generals to the butcher of Tripoli. Algerian jewelers, on the lookout for the Euro at any price, know very well where to go to stock up on cheap gold as the road to Gaddafi’s gold is clear. This is a way to circumvent the economic embargo imposed by the UN against the Libyan tyrant.

We strongly urge Mr. Juppe to avoid repeating with Algiers the policy of his predecessor in Tunis : aid against the people.

We know exactly when the Algerian regime is in line with Paris : they are good at avoiding sensitive subjects. Indeed, when all is hunky-dory, no one cares about the differences. Then, no freebies as soon as there is a malaise : they demand that France apologizes for the colonial era ; unfortunately not to revive memories but to remain in control.

Those in power in Algeria are in no way interested in the heritage of memory, for it puts too much their emptiness into perspective, if not their betrayal during the War of Independence before the men they have murdered or have forced into exile. They get restless before the eyes of those who see them as usurpers of power in Algeria since 1962. On this occasion, Anavad  , the moral heir of former Wilaya III leaders, repeats its demand that France releases a copy of the archives of the war in Algeria.

In order to move towards the reconciliation of our peoples in the Mediterranean region, it would be better that France uses its influence on the Algerian regime to formalize the Berber languages, like its Moroccan neighbor, and accept the request of Kabyle people to organize a referendum for the establishment of an autonomous state in Kabylia.

The reforms that France was expecting in Algeria are slow to emerge. Here, again, the Algerian government resorts to trickery. Instead of seeking dialogue with all the real forces of the country to lead towards a real representation of the people, they seek to cause confusion and call upon the Minister of Interior to create an organization against the Movement for Autonomy of Kabylia (MAK) to torpedo the real debates. To this end, a commission established by the government, has already begun to put in place a system of corruption, barter customers to say yes to the proposed revision of the constitution that will bind Kabylia even more and push it to violence. Thus, the power of Algiers is trying to circumvent the requirements of democracy. The future of all peoples of Algeria is at stake. The stage is huge and people are not fooled.

Denouncing these practices from another age will make France greater and will bring down tyranny quickly.

Lyazid Abid, Anavad’s Minister of International Relations